Ray Boxall

Special Connections Ray Boxall

Present day police crime/political thriller. This is one of the fastest-moving crime novels around- and is set in the unlikeliest of places! When two detectives are murdered in what appears to be a ritual killing a few kilometres outside the central Australian town of Alice Springs, Darwin's police chief immediately sends its most experienced detective to assist; Senior detective Mick Reagan. He finds himself faced with a riddle 'that seems to contain bits of other puzzles.' The second in command in the town's police force is Senior Sergeant Jimmy Morgan, an ex-military control freak that knows the town and its residents better than anyone, and is convinced he knows who killed the two officers, but refuses to disclose any information until he can prove it. Reagan's clashes with Morgan escalate to almost physical confrontation as the Darwin detective points out flaws in Morgan's reasoning and begins to look for alternative suspects. Friction increases between the two men when Reagan strikes up a professional relationship with Sandra Howlett, a brilliant multi-millionaire lawyer who is based in Alice Springs but seems to have most of Australia's major business moguls and senior politicians on her speed-dial. She also represents several of Morgan's suspects. When a police officer on sick leave commits suicide and Morgan dies from a bullet in his head, the authorities have no option but to call in the Feds as Alice's police force teeters on collapse and media attention goes international. Reagan throws the rule book away, using the Fed's superior legal powers to obtain the additional information he needs, whilst infuriating them by withholding snippets of information in order to stay on the case- purely because he realises he is likely to become the scapegoat in the inevitable enquiry, and also a number of innocent people will have their lives ruined. As he tries to outsmart Sandra Howlett in their professional clashes he senses she's playing games with him because she already knows the killers. In desperation, he attempts to pit his legal expertise head to head with hers, leading his superior to warn him 'you've gone so far out on a limb, you've left the tree behind- you're walking on fresh air!' And that is when a comment made by Morgan to Howlett seconds before his death means he will have to protect the woman from a catastrophe that could destroy her, and even change Australia's financial and political future.