Product Description
Set in Bondi and the Central Coast, this is vintage Les Norton - who has been called in to help Albanian would-be filmmaker, Bodine Menjou locate a missing script. Les is giving advice to Bodine, dealing with an enraged ice addict who won't stay down, and confronting a shot gun and an exploding building. Les is quite happy resting up after the flu, when Warren has to tip him into an earn. Norton's mate from the Albanian Mafia, Bodene Menjou, is planning to make the most politically correct movie ever made in Australia, Gone With the Willy Willy, and has a script stolen. If Les can find it, a lazy $50,000 could fall in. How can Norton say no? After almost getting his head blown off in a drug lab, being attacked by crazed women with broomsticks, and beaten up by monstrous drag queens, Les is wondering if it is all worth it. The trip to Terrigal and the magical mystery tour with Marla is good. And Topaz with her chicken soup is an unexpected delight. But apart from that, Les doesn't find much joy at all in his search for the missing film script. Especially not trapped in a fight for his life with a sadistic giant, where only one thing can save him: the Mongolian Death Lock. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Les Norton is the greatest
This is a great read. Plenty of laughs with an interesting story about a tuff knock about bloke located in Sydney, Australia who cant keep himself out of trouble for all the wrong reasons but always ends up in-front. This is not the best of the Robert G Barret books about Les Norton but definitely would have to come a close second to any of the ones that I have read. ... Read more

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Newcastle electrician Mick Vincent had almost everything in life he wanted. Jesse Ossbourne, the bookshop owner he loved. A big house at Bar Beach he owned, and a 1936 Buick Roadmaster he cherished. The only thing missing in Mick's life was a pressure plate for his Buick. ... Read more

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Book in the Les Norton Mystery Series set in Australia.All Norton wanted was a quiet coffee and Sacher cake at the Hakoah Club in Bondi, and to be left alone to sort out his troubled love life. How he let notorious conman Kelvin kramer talk him up to Surfers Paradise for five days, Les will never know. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Racist BS Spoils The Fun
Les Norton, for American readers, is like someone out of a Carl Hiassen book, Australian-style. There's a fistfight or a sex scene on every third page, and in between this big ocker (think Paul Hogan times eleven) is flexing his muscles in front of the mirror, drinking cases of beer and bottles of wine a night, or working off the hangover by running miles and doing hundreds of pushups. He's a cartoon, and a funny one. However: the casual racism in this book, including numerous n-words, and endless jokes about poofs and what they might take up the ring (backside), is EXTREMELY TIRESOME. And the plot is too ridiculous for words: meatheads fistfighting in front of nightclubs is one thing, but Muslim terrorists, crates of super-weapons "that even our blokes don't have", and (yes, really) a shoulder-fired "low-level" nuclear weapon exploding in the sky over the outback? Gimme a break. The unreality, and the completely unnecessary racist BS, make this book, and most of Barrett's efforts, a real turnoff. Fun if you're white and have a low standard for fun, I guess. I really wanted this to be better.

A hard-boiled Australian romp
I didn't think I'd like this book as it is really far out of my genre, but I did enjoy it.I had been told that Australian detective stories were quite different, but worth pursuing.This one was.I understand that this falls somewhere in a series, and I had not met the Norton boys yet, but oh boy! they are something else! There's lots of Australian trivia, and lots of action, as well as blood and guts, but even with all that, the book was hilariously funny!Les Norton is the epitome of laconic, and his brother Murray is a one-man wrecking team. This book deals with diamond smuggling, dirty deeds, and a whole ton of people that live on the wrong side of the law (including Les Norton himself).Good fun. ... Read more

Product Description
What could Les Norton possibly be doing in Nimbin, the hippie capital of Australia? And how did the little green tree-frog in Les's backyard start it all? This novel, is a cracking new tale for this Christmas, and another unputdownable adventure from Australia's popular fiction king. ... Read more

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All it took was a summer's day and a flat tyre on his pushbike, and Les is out on bail and on the run from a gun-happy street gang. Safely esconced at the ultra-swish Opal Springs Health Resort till Eddie can sort things out back in Sydney. ... Read more

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Les Norton travels to a quiet little seaside town on the south coast of New South Wales and uncovers what seems to be some very unsavoury goings-on. Can Les solve the mystery of Mystery Bay? Or will trouble, once again, find him first? ... Read more

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This new novel, featuring his much-loved hero Les Norton, is a cracking story featuring the legendary witch of old Kings Cross, Rosaleen Norton, and a modern-day hunt through Victoria. ... Read more

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From the bestselling Australian author of "You Wouldn't Be Dead for Quids", this is the latest Les Norton adventure. ... Read more

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The big Aussie Rules player hit the roadway in a tangle of arms and legs. His head came up just in time to see Norton come leaping out of the tram and the Cuban heels of his R. M. Williams riding boots land on his chest, with fifteen stone of enraged Queenslander behind them. If the earlier onslaught of punches hadn't done Rick's internal organs much good, the final serve completely destroyed them. Her gave one hideous moan and passed out. Les Norton is back in town!There's no two ways about Les Norton - the carrot-topped country boy who works as a bouncer at Sydney's top illegal casino. He's tough and he's mean. He's got a granite jaw, fists like hams, and they say the last time he took a tenner from his wallet Henry Lawson blinked at the light.Lethal but loyal, he's always good for a laugh. In this, the third collection of Les Norton adventures, Les gets his boss off the hook. But not without the help of the boys from Binjiwanyawunya.Les then finds himself in a spot of bother in Long Bay Gaol then in a lot more bother on a St. Kilda tram in Melbourne...Robert G. Barrett's Les Norton stories have created a world as funny as Damon Runyon's. If you don't know Les Norton, you don't know Australian in the eighties. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents three Robert Barrett books together in one volume - two Les Norton novels, "Mud Crab Boogie" and "The Wind and the Monkey", plus Bob's thoughts on life from political correctness to the habits of endangered marsupials in "What Do you Reckon?". ... Read more

