Some people don’t need to go looking for trouble – it will always find them…

All former British secret service agent Bromo Perkins wants is a quiet life as a travel agent in Melbourne, Australia. But he has hardly had time to dust himself off from his first roistering escapade before a sensitive earlobe – the result of an old wound from his previous career – ominously warns of more bother ahead. It arrives in the shape of call from an attractive female client, Liz Shapcott, who claims that a young woman found washed up in the city’s river did not commit suicide as newspapers reported – but was a murder victim instead. Bromo – who survives on a diet of coffee and malt whisky – cannot resist Liz’s pleas to help her prove her claim, though he is never quite sure what her body language implies. What unfolds rips away the veils of respectability that mask the evil and corruption beneath appearances and behind closed doors in bustling metropolises such as Melbourne. Who is the mysterious blind man who can walk briskly when he wishes and who watches from a distance through binoculars? What really goes on at the much-visited but prison-like Number 85 in a select street of gentrified Richmond? What will happen to the two young feminist activists who are bundled by heavies into a black limo along with Bromo? Can Bromo’s old flame Delia, a high-ranking police officer who works undercover, pull him out of the fire that threatens to consume him? Washed Up , the sequel to his debut novel Done Deal , is perfect for all crime thriller addicts, combining fast-paced action and humour.