The Rules Of Backyard Cricket

It starts in a suburban backyard with Darren Keefe and his older brother, sons of a fierce and gutsy single mother. The endless glow of summer, the bottomless fury of contest. All the love and hatred in two small bodies poured into the rules of a made-up game.

Darren has two big talents: cricket and trouble. No surprise that he becomes an Australian sporting star of the bad-boy variety—one of those men who’s always got away with things and just keeps getting.

Until the day we meet him, middle aged, in the boot of a car. Gagged, cable-tied, a bullet in his knee. Everything pointing towards a shallow grave.

Jock Serong lives and works on the far southwest coast of Victoria. He is an attorney and features writer, and is the editor of Great Ocean Quarterly. He is married with four children. His first novel, Quota, won the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel.