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Billy Glasheen #2
Get Rich Quick
'I didn't spot the body until I was about to dive in. He was floating face down, the water around him streaked with red. He looked like William Holden in that film, except this fellow was big, and he wasn t talking about how he got there' -- Meet Billy Glasheen, a fresh new voice in crime fiction. It's Sydney, the 1950s, and Billy's trying to make a living, any way he can. Luckily, he's a likeable guy, with a gift for masterminding elaborate scenarios whether it's a gambling scam, transporting a fortune in stolen jewels, or keeping the wheels greased during the notorious down-under tour by Little Richard and his rock'n'roll entourage. But trouble follows close behind perhaps because Billy's schemes always seem to interfere with the plans of Sydney's big players, an unholy trinity of crooks, bent cops, and politicians on the make. Suddenly he's in the frame for murder, and on the run from the police, who'll happily send him down for it. Billy's no sleuth, but there's nowhere to turn for help. To prove it wasn't him, he ll have to find the real killer.
- GenresCrime
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 4, 2004
1 person is currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Peter Doyle
71 books23 followersPeter Doyle was born in Maroubra, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. He worked as a taxi driver, musician, and teacher before writing his first book, "Get Rich Quick", which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel. He has published two further books featuring protagonist Billy Glasheen, "Amaze Your Friends" and "The Devil’s Jump", and a fourth, "The Big Whatever", is slated for publication in October 2014. He is also the author of the acclaimed "City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912–1948" and "Crooks Like Us". In 2010 Doyle received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 18, 2023
The first point that should be stressed about this book is that it is a work of fiction, not a self help book that promises clues on how to make your fortune. Get Rich Quick is a hardboiled thriller that delivers a wild ride through the underworld of post-war Australia.
The setting is Sydney in the 1950s and the opportunities for making fast money seem to be limitless for people prepared to be imaginative enough to extort it. Billy Glasheen is just such a man, a self-confessed lurker, prepared to get into any dirty game if it looked like the pay-off would be worth it.
Peter Doyle is responsible for a wild ride through post-war Sydney as Billy sneaks along the fringes of the nasty underworld, taking little bites while carefully trying to stay out of the way of the big boys who would eat him alive. Rigged horseracing, drugs, the blossoming rock 'n' roll scene, political and police corruption are all on the agenda as Billy's trying to Get Rick Quick.
When the story starts it's Sydney 1952 and Billy Glasheen finds himself in a tight spot, set up for the murder of stand over merchant and all round despicable guy, Charlie Furner. Anonymous tip-offs, witnesses who heard Billy threaten Furner and a planted murder weapon all help to make things look pretty grim. Even more grim is the fact that the most feared copper Detective Sergeant Ray Waters is on his tail. You would think the most prudent course of action would be to get out of town as quickly as possible, wouldn't you, but that's not Billy Glasheen's style. What is his style is the coordination of a devious horseracing scam.
This is just the first of a many of money-making ventures Billy is involved in over a 6 year period, some legitimate but most decidedly not. He dabbles in a little bit of package delivery between the Federal Government and a sinister cell of Croatian separatists. he is left holding the take from a jewelry store heist with a group of stand-over bullies bearing down on him. He's not above extorting money from any or all of these situations because he has a knack for coming up with an ingenious plan that allows him to make the best of any situation and it's this reason that the story works so well.
Billy Glasheen is a very busy man, operating on a steady diet of whiskey, benzadrine and grass he is constantly on the move either keeping a step ahead of the law, international terrorists or standover merchants. The result is a busy story, always a scam cooking, always a dodge being played, always an angle being explored. Peter Doyle writes in a chatty colloquial style which is appropriate because he is speaking in the first person from the point of view of Billy Glasheen. It's a rough and tumble approach and mirrors very closely the style of speech used in Australia at the time. And this is where a warning is necessary, a lot of the dialogue both internal and external is heavy on Australian slang and contains many references to local events and landmarks which would be very difficult for an international reader to follow.
Doyle also did a great job of capturing the era in which he set the story, largely through the use of products or brand names that are now defunct. The dimly remembered past is immediately brought back when Billy stops his car to get petrol at a Golden Fleece service station, smokes his Craven A cigarettes and buys a couple of bottles of Flag Ale *shudder*. He also gave a smattering of cameo roles to some real people such as Little Richard, Eddie Cochrane, Johnny O'Keefe among others. There are some nice moments of by-play as Billy has an unexpectedly big influence on these now famous people.
