Matthew Condon

I keep coming back to the light of Brisbane. If you are born into it, this palette of gentle pinks and oranges at dawn and dusk, the blast white of midday in summer, the lemon luminescence of mid-morning and mid-afternoon, you keep it with you, and measure all other light by it. If you live away from it, then step back into it, it is the first thing that tells you you're home. Brisbane reveals a city of wooden houses where mango trees abound, where the serpentine river seems to be of the city and yet somehow not, where ghostly memories of demolished landmarks like Cloudland and The Bellevue Hotel hover and where the chime of the City Hall clock echoes through time and place. Taking readers on a unique personal journey, Matthew Condon unearths the city's history - sometimes literally - and paints a portrait of transformation from a sleepy capital city that's more like a big country town, to a vibrant, confident place, but one where time can still move slowly. In a new epilogue, Condon returns to the house he grew up in; standing and looking out from the verandah, the past collides with the present, but the view is as he remembers it. '...a beautifully produced guide to the city that also evokes the soul of the place and establishes the historical context.' -- The Brisbane News 'Dismayed, enmeshed and enchanted by Brisbane, he has added himself to the long line of its eccentric rhapsodists.' -- Peter Pierce, The Canberra Times 'One of the finest writers of his generation...Condon weaves forensic examination of the city's ever-shifting history through intimate personal recollections of his childhood perceptions of the place.' -- John Birmingham, The Monthly

Brisbane

I keep coming back to the light of Brisbane. If you are born into it, this palette of gentle pinks and oranges at dawn and dusk, the blast white of midday in summer, the lemon luminescence of mid-morning and mid-afternoon, you keep it with you, and measure all other light by it. If you live away from it, then step back into it, it is the first thing that tells you you're home. Brisbane reveals a city of wooden houses where mango trees abound, where the serpentine river seems to be of the city and yet somehow not, where ghostly memories of demolished landmarks like Cloudland and The Bellevue Hotel hover and where the chime of the City Hall clock echoes through time and place. Taking readers on a unique personal journey, Matthew Condon unearths the city's history – sometimes literally – and paints a portrait of transformation from a sleepy capital city that's more like a big country town, to a vibrant, confident place, but one where time can still move slowly. In a new epilogue, Condon returns to the house he grew up in; standing and looking out from the verandah, the past collides with the present, but the view is as he remembers it. '…a beautifully produced guide to the city that also evokes the soul of the place and establishes the historical context.' — The Brisbane News 'Dismayed, enmeshed and enchanted by Brisbane, he has added himself to the long line of its eccentric rhapsodists.' — Peter Pierce, The Canberra Times 'One of the finest writers of his generation…Condon weaves forensic examination of the city's ever-shifting history through intimate personal recollections of his childhood perceptions of the place.' — John Birmingham, The Monthly

Brisbane, updated paperback edition

&‘He takes you in the middle of the night, like an angel, and you're gone for good.' - Witness at Vincent O'Dempsey's committal hearing. In 2017, Vincent O'Dempsey was sentenced to life in prison for the brutal murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two young daughters. It took over 40 years to bring him to justice. Feared for decades by criminals and police alike, O'Dempsey associated with convicted underworld figures and has been linked to a string of haunting cold cases, including the deadly Whiskey au Go Go nightclub firebombing that killed 15 innocent people. Award-winning investigative journalist Matthew Condon has interviewed dozens of ex-cons, police and witnesses to put together a compelling picture of the calculating killer who spent his life evading the law before he was finally brought to justice.

The Night Dragon

A brilliant, shocking story of domestic violence, with a twist. The gripping story of Luke, an easy-going deep-sea diver who likes to please everyone, and the strong-willed, beautiful Charlotte with whom he falls in love. On their wedding night she picks a fight with Luke in their hotel room and he ends up with a black eye that lasts well into their honeymoon. The novel unfolds with flashbacks to that night, when Luke finds himself questioning whether he's just ruined his life, and forwards again to their honeymoon, where Charlotte's moods veer wildly from loving to livid. When this novel was first published, Carmel Bird described it as 'The chilling calibration of a violent marriage told with wistful compassion and an erotic charge.'

