Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: corruption

  • The Tragedy of Madagascar

    The Tragedy of Madagascar

    From the first page The Tragedy of Madagascar is an extremely well researched revelation, not revolution, about a small Sub-Saharan country that should be one of affluence, not one of extreme poverty and considered one of, if not the poorest, country in the world today.

    Nathanial Adams spent nine months travelling the country interviewing people from all walks of life; from people living in the most abject poverty to well cushioned politicians about the current state of the country, how it got into such a mess and where the country may be in future.

    He has used the Military coup of 2009 as the starting point to anchor the research as to why or how a country that has been independent for almost 80 years, has mineral wealth in abundance and an ever growing population, that in itself is rapidly becoming unsustainable, is in such a sad and sorry state.

    Interviewing the disposed former president Marc Ravalomanana and many others, Adams presents a very real look at a country which should have it all, but due to political instability, corruption and poor education, coupled with massive drought in the southern region of this small Island country, along with massive debt to the World Bank, is in very real danger of self-destructing. 

    The subject matter is heartbreaking in extreme; the narrative of Adam’s brings the people and the country alive and shows a small window on a very real humanitarian tragedy.

    What the future holds for his embattled country is difficult to really know, but after reading the facts of the matter, the various viewpoints both politically and popularly, it would seem unless a miracle occurs, nothing good is in their future.

    Can things change is the question, but this is something only the people of Madagascar can control and while to a large degree people remain uneducated, and politics is unstable, with no firm economic partners, the future remains bleak. 

    The Tragedy of Madagascar is one of the few well researched books on this Island country and certainly is one that will be well read by anyone interested in world politics, and the progress or lack of progress, of in the 21 Century, of Democracy.

  • Sparring Partners

    Sparring Partners

    Being stuck at home with COVID, didn’t stop John Grisham master of suspense and the legal arena, from writing his first collection of novellas. Each dealing with a legal case ‘Sparring Partners’ is a novel consisting of three independent and completely separate but engaging stories.

    ‘Homecoming’ the first tale in the book is set in Ford County and brings back a fan favourite character Jake Brigance, a small town lawyer. This time Jake is helping friend and attorney, Mark Stafford, who with a checkered past wants to return home and make amends with his daughters, while at the same time avoiding prosecution for allegedly having stolen his clients’ money.

    The second story ‘Strawberry Moon’ chronicles the last three hours in the life of 29-year-old Cody Wallace, the youngest prisoner on death row. After more than a decade of correspondence with his elderly benefactor, he finally meets the 80-year-old, who has not only sent him every book in his 2000 plus collection but also the only person ever to show him kindness. Readers are left wondering about the appropriateness of imposing the death penalty for crimes committed by minors.

    In the final novella ‘Sparring Partners’ greedy lawyer brothers Kirk and Rusty Malloy are well on the way to destroying their father’s once thriving law firm, which they inherited, while their father lingers in jail for the manslaughter of their mother and his much hated wife. It’s a tale of collusion and deceit, bribery and corruption; not to mention financial fraud.

    Not only fans of Grisham will find this a most enjoyable page turning read.

  • Gun to the Head

    Gun to the Head

    My life as a tactical cop. The impact. The aftermath.

    In his second book Gun to the Head, Keith Banks opens up a world of policing, corruption, bravery and challenge, based on his twenty years as a serving officer with the Queensland Police Force.

    Each aspect of his varied placements in the Force look at the often complex, frequently overlapping areas of Policing in the 1980’s, during a time when corruption was endemic within the Force, all the way to the top and beyond.

    Beginning his career as an undercover cop with the Drug Squad, he and a mate refused to be part of a lucrative ’sideline’ selling a portion of the confiscated drugs. They soon found themselves out of the squad, out of a job he loved, transferred to Taringa Criminal Investigation Branch, eventually reaching the rank of Senior Detective Constable, but found he missed the edgy, adrenaline filled life of undercover work.

    As a part time member of the Emergency Squad, formed to deal with hostage taking and sieges, he and his mate Peter felt they were finally right where the wanted to be; right at the serious edge of modern day Policing. He eventually went on to become a formation member of the Tactical Response Group, facing off against some of the most formidable, ruthless criminals of the day.

    This took a huge toll and it was not until he found himself on the verge of committing suicide, something not uncommon in those days and still to agree today, gun in mouth, finger on the trigger he began to realise he needed serious medical help. His marriage was done, his life a shambles and he either had to get it sorted out or leave what he loved the most, Policing.

    Each of the chapters moves back and forwards through his years of service, each one detailing a case, an incident in the tragi-comedy that was often all part of a day’s work.

    Thoroughly entertaining Keith Banks takes a walk back through a world of varied police work, throwing a light on the dedication of so many men and women who do enjoy the many challenges involved what they consider a normal day’s work.

    Gun to the Head looks at the corruption that was endemic within the Police Force back in the day, at the people who perhaps should never have been in that line of work, but also at the many honest ‘çops’, of whom there are many, trying to make a difference in a world where violence is real and present threat, even on what appears to be a simple, straightforward call out.

