Local authors Alan Leek and John Byrnes return to meld Australia’s 1920s non fiction with fiction in a chat with Leanne at our Port Macquarie Library on Wednesday 26th February at 4.30pm.
ALAN LEEK left school at 15 and became a wool store rouseabout. He joined the NSW Police Cadet Corps two years later and is a 34 year veteran of the police. He served as a detective, before taking up command positions, including the tough Cabramatta patrol, then the centre of heroin trafficking in Australia and the site of Australia’s first political assassination.
He retired with the rank of superintendent. He holds an Associate Diploma in Justice Administration (Distinction); Post Graduate Diploma in Police Management and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, USA.
He also holds the prestigious Peter Mitchell Award for outstanding performance of police duty, after leading a murder investigation. Co-founder and director of an exhibiting fine art gallery between 1983 – 2012, gave vent to his interest in art, art history and history generally.
JOHN BYRNES has worked bars and doors in pubs and clubs all over Australia, on fishing trawlers out of Darwin, and served in the Australian Army. Eventually, John put on a tie and studied economics, working for the Sydney Futures Exchange, Deutsche Bank and in financial services until 2023.
John started writing in 2015 and has a fascination with the darker aspects of the human condition; the addicted, the malevolent, the scarred. He cheers for the outsider, the slacker, the contrarian, the non-conformist. His bestselling debut novel Headland was published in 2022, a crime thriller.
Born in Sydney, John moved to the Mid North Coast of New South Wales with his wife and three children in 2012.
CONFRONTING MURDEROUS MEN by Alan Leek
In the turbulent years from 1922 to 1952, Australia witnessed a chilling toll as twenty-two dedicated police officers sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. Others fell with them.
Emerging from the shadows of World War I, the nation, newly minted and resilient, navigated through The Great Depression’s pall, only to confront the re-emergence of war. During World War II, police officers, though deterred from enlistment, were released for service, or seconded for intelligence work, thrusting expanded responsibilities onto those who remained. Operating in an unspoken battleground, law enforcers met their demise at the hands of dangerous criminals – murderous men driven by madness or consumed by hatred, most to cover crimes of little worth. Their stories unfold in gun battles, investigations gone wrong, opportunistic killings, and the disturbing murder of two police officers dismembered and burnt by petty thieves.
This collection of stories is more than sensational; they are the tales of lives cut short. Each story stands testament to the indomitable spirit of those who faced duty’s relentless call during an era when greed held sway over decency.
THE YOUNGEST SON by John Byrnes
On the unforgiving streets of 1920s Sydney, the Leach family have nothing but each other.
In a tale spanning decades, three children of the broken, working-class family find adventure, heartache and trouble as their lives drift apart.
John finds faith and love at a young age. The inevitable clash between the two leads him into a different kind of brotherhood as war clouds gather.
Maureen dreams of a life ‘just like the movies’ and waits to be swept off her feet. Yet at every crossroad, she makes the wrong choice.
Bob discovers a natural talent with his fists and an instinct for trouble. But with every win he earns the hard way, more enemies rise.
