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A review by becleighton
Jacks and Jokers by Matthew Condon
5.0
This is a brilliant, gripping and incredibly important book. It shines a light on an extremely ugly chapter of modern Australian history and does an absolutely fantastic job out of documenting and explaining the huge web of police, political and judicial corruption and organised crime that went on under (but went far beyond) Joh Bjelke-Petersen and Terry Lewis.
Condon's ability to get people with actual knowledge to speak on the record and the depth of his research is amazing. I've found in some of his other books that Condon can be a bit of a plodding writer, but his avoidance of sensationalism is brilliant here as he just lets the huge amount of genuinely damning material he's gathered carry its own weight.
This was a hugely eye-opening read - even if you already know a bit about this stuff, and very much worth reading.
Condon's ability to get people with actual knowledge to speak on the record and the depth of his research is amazing. I've found in some of his other books that Condon can be a bit of a plodding writer, but his avoidance of sensationalism is brilliant here as he just lets the huge amount of genuinely damning material he's gathered carry its own weight.
This was a hugely eye-opening read - even if you already know a bit about this stuff, and very much worth reading.