MJ
Walker
author
At seventeen, Goran is illiterate, impulsive and superstitious, but when the Nazis shoot his family and burn his village, he quickly learns a better type of revenge.
‘I don’t understand this fascination with bombs,’ said Carlo.
‘Not just bombs,’ replied Goran, ‘grenades. Man, do I love grenades.’
The German invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941 and the impossibility of conquering a guerrilla force in a country of mountains and a sea full of islands was the precipitating factor in the eventual Nazi collapse. I chose to reveal World War 2 through Goran’s eyes because he typifies the young uneducated Yugoslav Partisan who died liberating his country. Under the leadership of Tito the Partisans were so successful that they caught the attention of Churchill, who sponsored them. Recognising the threat they posed, Hitler made their defeat a top priority.
‘That’s the Ustasha,’ he informed the illustrator. ‘Nazi Croatia, World War 2. They came to Australia in the early 1960s and our political scene allowed their ease of entry. Robert Menzies and the whole series of weak Liberal leaders that followed him, all fearing communism as if it were the plague. All the Ustasha had to do was say “we’re not communist” for the Liberals to roll out the red carpet.’
When money is involved, men will rob, cheat, lie and kill, but for Mary McDonald, assisting the police with their investigation into the profits of war crimes provides an escape from her own respectability. Not until it’s too late does she realize the danger. DS Chris Toomey tries to warn her about the criminal who is prepared to use her to get his hands on the money, but even he is wrong, because money is nothing without power.
It begins with a frozen leg. It ends with murder.