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Les Norton catches the extreme water polo semi-final on TV and is amazed to see that the man behind the game is his old mate Neville Nizegy Nixon. So when Neville calls and asks Les to drive the Murrumbidgee Mud Crabs to the final, Les takes him on. But things are never as simple as they appear. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Do the Mud Crab Boogie!
Extreme Water Polo is the water polo of the 90s. And when Les Norton catches the semi-final on TV he is amazed to see that the man behind Extreme Polo is his old mate, Neville `Nizegy' Nixon. So when Neville calls out of the blue and asks Les to drive the Murrumbidgee Mud Crabs up to Sydney for the final, Les takes him on.

But things are never as simple as they seem and Les finds himself drawn into an hilarious adventure involving the Mud Crabs.

Les Norton serves up fun!
I was introduced to the Les Norton series written by Robert G Barrett during an Australian visit on the recommendation of a Dymocks Bookstore employee.I think I have every book in the series (some of which came from Australia via Dymocks Bookstore - have online site!).
Les is a rolicking fun bloke who generally brawls, eats and sleeps his way through each adventure.
If you want a bit of Aussie lingo and lifestyle and some good yarns in the process then you won't be disappointed in any of the Les Norton books!Good on ya mate!

Boogie Funny
I had never read or heard of Robert Barrett before hearing Mud Crab Boogie on CD.It kept me smiling for miles.The plot unwinds in such a humerous way and there are so many twists that your attention is held all the way through the book.The narrator is so easy to listen.I thoroughly enjoyed the hours I spent with "Les Norton". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Just a Typical Ozzie Battler
2nd in the Les Norton Series. . .
read "The Real Thing" first if you can.
I'm too lazy to review every book in the series, and I don't think the quality is as good in the later books, but the first 4 books in the series rank emeritus in my book-shelf-of-made-me-laugh-out-loud.

For rock-solid,dead-on unblinking observation of the Oz milieu and its mores, for perfect sampling of the unique Oz-english patois, for memorable characterizations, for hilarious Tarentino-ish cartoon violence, these books have no equal.

Les Norton is a former rugby player, now a bouncer at an illegal casino in Kings Cross in Sydney. A simple Queensland country-boy somewhat lost in the sophisticated urbane Sydney, somehow his native common sense, red-haired temper, and fists like two hams keep him clear.

He fights, he loves, he gets involved in amazing, unbelievable "rorts" (scams), he stars in tv commercials with disastrous consequences.

Yes, Les Norton is Everyman, Candide, and Robin Hood all rolled-up into one 17-pound penguin (which is how he looks in a tuxedo at the casino every night).

Murder Mysteries/Crime Novels rely on the realistic ambience created by detailed accurate descriptions and these depictions of the night life down in the Cross will make you homesick even if you ain't never been there. ... Read more

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Les Norton in The Godson. From back cover: Barrett's latest Les Norton adventure moves at breakneck speed from the corridors of power in Canberra to the grimy tenements of Belfast, to climax in a nerve-shattering, blood-spattered shoot out on a survivalist fortress in the Tweed Valley. ... Read more

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Rampaging Bob Barrett provides his views on today's top issues - the environment, sex, politics, drugs, gay rights, the media, animal liberation, smoking, police, unemployment and even the pros and cons of the publishing game. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

not a Les story but...
an amazing book that digs into the psyche of a serial killer.With graphic details, chilling violence, and dark humour, I believe that this book is an undercover master piece.

brilliant
Davos little something, tells a brilliant story of revenge Sydney style.It leaves nothing to the imagination and shows how Robert G Barrett can still keep you inthuralled.Waiting impatiently for his latest release.

Revenge of gay murder
This is not Bob Barrets best novel, however if you like revenge stories this one is a bloody ripper! It is set in the underworld of Sydney and the Aussie slang is laid on pretty heavy, so if you don't understand what it means to walk into a pub and ask for a frogs eye with dead horse then it may be too intellectual for all you septic tanks. Davo is a boofhead butcher whose gay hair dresser mate is bash to death in front of him, naturally his hate for the killer(s) festers inside and he turns into a lean mean killing machine. Two detectives who dealt with the gay murder start to suspect Davo for a lot of Skin Head murders because thats who killed the gay man. Murder and suspence aside check out Robert G Barrets other books for great Aussie humour. I'll just throw another shrimp on the barbie and what for all of your replies. Chris Gentle (gobruns@om.com.au) ... Read more

Product Description
Goodoo Goodoo Robert G Barrett RRP: $14.95 ISBN: 0732267374 Les Norton is back! This time he's off to Far North Queensland. What should have been a quick gig on a radio station followed by a white-water rafting holiday in North Queensland becomes a four-wheel drive trip to Cooktown with Norton looking for two missing SCUBA divers. The army, the air force and half the Queensland water police couldn't find Jade Biscayne and Horden Genting. What chance does Les have? Along the way Les finds the Rainbow Princess, out chasing UFOs and predicting the future. He also finds man-eating crocodiles, heat and humidity, and everywhere he goes ratbags have it in for him. Then, in a place of indescribable beauty, Norton uncovers unimaginable terror... ... Read more