Review by Denver Grenell, author of Red Ruin.
Australian writer Garth Jones rips the Oz-lit scene a new one with this first volume of what promises to be a blackly comic epic of sex, drugs, rock’n’roll, cults, dodgy politicians (aren’t they all?) and er, bunyips.
A plot summary would do a disservice to Garth’s book, as it isn’t so much plot driven as character driven, and what characters they are: Ed Von Satan, the bassist (and only surviving member) for has-been rockers Tōxxik Shōkk, is a “sinewy vision in ruined double-denim” and a booze and drug-addled wastrel of the highest order.
Equally debauched singer of Switchback, Johnny Platinum rocks along to a similarly hedonistic beat. Maureen ‘Mystic Mo’ O’Grady-Thrumster, is an ex-hippie rock chick with connections to Ed, now one half of the cultish ‘The Trust’ with her husband ex journo, The Right Reverend Sancrox Thrumster.
Throw in the take-no-shit all female punk band Babalōn and conservative politician Duke “Tank” Excalibur-Crusader, the aforementioned bunyip and the scene is set for some rollicking shenanigans and a promised collision between the respective parties as they bumble and stumble their way on their quite possibly pre-ordained journeys…
Read the lot here.