In factional politics, there are two kinds of kills – the kind done for a meaningful purpose and the thrill kill. The attempt to unseat John Brumby as leader after only seven months in the job was purely a thrill kill: exhilarating and pointless.
Catch and Kill is a sweeping tour-de-force about political power, written from the inside. It looks at the secrets, lies and truths of four friends - Steve Bracks, John Brumby, John Thwaites, Rob Hulls - and what they did with power. How they beat the factions to get into parliament. How they won government. How they used the power of their state government to attempt to hijack Canberra’s domestic reform agenda from the Howard and Rudd governments. With a sleek seductive hand Joel Deane reveals the secret world of the mythmakers and the mongrels, the shellbacks and the sacrificial lambs. This is political noir at its stellar best - betrayals, allegations, parlays, and shanghais - steeped in the dark dirty language of the inner political sanctum.
