The Golden Orchid

Book excerpt: If only the criminals in the colony would just lift their game? After a fitful night spent tossing and turning Slikker provided his mate Eddie with an ear-bashing over breakfast. "Consider the Sketland Mob. Now there was a fair-dinkum reign of terror. Evil bastards, through and through and violent. Mongrels, granted, but sly an' difficult mongrels. Or the Gang o' Five. That was a substantive campaign. Murder, corruption, intimidation, and theft. Even sly grogging. They had the whole of Charters Towers under their thumb. An' again, while they was a bunch of utter bastards, at least they was interestin' bastards, running a farsighted criminal enterprise. What we need is an outbreak of criminal cunning. An epidemic of sly reasoning. A sudden plague of moral turpitude. What North Queensland needs, mate, is some decent bloody crims!" Apparently Slikker had entirely forgotten about the old adage that 'you need to be careful about what you wish for'. Sometimes wishes come true.