The Shark Net

Robert Drewe

Jul 2003 · Penguin Group Australia

About this ebook

Aged six, Robert Drewe moved with his family from Melbourne to Perth, the world's most isolated city – and proud of it. This sun-baked coast was innocently proud, too, of its tranquillity and friendliness. Then a man he knew murdered a boy he also knew. The murderer randomly killed eight strangers – variously shooting, strangling, stabbing, bludgeoning and hacking his victims and running them down with cars – an innocent Perth was changed forever. In the middle-class suburbs which were the killer's main stalking grounds, the mysterious murders created widespread anxiety and instant local myth. 'The murders and their aftermath have both intrigued me and weighed heavily on me for three decades. To try to make sense of this time and place, and of my own childhood and adolescence, I had, finally, to write about it.'The result is The Shark Net, a vibrant and haunting memoir that reaches beyond the dark recesses of murder and chaos to encompass their ordinary suburban backdrop.

Ratings and reviews

Oddly I read this book with no idea who the author is. The book has a very down to earth manner - any tough subjects mentioned just felt like the rhthym of life. The humour in his story had me laughing.

About the author

Robert Drewe is the author of seven novels, four books of short stories, two memoirs, six other works of non-fiction and two plays. His work has been widely translated, and adapted for film, television, theatre and radio.