A young woman is murdered by a snip-

er s bullet in a Sydney apartment bnild-

ing. The killing is apparently without

motive, until it is discovered that the fiat

is owned by Boru O Brien, a wealthy

businessman with underworld con-

nections-and connections of another

kind with the Prime Minister s wife. The

gunman seems to have mistaken Mardi

Jack s shadowy silhouette against the

window for Boru O Brien s.

Twenty-three years before, he and

Scobie Malone had been cadets together

at the police academy. When Jim Kno-

ble, another of their classmates, meets

his death via a high-velocity bullet,

Malone sees a pattern. Is there a hit list,

with Scobie s name on it? And who is the

assassin?

Fearing for his family s safety and

forced into hiding with O Brien, Scobie

Malone faces one of the toughest assign-

ments of his career. The psychopathic

killer must be unmasked, tracked down,

and stopped--before his long-nurtured

paranoia leads him to kill again.

Told with Cleary s mastery of sus-

pense and pacing and his inimitable

brand of Australian humor, Murder

Song is a compelling cat-and-mouse

game of killer and victim. Using Scobie

Malone, a decent cop in a dirty world,

as a lens through which to examine

the dark side of Australian society, Jon

Cleary has written another first-class

novel of excitement and suspense.