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Andrew McGahan

Last Drinks Kindle Edition

by Andrew McGahan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year, the Queensland Premier's Literary Award and winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel.

It's a decade since the infamous Inquiry into corruption tore the state of Queensland apart. But for George Verney, disgraced journalist and bit-player in the great scandals of his day, the Inquiry has never quite finished. After ten years of self-imposed exile, drawn by the terrible death of a man who was his friend, he reluctantly returns to Brisbane, the city of his downfall. In a town he no longer recognises and through an underworld that has forgotten him, George must seek out the other hidden survivors of his times, to confront the truth about their common past.

'Last Drinks, fast moving, funny and shocking, is a lament for all that can go wrong not only in the life of one man, but in the life of an entire state.

This is crime fiction that transcends the genre . . . It's a truly compelling and stylish novel, seamlessly written.' - Debra Adelaide, Sydney Morning Herald

Print length

377 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Allen & Unwin
Publication date

1 September 2005
File size

520 KB
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About the Author

Andrew McGahan was born in Dalby, Queensland, and now lives in Victoria. His first novel Praise (1992) won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and the regional prize for best first book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. His second novel was the prequel 1988 (1995), and his third novel Last Drinks (2000) was shortlisted for multiple awards, including The Age Book of the Year and the Courier Mail Book of the Year, and won a Ned Kelly award for crime writing. In 2004, The White Earth was published and won the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region, The Age Book of the Year (Fiction) and the Courier Mail Book of the Year Award. It was also shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. McGahan's fifth novel, Underground, was published in 2006 and was shortlisted in the Queensland Premier's Prize for fiction and for the Aurealis Award. In 2009, Wonders of a Godless World was published to acclaim and won the Aurealis Award.

McGahan's award-winning writing also includes stage plays and the screenplay for the movie version of Praise.

In 2011, McGahan launched his children's book series, the Ship Kings. The Coming of the Whirlpool was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award - older readers, for the Indie Awards, for the WA Premier's Book Award, was a finalist in the Aurealis Awards and was longlisted for the Gold Inky for an Australian YA book. The second novel in the Ship King series - Voyage of the Unquiet Ice was published in 2012. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'Last Drinks, fast moving, funny and shocking, is a lament for all that can go wrong not only in the life of one man, but in the life of an entire state. This is crime fiction that transcends the genre ... It's a truly compelling and stylish novel, seamlessly written.' -- Sydney Morning Herald --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003OICKFS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen & Unwin (1 September 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 520 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 377 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 11,546 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 1,182 in Contemporary Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
23 ratings

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Customer reviews

5 star		24%
4 star		33%
3 star		17%
2 star		13%
1 star		14%

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ifr33

Luminous

Reviewed in Australia on 1 March 2014

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The eulogy of an era, caught madly between celebration and polemic. If Queensland was ever anything like this, it must have been a wild ride indeed.

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Kiely

Last Drinks

Reviewed in Australia on 6 June 2014

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Last Drinks was a great book. It should be made into a TV series underbelly style. Would like to read more of Andrew's books are there any.

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Bree M

A nice easy read!

Reviewed in Australia on 5 February 2014

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I enjoyed this book. It's wasn't mind blowing, but it was a nice interesting read. Something easy to read on the train.

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ronaldjcox

Last drinks

Reviewed in Australia on 28 January 2014

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a great read for those of us old enough to remember a corrupt queensland and the Inquiry - all fiction of course

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Lacuna

Crime novel or history lesson?

Reviewed in Australia on 7 June 2014

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I bought this after reading a review by Debra Adelaide, whose judgement I normally respect. However, this time it proved to be misplaced.

It starts off well enough, but after a while it digresses into a history of the Inquiry during Bjelke-Petersen's reign in Queensland. Interspersed with that are dissertations on alcoholism and occasionally a return to the central storyline. By the 38% mark (thanks, Kindle) I realised I'd lost interest in the murder investigation and parked the book in my Limbo category.

There's no question that McGahan's an accomplished writer, but he seems to have forgotten the basic rule of crime fiction writing, namely to keep the reader anticipating the discovery of whodunnit. Unfortunately, I found I no longer cared.

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Neil

Dragged out

Reviewed in Australia on 8 February 2014

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An interesting book that could have been written in one third of the pages . I became very bored and thought it dragged on too long

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Lorelei Kiernan

absolute rubbish

Reviewed in Australia on 28 January 2014

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I couldn't finish this drivel. Thankfully I didn't pay much for it. Worst book I have ever tried to read. Rambles and gets nowhere. Should change the title to last post - it is dead boring

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Amazon Customer

irritating to read

Reviewed in Australia on 20 February 2014

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This book was irritating to read. It has many long winded passages that actually said nothing. As another reviewer has pointed out that it could have been written in a third of the pages. Agree entirely.

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Von Arx Michael

Einer der besten Alkoholromane seit Jahrzehnten!

