"Suddenly McGuire's body shook, like an electric charge ran through it. The torchlight flared and scurried along the walls. Within it Furness saw the silhouette of flailing, segmented legs; great shadows of crazily jointed fingers; a sinuous body trying to keep to the darkness. And then he saw what cast the shadow...
He screamed and ran, into the black storming night..."
In Sydney, one hundred years ago, two investigators battle supernatural enemies amid the crime of the blood-drenched alleyways... The streets are hard tarmac, steaming from the rain and melting in the heat. The place stinks of open drains, brick dust and the smoke of thousands of coal fires. The grand sandstone facades along George Street hide laneways of rotten terrace housing, slowly being torn down to make way for factories and other industry. Hyde Park is a muddy mess as the new underground trains rip up the City with their demand for new stations.
The night slides in like a gloomy sea mist, tepidly lit by uncertain electric bulbs and winking kerosene lights. People have been killed by packs of wild dogs here and knifed for a half-spent cigarette.
The War left this place struggling, in debt and unable to meet the repayments. The haves hustle to secure their place while the have-nots battle to keep afloat. Despair and desire shred the dreams of those who live here and such souls often find other ways to get what they want. Things like crime; or drugs; or... darker avenues.
When evil stalks the night, two champions stand up to meet it. One learned in the ways of darkness - touched by it but not about to give in to its call - and another, streetwise and handy with a right hook. A scholar and a private investigator: together they stalk the shadows of the crime-drenched city, to save it from itself. These are tales from the casebook of Patrick Dolan, P.I., about things that go bump in the sweaty, Darlinghurst nights... and those who bump back!
