Tugga's Mob

by Stephen Johnson

What happens on tour stays on tour was the mantra for the southern hemisphere backpackers who swarmed Europe in the 1980s. Foreign countries had to be explored and devoured in every way possible. Waikato-born Judy Williams worked hard for her big London, Paris, Rome, Gallipoli; and her adventures were dutifully recorded in her diary. A diary that also recorded how the obsessive Tugga Tancred and his Kiwi mates turned Judy's trip of a lifetime into a nightmare of sly sexual harassment. Their bad behaviour went unnoticed, or was ignored by fellow passengers like Australian Andrew Hackett who chose to party hard with Tugga's Mob. After all, they were in Europe for a good time, not a long time. And what a time it was, until Tugga's fixation ultimately led to a crime that went unpunished for 30 years. But few things remain hidden forever. The rediscovery of Judy's hand-written diary sparks a trail of revenge that the original perpetrators never see coming. 'With... penetrating insights into the world of newsgathering, Tugga's Mob is the story of a forgotten crime that refuses to stay buried...' - Garry Disher

Genres: Crime

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Boxed - Review

"a fast-paced, well-plotted crime thriller"

"like a good Agatha Christie mystery, which this novel reminds me of, there is soon more than one suspect"

"Johnson pulls it off, with the help of a mongrel collection of characters who are darkly funny because they are so close to being real"

Weekend Australian, May 14 2022


Tugga's Mob
Finalist 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards for Best First Novel


STEPHEN JOHNSON
Stephen is an Australian-born television news and sports producer who swapped the TV studio for a writer’s garret overlooking the Tamaki River in Auckland.
His debut novel Tugga’s Mob was inspired by three seasons working as a tour guide on double-decker buses around Europe in the ‘80s; but written when Stephen convinced his wife to sell their empty nest in 2016 to buy ‘Kwozzimoto’, a seven-metre motorhome. Tugga’s Mob was her annoying companion on a 33,000km tour of Europe, through a dozen countries almost 150 campsites.

Reviews

[Trevor Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently purchased 'Tugga's mob' as an E-book purely due to the fact that it was written by Steven Johnson, an ex Top Deck crew member and that the fictional story evolves around a European Tour in the mid 80s. (The itinerary, a carbon copy of TDs seven-weeker)
To put my reading tastes into perspective, I am an avid reader of non-fiction and tend to avoid works of fiction. However, seeing that I purchased this book I delved in and almost immediately I was hooked.
Without giving away the plot, it tells of the experiences of a kiwi punter enjoying her once in a lifetime trip and even though that particular trip ended in 1986 the ramifications of what happened on that trip re-emerged 30 years later. The tour experiences were like those many of us experienced at the time, doing the things on tour that could not be done at home. What hooked me was the involvement of a current affairs television program whose producers bit by bit uncovered a plot or plots. As I read I convinced myself that I knew what was coming, but time and time again the story twisted and turned. At about the halfway mark I was amazed to find a chill run through my body when another subtle twist revealed itself to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed Steve's work, the story kept me thinking in between reading sessions. The book is available through www.clandestinepress.net

Trevor Carroll

[Jeannie]

I thoroughly enjoyed Tugga's Mob by Stephen Johnson - not the least because I could visualise many of the overseas landmarks mentioned (fortunately, not through the same style tour company as in the novel).
The author's background of tour guide and TV journalism has been used as the back drop to the plot - which begins with a diary entry from one Judy Williams, off on her big OE in 1986. The reader soon realises that the diary is being read by an unknown person, in the present. The story shifts to the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia before moving on to a television studio and an overwrought chief of staff programming the news.
Of course the reader knows these events will all link up, eventually - and the ride to discover how, is well worth it. Johnson cleverly swings back and forth between diary entries, the TV show and its investigtors, people on the ground involved in various deaths and as the investigators struggle to make sense of death after death, so too does the reader. Best of all - the ending (while not a complete surprise in one way) - is very apt.

Tugga's Mob has just been short-listed for Best First Novel in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards. Best of luck to a well-deserved novel.

[Fiona Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johnson's background in TV journalism and European tour guiding comes to the fore in this absorbing and authoritative crime thriller. Set across two timelines, with a diary as the connection, Tugga's Mob is both an entertaining travelogue and an insightful depiction of the competitive and sometimes murky realm of TV news reporting. Set across Europe, New Zealand and Australia, this complex story will have you guessing right to the end. A masterful work for a debut novelist and Ngaio Marsh short-lister.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘What’s happened?’

