Cirrus@Austlit

'The complete story of the lives and shoddy business deals of Michael McGurk and Ron Medich from the person McGurk confided in.

'Employing her insider status and trademark wit, pace and intelligence, Kate McClymont unravels the complex business relationships between Michael McGurk and Ron Medich.

'Rumour has it that Sydney is full of corruption and crime, but no one expected to read about a Sydney businessman being shot, in the back of his head, in his driveway, in Cremorne. Nor that, ultimately, a Point Piper millionaire would be convicted for ordering the hit. But this is not just a Sydney story. Its strands traverse Moscow, Brunei, Indonesia and Hawaii and involve property deals, fraud, conspiracy, false identities, kidnapping and a miniature Koran. There are bumbling criminals, turncoats, snitches, wealthy people brought down, and devastated families.

'Just prior to his murder, Michael McGurk – who had a history of violence, threats, arson charges, intimidation and failed businesses – had informed Kate McClymont, Australia’s best-known investigative journalist, that he believed there was a hit out on him. They agreed they would meet, and then he was shot.

'This is an extraordinary story of ten years of events that you simply could not make up.' (Publication summary)

'Queensland had the Fitzgerald Inquiry and the Moonlight State. New South Wales has Eddie Obeid.

'Meet Australia's most corrupt politician whose brazen misdeeds were said to be on a scale 'unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps'.

'From the shadows Obeid ran the state as his fiefdom, making and unmaking premiers. Along the way he pocketed tens of millions of dollars following corrupt deals.

'This explosive book chronicles the grubby deals the powerbroker had been making for decades before he was exposed.

'His tentacles stretched through all levels of government, encircling almost every precious resource - coal leases, Circular Quay cafes, marinas, even the state's water. All of them were secret money-spinners for Obeid and his family.

'Above ground, below ground, in the air, on the water, there was no domain beyond Obeid's grasp. Now, many of the key politicians of his era have given a candid account of Obeid's pernicious backroom influence.

'Following their groundbreaking investigations, the award-winning journalists Kate McClymont and Linton Besser have unearthed the vast but secret empire Obeid built over decades, producing an authoritative account of how he got away with so much for so long.' (Publication summary)