In this pacey Australian crime novel, ex-reporter Nat Barker finds himself on a racetrack in the middle of a feud between two warring bookmakers. One of them just happens to be Barker's best friend, out to avenge his father's murder. The other wants to end the feud - permanently - and Barker is standing in his way.When bookmaker Hamilton Helsingor asks Barker to help avenge his father's death, Barker thinks his friend is nuts. After all, everyone knows it was suicide. But after being almost knifed and then shot at by decidedly nasty types who don't care for his nosy questions, Barker begins to think Hamilton might just be right. As the violence mounts and the corpses accumulate against a background of jazz, harbour breezes, horseracing and a fencing duel on Bondi Beach, Barker begins to wonder if friendship is worth dying for. Author B. A. Wallace has created a tough guy who's not so tough, a smart investigator who's occasionally slow off the mark, an opportunist who's prone to missing the main chance. Barker is a man who tries hard to understand people, who looks for the best in them but too often finds the worst.