The Big Ask

With a disastrous election looming, the police on his heels, adultery in the air, a body on his conscience, and a gun buried in his backyard . . . Murray Whelan faces his biggest test yet.

Murray Whelan should have been asleep in bed. That's where the smart money was at 4:30 a.m. on a cold, wet, southern Australia winter morning. Not loitering among the truck drivers in Melbourne's fruit and vegetable market. Not picking a fight with a gun-toting kid in a cashmere coat. Not tasting forbidden fruit in the back of Donny Maitland's rig. Not turning his back on a body that bore a striking resemblance to a sack of tomatoes en route to becoming spaghetti sauce. But what's a lonely political advisor to do? His son, Red, on temporary loan to his ex-wife, has disappeared, and his boss, Angelo Agnelli, has sent him on a mission to infiltrate the toughest union in the country. And that was before Angelo asked him the really big ask--the favor that you'd have to be a fool, or maybe just Murray Whelan, to agree to. Now nothing can save him from another wildly funny, fresh, and fast-paced comic misadventure.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction--novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

“Maloney just gets better, and Murray Whelan remains one of the most reliable and rewarding sleuths in the business." ”

"--Ian Rankin

"Murray is a great creation. . . . Takes the wisecracking wise guy into a whole new realm." --Houston Chronicle

"Bubbles with wise-guy wit, macho machinations, and testosterone tactics . . . The wit is sharp and on target." --Providence Journal

"Full of laugh-out-loud humor." --Marie Claire

The political intrigues of a South Australian city may not seem the stuff of high drama, but they are--and Whelan's a delight. --Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer

Shane Maloney is the author of Stiff, The Brush-Off--winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction--and Nice Try. Two of his Murray Whelan novels have been adapted for television in Australia. In 2009, Mr. Maloney received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers Association of Australia. He resides in Melbourne, Australia.

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