A review by becleighton
Three Crooked Kings by Matthew Condon

5.0

This was a seriously impressive book. Condon explains three decades of systematic police corruption, the role of the key players in it, and how it fit in with a wide range of disturbing historical events that are forgotten to people of my generation but really shouldn't be. It makes for a complicated web, and Condon explains how it all fit together really well. He deftly covers such a wide span of historical events that you could write thirty books on the events that happen within it, and yet I still felt coming away like I'd gained a good, basic understanding of how all the pieces fit together. The amount of people he's interviewed and pieced together the stories of is fantastic. I feel like we would have a much better understanding of modern Australian history if there were equivalent books as in-depth and comprehensive for other states which operated similarly in that era.

It wasn't a flawless book: slow to start, and in refraining from sensationalism (which is wonderful considering the subject matter) Condon possibly goes a bit too far in the other direction and can be a bit dry. I found the first half a bit of a slog, but read the last half in a day with ease. Also, one gets the feeling (for whatever reason) that he might have pulled his punches towards Terry Lewis, compared to the treatment of the other key figures. (I am curious to see if that continues in the rest of the trilogy - I suspect possibly not). It's such a well-researched and informative book that it's still worth five stars though.