When Kevin ‘Tugga’ Tancred dies in a fatal car accident on the Great Ocean Road, the initial thought is that a single vehicle was involved, and alcohol was to blame. But the reporter at the scene learns that there may be another cause.

In 1986, Waikato-born Judy Williams was one of a group of backpackers exploring Europe. Her diary records her travels, including the harassment she suffered at the hands of Tugga Tancred and his Kiwi mates. Judy found little support from her fellow travellers: they either did not notice what was going on or ignored it.

Judy’s diary, now in the hands of someone else, provides a bridge between what happened in 1986 and the present. And, with the help of some intrepid television news reporters, the truth will be revealed. Eventually.

I was fortunate enough to read Mr Johnson’s latest novel ‘Boxed’ recently and jumped at the opportunity to read ‘Tugga’s Mob’. While the two novels stand alone, some characters appear in both. In ‘Tugga’s Mob’, Mr Johnson kept me guessing as the reporters, racing to grab exclusives and meet deadlines, kept teasing out connections between people and place. Of course, the reporters worked co-operatively with the police even if (sometimes) they managed to get ahead of the official investigation.

While I worked out some aspects of the story (just before) the end, there were a couple of twists I didn’t anticipate and more than one gratifying piece of comeuppance. A terrific cast of characters – including the good, the bad, and the ugly – all appear at various times. Not to mention a cute little greyhound called ‘Sexy Rexy’.

Thanks, Mr Johnson (Sir) for another terrific read.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

TUGGA'S MOB by Stephen Johnson has been shortlisted for the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel (see the end of this review for all the shortlisted entries).

Set across two timelines, this is a story that starts out in the 1980's, on one of those young people, mad house type tours of foreign climes that were particularly popular back then. Many of us will remember tales of people (or were those people) who went on the slightly madcap charge around Europe, normally in a bus, camping out at various locations or in the cheapest possible accommodation, with a heap of other young people around the same age. There were stories of tour romances, much fun, huge drinking sessions, and less well known maybe, some seriously appalling behaviour.

In TUGGA'S MOB we have the story of Waikato-born Judy Williams, a quiet, hard-working young woman who saved for her trip of a lifetime, and ended up on one of these tours. Unfortunately on the same tour as Tugga Tancred and a bunch of his yobbo Kiwi mates. Tugga developed quite an obsession with Judy, and he and his friends turned her trip of a lifetime into a nightmare, with sexual harassment and controlling and abusive behaviour. Which everyone else on the tour appeared happy to ignore, even when obsession turned to murder.

30 years later and Tugga's last trip down the Great Ocean Road could have something to do with those events all those years ago. Does the same fate await Andrew Hackett, an Australian on the same tour, happy to party hard with Tugga's Mob, now a hatchet man in the news business? One of his own news rooms might be about to find out.

The investigative aspects of TUGGA'S MOB are set within the world of news gathering - a cutthroat, time-pressured, manic environment well portrayed in this novel, with journo Curly Rogers in a clear cut search for the truth contrasted sharply with the self-serving nature of party boy turned boss Hackett. The discovery of Judy's hand-written diary provides the spark for revenge, and the full story of what happened back then. There are plenty of red herrings along the way to keep the reader working hard, and the ending, whilst predictable is apt, and nicely closed off, although there is a bit of a tendency to over explain when things start to get complicated.

The use of the investigative journalist as the central protagonist is a nice touch, and TUGGA'S MOB overall is an entertaining romp styled novel.

The entire shortlist for the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel is:

Tugga's Mob, Stephen Johnson
Aue, Becky Manawatu (also shortlisted for Best Novel / review to come)
The Nancys, R.W.R. McDonald
Into the Void, Christina O'Reilly


https://www.austcrimefiction.org/revi...

[Dorothy Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a delight to read books set in places I know well, and I know Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, though not as well as Queenscliff and the Bellarine Peninsula. Stephen Johnson’s novel, Tugga’s Mob, is bringing the Ocean Road to life again for me, and it’s giving me a vast amount of pleasure to travel to places that were a part of my childhood and youth. I started corresponding with Stephen during a Booklove Tuesday event and we’ve since discovered that, as well as almost sharing a name, we have quite a lot in common when it comes to our background and our early years. I ordered Tugga’s Mob from Clandestine Press and can thoroughly recommend it.

[Sandi Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

More in my next Good Reads blog at www.sandiwallace.com/blog/. Review copy received with thanks from the publisher.

[Gavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good crime fiction. Interesting concept of current crimes related to a past crime. Interesting setting among backpackers (then) and TV journalists (now). What held it back: some sections plodded along; some characters a bit too caricature; some sections felt like an explanation by the author of backpacking and TV journalism rather than backdrops to the action.