As the title would suggest new Australian crime-fact novel ‘A Pack Of Bloody Animals’ really doesn’t hold back. It goes deep into a war between crims and Police that resulted in one of Australia’s most baffling crimes… the Walsh Street Murders.
Four men, Anthony Farrell, Trevor Pettingill, Victor Pierce and Peter McEvoy were charged with the execution style murders of Constables Damian Eyre and Steven Tynan, however the court case fell apart spectacularly and since then the case has been speculated about a number of times.
Two of Australia’s top crime writers have teamed to together to produce ‘A Pack Of Bloody Animals’. And I have to admit that together John Kerr and Ray Mooney have produced one of the finest crime-fact novels to ever be published in Australia.
‘A Pack Of Bloody Animals’ goes one step further than most crime books. It doesn’t only explore the crim/police war in depth but also consists of interviews (both police and personal) recorded with the suspects shortly after the shootings as well as the words of Wendy Pierce that make riveting reading. And while the thought of reading through interviews may deter some readers it shouldn’t, the book never becomes bogged down and the interviews are set out so well you find yourself wanting to keep on turning pages (like you would in a Grisham novel) as you are determined to get to the bottom of what really happened.
Anyone who reads ‘A Pack Of Blood Animals’ will be educated on a crime war that most Victorians are unaware even went on around them. Personally, I found this to be one of the best crime-fact books I have ever read and I can’t recommend it highly enough.