$25.90

& FREE Delivery on orders over $49. Details

In stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Greenlight Paperback – 3 Sep 2018

by Benjamin Stevenson (Author)

5 customer reviews

See all 5 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Amazon Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Paperback

"Please retry"

$25.90

—

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$37.97

—

'An outstanding debut - confident, compelling, with a surprise around every corner. I loved it' Jane Harper, author of The Dry

Four years ago, in the small town of Birravale, Eliza Daley was murdered. Within hours, her killer was caught. Wasn't he?

So reads the opening titles of Jack Quick's new true-crime documentary. A skilled producer, Jack knows that the bigger the conspiracy, the higher the ratings - and he claims Curtis Wade was convicted on flimsy evidence and shoddy police work. Millions of viewers agree.

Just before the final episode, Jack uncovers a minor detail that may prove Curtis guilty after all. Convinced it will ruin his show, Jack disposes of the evidence and delivers the finale unedited, leading to Curtis's eventual release.

Then a new victim is found bearing horrifying similarities to the original murder. Has Jack just helped a killer walk free?

Determined to set things right, Jack returns to Birravale looking for answers. But with his own secrets lurking just beneath the surface, Jack knows more than anyone what a fine line it is between fact and fiction. Between life and death.

Now there's only one option left. The truth.

'A hugely-original premise, a guilt-ridden protagonist, a plot that won't lie down. A great debut' Chris Hammer

'Such an assured, intricately plotted novel full of mind-bending twists and turns' Candice Fox

'A gripping, densely knotted debut that kept me guessing until the very last page' Mark Brandi

'A killer premise, genuinely surprising twists and turns and an original, deeply memorable protagonist' Dervla McTiernan

'A clever, heart-racing read. Fresh and contemporary' Courier Mail

Product details

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Michael Joseph; 1 edition (3 September 2018)
ISBN-10: 0143789872
ISBN-13: 978-0143789871
Product Dimensions: 15.8 x 2.9 x 23.6 cm
Boxed-product Weight: 440 g
Average Customer Review: 5 customer reviews
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 89,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11653 in New Age Religion & Spirituality (Books)
- #16675 in Horror (Books)
- #2177 in Christian Mystery & Suspense

Product description

Book Description

A nail-biting thriller that turns popular true-crime such as Serial and Making A Murderer on its head, Greenlight will shock with twists and turns you'll never see coming.

About the Author

Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and author. He has sold out shows from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival all the way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has appeared on ABCTV, Channel 10, and The Comedy Channel. Off-stage, Benjamin has worked for publishing houses and literary agencies in Australia and the USA. He currently works with some of Australia's best-loved authors at Curtis Brown Australia. Greenlight is his first novel.

5 customer reviews

Review this product

Write a customer review

Showing 1-5 of 5 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Meredith Whitford

A decent debut, but with a confusing plot

8 September 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I found this an enjoyable enough read, but not an easy one. It's hard to explain without spoilers, but it's written in such a way that I had to keep going back to work out what the hell the importance was of some apparently vital element. The shoe, for instance. Obviously 'planted' evidence, but planted when, why, by whom? And so on. Most of the characters are engaging and real, and the author has a nifty turn of phrase and some excellent bits of humour. I'd call it a good debut but not outstanding as a crime novel. Some bits ring true, others don't, was my feeling. One of the crimes in the book (no spoilers) is amusing and clever, and will horrify all wine-drinkers, but it's not original: taken from real events and a "CSI" episode. The flashbacks aren't necessary and get in the way of the narrative. But on the whole, while it's not quite up to the publishers' hype, it's enjoyable and kept me wanting to find out whodunnit, even if I had to read the final chapters twice to make sense of them.

Helpful

Comment

Dianne

First book

17 December 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

For a comedian Ben has outdone himself as a writer. So many twists and turns and suspects. Is the wine story based on a true Australian crime? Well done Ben, looking forward to your next book.

Helpful

Comment

‘Who really killed Eliza Dacey?’

4 December 2018

Format: Kindle Edition

In the Hunter Valley vineyard region north of Sydney, New South Wales, an itinerant grape-picker was brutally murdered. Four years have elapsed. Curtis Wade, Eliza Dacey’s employer, was arrested almost immediately and subsequently convicted of her murder. Enter Jack Quick, producer of true-crime documentaries. Jack knows that conspiracy theories rate well, especially if there’s a suggestion of incompetence or bias on the part of the police investigation. After all, Curtis Wade was only convicted on circumstantial evidence. Just before the final episode of his documentary, Jack uncovers a piece of evidence that might just prove Curtis guilty. Jack disposes of the evidence rather than run the risk of ruining his show. His show proposes that Curtis Wade is innocent, and Curtis Wade is released from gaol.

‘.. you get to be the truth-teller if no-one is there to contradict you.’

After Curtis Wade’s release, another woman is murdered in a similar way. Jack realises that he may have helped free a guilty man from gaol. Jack also realises that as he has destroyed evidence, he is the only one who can right this wrong. How?

Jack Quick is an interesting character. He has his own demons, including an ongoing battle with anorexia and bulimia, as well events from his childhood. The story itself has plenty of twists and turns and while some aspects worked better for me than others, I thought this an impressive debut novel.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Helpful

Comment

A polished debut delivered brilliantly

3 September 2018

Format: Audible Audiobook

GREENLIGHT works extremely well as an audio title as the conspiratorial way it has been written lends itself beautifully to that platform of intimacy. In our ears it’s all quietly confessed secrets and the discovery of lies as we move around with producer Jack Quick in the shadows of a country town. This is not necessarily a sleepy town. This is wine country.

The success of Jack Quick’s initial podcast investigation into the death of Eliza Dacey surprised no one more than Jack himself. Curtis Wade was never the most popular person in the community, being newly cashed up (just tacky) and difficult to deal with, but the speed of his arrest and conviction for the murder of a young vineyard worker screamed ‘fit up’. The degree to which Jack is willing to suggest a conspiracy to his listeners may involve some… finesse. Ratings are everything. How far Jack is willing to go involves some deep diving into a soul that was already troubled before the investigation into the death of Eliza.

Curtis Wade made a convincing villain for one murder and upon his release, is once again regarded as a suspect when there is a second killing. Jack’s reporting on Eliza’s murder, stylistically slanted and edited of course for maximum dramatic effect, had suggested the existence of simmering town prejudices and that the most of inept of country cops had been tasked with investigating Eliza’s murder. Jack now has cause to question his own ethics, and whether his presence had been a catalyst for more violence. Wrongs must now be addressed.

If you’ve ever stayed in an Australian wine region, you might feel that you recognize the (fictional) setting and some of the townsfolk who feature in GREENLIGHT. Wine towns ride on the back of tourism, but the locals aren’t always friendly to anyone who rides in to dabble in the business of winemaking, or to involve themselves in transactions of buying and selling wine. In Jack Quick we have someone trying to do right whilst acknowledging the wrongs that had been tactically employed along the way. He’s a curious character, and not the alpha male we normally see leading the charge in crime fiction. We’ve had enough of those. People who are able to mess up, be beaten up, and then get up again when required are way more interesting to read of.

GREENLIGHT combines the appeal of the two fastest growing forms of digital entertainment that we have right now - podcasts and audio books. Today’s time poor readers have leaped on to both of these mediums with increasing gusto in the last two years or so and it’s all to the good. GREENLIGHT is an absorbing work of fiction that gives us the required time with each character, somehow managing to gallop us past what we should have been paying our most keen attention to. Multiple voice actors are used here in the podcast excerpts that are inserted judiciously into Jack’s narrative. The lead voice actor here is brilliant at differentiating the characters he plays in Jack’s scenes, so there’s never any confusion as to whose voice it is that we are hearing.

The mental health issues raised in this novel are not often addressed in fiction in relation to the males of our species. This is quite enlightening to read of, as negotiating your everyday working life around a full blown eating disorder is just another difficulty to your day. Jack’s character and life outside of his career are fully fleshed, and the read is all the better for it.

GREENLIGHT is a polished debut work of crime fiction that offers up the trifecta of entertainment; it is engaging, topical, and satisfying. The excellent voice work in this Audible production adds much to the experience of being immersed in the struggles of Jack as he questions his own motivations and the cost of success in our entertainment obsessed world.

Helpful

Comment