Reviewed in Germany on 4 July 2008

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Ja, ich nenne "Last Drinks" einen Alkoholroman. Das Genre existiert zwar
nicht, daher ist "Last Drinks" ein sehr guter Krimi mit einem Ex-Alkoholiker
als Protagonisten. Aber ehrlich, seit Malcolm Lowry's " Under the Volcano"
habe ich keinen besseren Roman über Alkohol gelesen. Es gibt noch Jack London's "King Alcohol" oder Jim Thompson's völlig versoffener Alkoholroman,
aber dieser junge Schriftsteller schlägt sie alle, ausser Lowry. Man spürt
die Sucht, das Verlangen nach Alkohol, die Allgegenwart von Alkohol in jeder
Seite des Romans, in jedem Satz, in jedem Tun und Lassen des Protagonisten.
Der Roman ist unglaublich gut geschrieben, erschütternd gut. Ich frage mich,
woher der Autor, das alles weiss, so jung er noch ist. Klar, er kommt aus Queensland, erklärt alles. Nein, so einfach ist das nicht. Man muss wirklich mit Alkohol zu tun gehabt haben, um so schreiben zu können.
Und zwar nicht als Sozialarbeiter usw. sondern als direkt betroffener, als
Trinker oder aus einer Trinkerfamilie stammend. Hut ab, kaufen, lesen und
beim nächsten Drink daran denken!

5 people found this helpful

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Heinz Herbert

Ein Hautgout schalen Weins

Reviewed in Germany on 14 February 2010

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Der Autor wählt die Form des Kriminalromans und behauptet, die flächendeckende Korruptionsgesellschaft des australischen Queensland und dessen Hauptstadt Brisbane um 1989 offenzulegen. *Ein sehr fesselnder politischer Thriller, der viel Tiefe zeigt ...*, beurteilt der NDR. *Hervorragend geschrieben und übersetzt!* lässt der Bayerische Rundfunk verlauten und der Sydney Morning Herald versteigt sich zu der Einschätzung *Ein politischer Thriller, zugleich eine Reise in die dunkelsten Winkel der Seele ...*.
Welches Buch haben die gelesen?, frage ich mich. Brisbane wird zwar als seinerzeit schlimme Gegend geoutet, in der Politiker, Bullen und die sonstigen Stützen von Politik und Wirtschaft alles Schurken und Gangster waren, die soffen und hurten ohne Sinn und Maß und es kommen auch eine Menge Schurken und ein grausiger Mord vor. Aber das war es denn auch. Denn das bleiben nur Nebenkriegsschauplätze.
Der Protagonist des Romans, George Verney, hat sich in ein Kaff namens Highwood, irgendwo in den Outbacks, verzogen, hurt und säuft seit 10 Jahren nicht mehr, als er eine Leiche (seinen Freund Charlie) identifizieren soll. Die wurde in eben der zuvor angedeuteten Mordszenerie aufgefunden.
Verney macht sich - um selbst Klarheit zu finden - auf eine Reise, zurück in die Vergangenheit. Er fährt nach Brisbane und durchlebt nocheinmal in ausschweifenden Erinnerungen die Zeit *vor dem großen Korruptionsprozess*, um herauszufinden, wer ein Interesse am Tod des Freundes hätte haben können.
Vor Selbstmitleid triefend erinnert er sich an die ausufernden Trinkgelage, die riskanten Geschäfte seiner Clique, seiner heimlichen Liebe zu Maybellene, Charlies Frau.
*Suff und Politik* werden dabei ganz groß und ausufernd beschrieben. Und das in einer Weise, dass der Leser das Ende gar nicht mehr wissen möchte, zumal der Faktor *Thrill* zur Bedeutungslosigkeit verkümmert.
Wen interessiert, was exzessiver Alkoholgenuss alles anrichten kann oder wenn Hemmungslosigkeit zum Maßstab öffentlicher Institutionen verkommt und nur die im Hintergrund agierenden Figuren mit leichten Blessuren davonkommen, der mag diesen Roman genießen.

Ebenso wie George Verney am Ende erkennen muss, dass er lediglich die Zeit als Narr überstand, wird der Krimifreund feststellen: Auch er wurde an der Nase herumgeführt. Erfahren hat er allerdings eine Menge über Drinks, Suff, und Saufereien in ebenso erschöpfenden, wie ermüdenden Zwiesprachen des Protagonisten mit ehemaligen Saufkumpels.

Langatmig, weitschweifend, ermüdend, zähflüssig, denn es passiert praktisch nichts. Stillstand ist Programm, und selbst ein geduldiger Leser wie ich, konnte am Ende nur noch gelangweilt abnicken, dass Korruption von Übel ist. Wer bei rororo diesen Krampf protegierte, vielleicht zu Lasten eines guten Schreibers, hat am Ende selbst zu viel Interesse am Alkohol, wie dieser stocksaure Rezensent recht unwillig vermutet. HMcM

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Shane

Avoid this book

Reviewed in the United States on 12 January 2019

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What can I say ?? It's a dull, pointless read about dull, pointless characters, and a plot that makes very little sense beyond just propelling the story onwards. The most disappointing thing was that, given such an interesting setting (the state of Brisbane and Queensland in the lead-up to and aftermath of the Fitzgerald Inquiry), the author couldn't do any better than this very ordinary, frustratingly bland story.

Would strongly recommend avoiding this book.

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Last Drinks Kindle Edition

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