The Pillow Fight

Retirement can be murder! The adventures of a former Sydney detective from 21 Division who, in his prime, collared some of the most murderous criminals in Australian history yet, on retiring to the Gold Coast in Queensland, along with half of the criminal milieu he once pursued, is shot, king-hit, tortured, and thrown from buildings in his relentless pursuit of justice. With his trademark wit, warmth and humour, Matthew Condon takes us on a crazy ride - in boats, kombis, peugeots and window-washing platforms - through art galleries, libraries, swampy islands and caravan parks to illustrate that we are never too old for adventures.

The Toe Tag Quintet

Trent Dalton

Kate Morton

Benjamin Law

Ellen van Neerven

Simon Cleary

Nick Earls

Victoria Carless

Hugh Lunn

A collection of nine short stories commissioned for the exhibition The Storytellers at Museum of Brisbane, 4 April 2020 - 24 April 2022.

Step Into the Stories of Our City

The Storytellers

After several lifetimes of living anonymously in the outback, Wildred Lampe is finally marked out for greatness in his 100th year by the Sydney Olympic Committee who need an Australian everyman for their opening ceremony. On the verge of becoming a legend, a freak accident looks likely to rob him of his chance.

The Trout Opera

Continuing on from the bestselling Three Crooked Kings, Jacks and Jokers opens in 1976. Terry Lewis, exiled in western Queensland, is soon to be controversially appointed Police Commissioner. As for the other two original Crooked Kings, Tony Murphy is set to ruthlessly take control of the workings of ‘The Joke’, while Glen Hallahan, retired from the force, begins to show a keen interest in the emerging illicit drug trade. Meanwhile, ex-cop and ‘Bagman’ Jack Herbert collects the payments and efficiently takes police graft to a whole new level. The Joke heralds an era of hard drugs, illegal gambling and prostitution, and leaves in its wake a string of unsolved murders and a trail of dirty money. With the highest levels of police and government turning a blind eye, the careers of honest police officers and the lives of innocent civilians are threatened and often lost as corruption escalates out of control. Revealing more incredible facts and previously untold stories, award-winning journalist and novelist Matthew Condon once again exposes the shocking behaviour outside the law by the law. Jacks and Jokers is the gripping second instalment of the rise – and spectacular fall – of one man, an entire state and generations of corruption.

Jacks and Jokers

Continuing on from the bestselling true crime stories Three Crooked Kings and Jacks and Jokers, All Fall Down follows Terry Lewis as he becomes police commissioner and the era of corruption at the highest levels of the police and government goes on. As the Queensland police become more connected with their corrupt colleagues in Sydney, the era of heavy drugs and crime also begins. Tony Murphy and Glen Hallahan, two of the original "crooked kings," become more enmeshed with "The Joke" which is run by bagman Jack Herbert. All Fall Down introduces new characters, more extraordinary behavior outside the law by the law, and along the way it charts the meteoric rise of police commissioner Terry Lewis. But with the arrival of the Fitzgerald Inquiry in the late 1980s, many will fall—and it's not always the people who should. Once again award-winning journalist and novelist Matthew Condon has drawn from unprecedented access to Terry Lewis, as well as hundreds of interviews with key players and conspirators to craft the definitive account of the rise—and spectacular fall—of one man, an entire state, and over a generation of corruption.

All Fall Down

Three Crooked Kings is the shocking true story of Queensland and how a society was shaped by almost half a century of corruption. At its core is Terence Murray Lewis, deposed and jailed former police commissioner. From his entry into the force in 1949, Lewis rose through the ranks, becoming part of the so-called Rat Pack with detectives Glendon Patrick Hallahan and Tony Murphy under the guiding influence of Commissioner Frank Bischof. The next four decades make for a searing tale of cops and killings, bagmen and blackmail, and sin and sleaze that exposes a police underworld which operated from Queensland and into New South Wales. This gripping book exposes the final pieces of the puzzle, unearths new evidence on cold cases, and explores the pivotal role that whistleblower Shirley Brifman, prostitute and brothel owner, played until her sudden death. Based on extensive and unprecedented access to Terry Lewis and his personal papers, as well as hundreds of interviews with key players and conspirators, Three Crooked Kings is the first of two explosive books. Awarded journalist and novelist Matthew Condon has crafted the definitive account of an era that changed a state and is still reverberating to this day.

Matthew Condon

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