Paul F. Verhoeven Paul F. Verhoeven i(14243458 works by)
Gender: Male
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2 y separately published work icon A Town Called Treachery Mitch Jennings , Sydney : HarperCollins Australia , 2024 28252171 2024 single work novel crime

'A brutal murder in a town called Treachery? It's a story most journos would kill for, but for Stuart Dryden, it's a major inconvenience. He didn't take the gig at the local rag for its bustling crime beat. He'd sacrifice a career-making story for happy hour at the pub, but not even he can let a grisly murder through to the keeper. Especially when he keeps getting scooped by a persistent kid with a disposable Kodak.

'Life's tough for eleven-year-old Matty Finnerty. His mother's gone, his father's gone most of the time and, as hard as he tries, he just can't get the kids at school to like him. When his favourite teacher Wendy Millburn turns up dead on the beach, it puts his dad Robbie in the crosshairs of a town that never liked him anyway. Worse than the bricks through the window, the dead animals on the lawn and the fish heads in the mailbox is the fact no one seems to be looking for the killer.

'Matty starts to wonder whether Robbie knew Wendy better than he's let on. He needs a hero, and Dryden will have to do - that is, if he can just stay sober for a night or two. He might even cast off the ghosts of his own past.

'As they stumble their way to answers, can they find the truth about Wendy - and what they're really made of?'  (Publication summary)
1 y separately published work icon Electric Blue Paul F. Verhoeven , Melbourne : Viking , 2020 19672041 2020 single work autobiography 'Paul Verhoeven’s ex-cop dad, John, spent years embroiled in some of the seediest, scariest intrigue and escapades imaginable. One day John offered Paul the chance of a lifetime: he’d spill his guts on tape. What unfolded in Loose Units was a goldmine of true-crime stories, showcasing John’s dramatic experience of policing in Sydney in the 1980s and brilliantly twisted sense of humour. But what happened next in John’s career was twice as weird.

'Electric Blue spans the final years of John’s stint in the New South Wales Police Force, when he took up an offer to move into the grimy, analytical world of forensics. Paul unpicks his father’s most terrible cases. There was the case of a rapist hiding in the walls of a shower block, a body that was quite literally cooked, and the bizarre copycat suicides.

'But what’s it actually like to have a heroic ex-cop as a dad? Paul and John delve into their unique father–son relationship and how they ended up so different to each other. They figure out how to deal with the choices they’ve made . . . or wish they’d made. And Paul’s mum, Christine, reveals what it was like to be a pioneering female cop in the eighties, when misogyny was rife in the force.

'Thrilling, fascinating and unexpectedly laugh-out-loud funny, Electric Blue is another high-octane adventure in policing, integrity and learning what family is really all about.' (Publication summary)

 
1 1 y separately published work icon Loose Units Paul F. Verhoeven , Melbourne : Viking , 2018 14243483 2018 single work autobiography biography

'Paul Verhoeven's father, John, is a cop. Well, an ex-cop. Long since retired, John spent years embroiled in some of the seediest, scariest intrigue and escapades imaginable. Paul, however, is something of an artsy, sensitive soul who can’t understand why he doesn’t have the same heroism and courage as his dad. One day, John offers Paul the chance of a lifetime: he'll spill his guts, on tape, for the first time ever, and try to get to the bottom of this difference between them.

'What unfolds is a goldmine of true-crime stories, showing John’s dramatic (and sometimes dodgy) experience of policing in Sydney in the 1980s. The crims, the car chases, the frequent brushes with death and violence, and the grey zone between what’s ethical and what’s effective: finally Paul gets real insight into what’s formed his father’s character.

'Thrilling, fascinating and often laugh-out-loud funny, Loose Units is a high-octane adventure in policing, integrity and learning what your father is really all about.' (Publication summary)
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