Iraqi Icicle

by Bernie Dowling

Overview

A dead actress, a dead gambler, a dead professor, a dead fisherman ... With murder following his every step, determined under-achiever Steele Hill is tangled in layers of intrigue and deviousness. Pulled from his cosy world of the racetrack, the rock-music pub and the gambling den, everybody the wise-cracking Hill meets is in danger, as he is sucked into the undertow of forces beyond his understanding. One ally is a reclusive teenage maths whiz, channeling Hendrix, and tapping into military software and magic mushrooms. The fix is in and the bodies are piling up. Leaping off the shoulders of Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Iraqi Icicle is a wild and hilarious ride through the dark and murky worlds of gambling, drugs, politics and rock'n'roll.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780987278449
Publisher:	Bent Banana Books
Publication date:	01/03/2013
Series:	Steele Hill Adventures
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Bernie Dowling is an Australian journalist who lives and works in the Pine Rivers district, just north of the Queensland State Capital of Brisbane. Dowling grew up and lived in Brisbane most of his life though he has lived in or frequently visited provincial and coastal towns across south-east Queensland. He has worked in many reporting rounds, including arts and entertainment, crime, politics, human interest and sports. He published a weekly humor column for 11 years. Dowling has drawn on all these diverse strands of his working and social life to produce Iraqi Icicle, a highly original detective thriller which is his first novel. The author lives with his wife and son in Lawnton, a Pine Rivers suburb.

Editorial Reviews

04/22/2013
In his winning debut novel—which takes its title from a variety of rose—Dowling plunges us into Australia's seedy racetrack underworld and the life of Steele Hill, an amiable young dropout who lives by the dole and his wits. Through adept plotting and juggling of time, Dowling gradually reveals Steele's immersion in daffy intrigues that create suspicions in crusty cops Frank Mooney and Bill Schmidt. Willing to fight injustice, Steele uses his street smarts to survive as the complications and bodies mount up, and he and a reclusive teen mathematical genius plot to drug a racehorse at the behest of an expatriate Russian trainer. While the narrative is at times confusing, readers will appreciate the author's ability to render colorful characters and understated witty prose.

Publishers Weekly