The Brush-Off
by Shane Maloney
Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction, this is the second Murray Whelan adventure.Murray Whelan, political minder, is world-weary, terminally horny and addicted to cigarettes.On a sultry Melbourne summer night, while Murray is in the Botanic Gardens tasting Salina Fleet's apricot lips, a dead artist is being fished from the ornamental moat outside the art gallery. Whelan goes looking for the big picture among the culture vultures of Melbourne's art world and quickly learns there is nothing abstract about a loaded gun.A romantic comedy and drop-dead thriller, The Brush-Off mixes high art with low blows.'Maloney is top shelf.' Australian