    Gun to the Head is a must read for anyone who is into True Crime or enjoys a very well-constructed, totally readable look at the history of Crime and Policing in Australia.

  • The Grifter’s Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency

    The Grifter’s Club: Trump, Mar-a-Lago, and the Selling of the Presidency

    Many books have been written, particularly in 2020, United States of America’s election year, about President Donald Trump, but few books have focused on Mar-a-Lago; a fascinating place with a unique history.  The President refers to it as his “Winter White House”. Mar-a-Lago was built by cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post in the 1920’s but by the time Donald Trump purchased this property in 1985, this elegant palatial house with tiles from a Cuban mansion and countless statues, was but a shadow of its former self; to restore and maintain it would cost the owner a fortune.

    “The Grifter’s Club”, takes the reader behind the scenes of the exclusive club Mar-a-Lago, which after 2019 served as both the Trumps’ permanent residence and as a private club for not only the famous and wealthy, but also political operatives and power-seekers.  A group of women members called Trumpettes USA (of which Gina Rinehart is a member) drool over the owner.

    In The Grifter’s Club the authors (a team of prize winning, highly regarded Miami Herald journalists) reveal the activities and motivations of an outlandish assortment of charlatans and tycoons, who frequented the halls of Mar-Lago; a bizarre world of extravagance and scandal. They explore how Mar-a-Lago became the palace of the ‘swamp creatures’ soon after 1985 and how it, not Washington, became the real centre of power where the President conducted the nation’s business with foreign leaders, including those from Japan and China.

    While the events detailed in this book have been previously reported elsewhere, readers can now read about them in this thoroughly researched, well documented, and factual but condensed version.  Readers will find it an unnerving, unsettling and frightening expose of the huge and glaring weakness of this ‘South White House’ to ensure the President’s safety, while at the same time putting at risk national security. Although extensively referenced, the inclusion of an index would assist readers to better grasp the mind boggling scope of plundering of tax payer dollars which occurred at Mar-a-Lago during the time since Donald Trump’s presidency.

  • Traitors and Spies

    Traitors and Spies

    Australia’s security agencies have not necessarily always been good; historically they were pretty awful in the first half of the twentieth century. John Fahey’s first book ‘Australia’s First Spies; The Remarkable Story of Australian Intelligence’ is followed up with this tome, in which he uses the same thorough research to interpret and expose the actions of the conglomerate of agencies and personnel, which constituted the Australia’s security service during the years 1901 to 1950.

    The author, an experience intelligence officer, has combed the archives to compile this comprehensive history of these security agencies, which have victimized people on religious, political, ethnic grounds. These officials of the Australian Government harassed hundreds of Australian citizens whom they considered disloyal traitors; illegally arresting them, destroying their reputations, and confiscating their property.

    Key players during this time have been thoroughly researched and documented making the reading of their exploits and underhand behaviour page turning. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Fredrick Wake is highlighted as the most corrupt Commonwealth official ever to ‘serve’ his country while serving himself; causing damage not only to innocent people but to innocent organisations.

    This academic work is supported by a complete list of abbreviations and a comprehensive glossary. The inclusion of diagrams indicating the association of key figures/organizations aids the reader’s understanding of the text.

    Readers will enjoy the fascinating stories of the heroes, victims and villains of this era before ASIO was established.

  • Babylon Berlin

    Babylon Berlin

    Lovers of crime noir are familiar with the bent or slightly crooked copper, the underworld of drugs, prostitution and money, murder and the fringe dwellers that inhabit both the world of the good, the bad and downright evil.

    Volker Kutcher has wrapped a familiar storyline in the far from familiar background of Berlin during the 1920’s, a time known as the “Roaring Twenties’ and for good reason, to create a work of what can be easily classed as historic crime noir fiction.

    The protagonist Gereon Rath is a man whose moral compass tends to swing in favour of his wants and needs first and foremost. Not really bent, but not really straight he has a few far from original ideas about the proceeds of crime and who should be the recipients of such largess.

    A man has already died at his hand during a police raid in Cologne. He has been sent to a new posting in Berlin where he discovers the rest of the Detectives treat him with considerable suspicion as they are aware his father, a man high up in the Police force has pulled a number of strings to get him this posting.

    When the body of a man is retrieved from a wrecked car in the Landwehr Canal, it is obvious he has been tortured, but by who and why are the questions being asked. Rath decides to work on this case secretively , a decision which takes him into the dark world of Weimar Germany and directly into the complex world of politics at the time, revolving around Russian influence in the underground, German Democratic politics and the beginning of the rise of Nazism.

    Add a shipment of $18m in gold bullion, a temptation he cannot resist, neither can many other forces, a love interest in student lawyer and stenographer with the Department, a journalist who agrees to working with Rath so he can break the full story, a cocaine habit, Raths’, as well as all the colourful characters, that did and do still, populate the underworld of history and you have a blockbuster of a read.

    Made into a two series season by Netfix Australia it is a story that encapsulates the world of sordid dealings that gave that particular time in history an infamy that still holds true today; a time when post World War 1, Politics were anything but stable in Europe, Weimar Germany was the unofficial designation for the German State, and anything went as it so often did.