Danger is a constant presence as one would expect when operating an endless string of small-time rackets. This is a humorous hardboiled novel mixing the old formula of gambling, drugs, music and politics in an original and thoroughly entertaining book. If you can track down a copy I can recommend it and then suggest you might like to try the sequel, Amaze Your Friends.
The setting is Sydney in the 1950s and the opportunities for making fast money seem to be limitless for people prepared to be imaginative enough to extort it. Billy Glasheen is just such a man, a self-confessed lurker, prepared to get into any dirty game if it looked like the pay-off would be worth it.
Peter Doyle is responsible for a wild ride through post-war Sydney as Billy sneaks along the fringes of the nasty underworld, taking little bites while carefully trying to stay out of the way of the big boys who would eat him alive. Rigged horseracing, drugs, the blossoming rock 'n' roll scene, political and police corruption are all on the agenda as Billy's trying to Get Rick Quick.
When the story starts it's Sydney 1952 and Billy Glasheen finds himself in a tight spot, set up for the murder of stand over merchant and all round despicable guy, Charlie Furner. Anonymous tip-offs, witnesses who heard Billy threaten Furner and a planted murder weapon all help to make things look pretty grim. Even more grim is the fact that the most feared copper Detective Sergeant Ray Waters is on his tail. You would think the most prudent course of action would be to get out of town as quickly as possible, wouldn't you, but that's not Billy Glasheen's style. What is his style is the coordination of a devious horseracing scam.
This is just the first of a many of money-making ventures Billy is involved in over a 6 year period, some legitimate but most decidedly not. He dabbles in a little bit of package delivery between the Federal Government and a sinister cell of Croatian separatists. he is left holding the take from a jewelry store heist with a group of stand-over bullies bearing down on him. He's not above extorting money from any or all of these situations because he has a knack for coming up with an ingenious plan that allows him to make the best of any situation and it's this reason that the story works so well.
Billy Glasheen is a very busy man, operating on a steady diet of whiskey, benzadrine and grass he is constantly on the move either keeping a step ahead of the law, international terrorists or standover merchants. The result is a busy story, always a scam cooking, always a dodge being played, always an angle being explored. Peter Doyle writes in a chatty colloquial style which is appropriate because he is speaking in the first person from the point of view of Billy Glasheen. It's a rough and tumble approach and mirrors very closely the style of speech used in Australia at the time. And this is where a warning is necessary, a lot of the dialogue both internal and external is heavy on Australian slang and contains many references to local events and landmarks which would be very difficult for an international reader to follow.
Doyle also did a great job of capturing the era in which he set the story, largely through the use of products or brand names that are now defunct. The dimly remembered past is immediately brought back when Billy stops his car to get petrol at a Golden Fleece service station, smokes his Craven A cigarettes and buys a couple of bottles of Flag Ale *shudder*. He also gave a smattering of cameo roles to some real people such as Little Richard, Eddie Cochrane, Johnny O'Keefe among others. There are some nice moments of by-play as Billy has an unexpectedly big influence on these now famous people.
Danger is a constant presence as one would expect when operating an endless string of small-time rackets. This is a humorous hardboiled novel mixing the old formula of gambling, drugs, music and politics in an original and thoroughly entertaining book. If you can track down a copy I can recommend it and then suggest you might like to try the sequel, Amaze Your Friends.
October 27, 2020
extremely fast romp through so many different areas of 1950's sydney, engaging with the crimes, subcultures and inconsistencies of each. Very entertaining, but it does take some concentration to hold onto the speed of the narrative.
February 20, 2018
A raucous and entertaining read!
March 26, 2018
I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as The Devil's Jump, the first book I read by this author. I thought the writing was raw, and the plot not as well-developed.
July 13, 2023
It's a rollicking fast paced read.
Easy and a lot of fun.
Easy and a lot of fun.
December 28, 2023
Scammers and bodgies in Sydney NSW. Always fun
October 5, 2025
Entertaining.
March 10, 2023
Not bad, but not good either. Very simple. A moderately entertaining ride through 1950s Sydney crime. Not sure how this shared the 1997 Ned Kelly Award for best first crime novel with Peter Temple's brilliant "Bad Debts" - the two books are not comparable in quality at all.
January 3, 2013
Not just a good read but an excellent one. Deep in the heart of Sydneysiderdom in the 1950s. Contains many of our beloved urban stories and gossip, brushes with fame and so much more. The language and locations are the real deal, none of that Croc Dundee nonsense. Get down and dirty with Billy Glasheen. Get hooked and carry on with two other titles in this trilogy, "Amaze Your Friends" and " The Devil's Jump".
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews