Robert G. Barrett's latest Les Norton adventure is action, lᠭour, and intrigue with a diabolical twist, proving once again why Barrett is called the king of Australian popular fiction. If it wasn't for a letter lost in the system for decades landing on his lap, Les would never have known he wasn't the only Norton to gain notoriety thanks to Kings Cross. There was another - even worse than him: devil-worshipping artist and occultist Rosa-Marie Norton, the Witch of Kings Cross. Rosa was so bad the police arrested her for lewd behaviour and obscenity, and the customs department burnt her paintings - paintings now worth thousands of dollars. Yet according to the lost letter, a bundle of her paintings had been secreted at an old church in Victoria. By sheer coincidence, Les is asked to help with a hit in Melbourne on a shonky art dealer named ˡttelindsey. After the hit, Les decides to take a trip down the Great Ocean Road, call in to the Church of the Blessed Madonna, and...

Norton needed a holiday–anywhere–as long as it was out of Bondi. Price was only too willing to oblige–Les could have his house at Terrigal. All he had to do was look after George Brennan's nephew for a week while he was there. Sounded okay to Norton, and it was better than spending his own money.Jimmy Rosewater was young, cool and the original brown-eyed handsome man. He loved good wine, going to restaurants, going line-dancing, and the ladies loved him. This suited Les nicely. But, Jimmy was also supposed to be in jail. Before he knows it, Norton is fighting off the usual yobbos looking for trouble, sex-crazed feral aunties and getting shot at by feral bikies. That was during the quieter moments...and all the time Les has a feeling Jimmy's up to something...

the ultimate new novel from Australia's king of popular fiction - A brief history of World War III Aussie Vietnam veteran Ron Milne is on a good thing growing Indian hemp on the tiny Micronesian island of Lan Laroi. Besides being president, the natives treat him as a god. to the American DEA he is a dangerous criminal. US President Clifford J. Clooney decides to invade. Onto this island of sun, surf, beautiful women and mysterious ruins arrives Bondi surf journalist Brian Bradshaw. Brian came to find a story, then return home to write it. He didn't expect to get involved in something almost impossible to comprehend, fall in love and get taken literally for the ride of his life.

When Les Norton moved into his old flame Side Valve Susie's flat in Bondi for a few days while she was out of town, everything should have been a piece of cake–except Price and Eddie had other ideas. Waverley Council were demolishing Bondi baths and there were two bodies buried under the handball court. The man to get them out? Major Garrick Lewis, aka The Gecko.With Norton for company, The Gecko literally took Bondi in his stride; and everything that went with it–Mossad hit squads, the KGB, ASIO, yobbo builders looking for trouble, loose women looking for action. For once, Les was flat out keeping up.

Les is back and on the detox ... All it took was a summer's day and a flat tyre on his push-bike, and Les is out on bail and on the run from a gun-happy street gang intent on a drive-by. So, with Warren's help, Les Norton defendant, becomes Len Gordon film director, safely ensconced at the ultra-swish Opal Springs Health Resort till Eddie can sort things out back in Sydney. Unfortunately, the first thing Les finds on arrival is motivational guru Alexander Holden dead at the front gate. Then, before you can say 'soya beans with tahini and lime dressing', the cops arrive and Les is up to his neck in a land of a thousand acronyms, fighting off steroid-happy body builders, sex-crazed socialites, violent greyhound owners - and, worst of all, caffeine withdrawals - while at the same time matching wits with the four acrimonious writers-in-residence. Was Alexander Holden murdered? Or was it an accident? Find out in the gripping climax and food fight when all is revealed - in the...

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 boy from Binjiwunyawunya.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.

An amusing, often outrageous, collection of the best columns Robert G.Barrett wrote for People magazine, focusing on Australian life and its heroes and villains.Together these columns represent an often funny, always entertaining and uniquely telling assessment of modern-day Australia.

Okay, so it looks like the Kelly Club is finally closing down–it had to happen sooner or later. And it isn't as if Les Norton will starve. He has money snookered away, he owns his house, and his blue-chip investment–a block of flats in Randwick–must be worth a fortune by now. Except that the place is falling down, the council is reclaiming the land, there's been a murder in Flat 5, and the tenants are the biggest bunch of misfits since the Manson family. And that's just the good news, because the longer Les owns the Blue Seas Apartments, the more money he loses.This time Les Norton's really up against it. But whilst he's trying to solve his financial problems, he still has time to fight hate-crazed roadies, sort out a drug deal after fighting a gang of bikies, help a feminist Balmain writer with some research she won't forget in a hurry, and get involved with Franulka, super-sexy lead singer of an all-girl rock band, the Heathen Harlots. And with the help of...

′Forget the bloody Da Vinci Code, Mick. We′ve got to crack the Tesla Legacy. If we don′t, we′re both dead.′ Newcastle electrician Mick Vincent had almost everything in life he wanted. Jesse Osbourne, the Stockton bookshop owner he loved. A big house at Bar Beach. Not to mention a 1936 Buick Roadmaster ... in fact, the only thing Mick was missing was a pressure plate for his cherished car. Through a strange old lady, Mick finds his pressure plate. He also finds a diary belonging to Nikola Tesla, the electronics genius reputed to be smarter than Einstein. But just what did Tesla build in outback New South Wales in 1925? The Pentagon knows, and the race is on to be the first to find the Tesla Legacy. Mick and Jesse′s only clues are a lost mountain of copper ore and an old racehorse called Tears of Fire. Robert G. Barrett′s novel The Tesla Legacy, set in Newcastle, Muswellbrook, Scone and mysterious...

You Wouldn't Be Dead For Quids is a series of adventures involving Les Norton, a big red-headed country boy from Queensland who is forced to move on the big smoke when things get a little hot for him in his hometown.Working as a bouncer at an illegal casino up at the Cross, Les gets to meet some fascinating characters who make up the seamier side of one of the most exciting cities in the world–gamblers, conmen, bookies, bouncers, hookers and hitmen, who ply their respective trades from the golden sands of Bondi to the tainted gutters of King's Cross. . . usually on the wrong side of the law.As raw as a greyhound's dinner, Les is nevertheless a top bloke–fond of a drink, loves a laugh and he's handy with his fists. And, just quietly, he's a bit of a ladies man too. . . Les Norton is undoubtedly an Australian cult figure.

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF LES NORTON! This book was first published in 1996 under the title RIDER ON THE STORM AND OTHER BITS AND BARRETT. It was a one-off book that got under the radar and a lot of Robert G. Barrett′s readers weren′t aware of it. Fifteen years later, to mark the 25th anniversary of the first Les Norton novel, this collection is being republished. It′s the original stories re-edited, as well as some classic articles and columns on a range of subjects such as publishing, fame, dates and the dole. Plus two brand new Les Norton short stories and a feature article, ′Bowling for Bukowski′, which is about the last three years of turmoil in the author′s life. As well as showing his usual sense of humour and astute observations, Robert G. Barrett also believes that he and a friend have come across a treatment for cancer that actually works! Fiction or non-fiction, STILL RIDING ON THE...

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. Set in Bondi and Terrigal, Robert G....

It isn't every day you help murder someone with poison in an illegal casino, whisk his body halfway across town in a Rolls Royce, after robbing him, then bury his body in tonnes of concrete underneath an international airport–all more or less with the co-operation of two detectives. Les Norton is back in town!Trouble seems to follow Les like a blue heeler after a mob of sheep. Maybe it's his job–being a bouncer at the infamous and illegal Kelly Club in Kings Cross isn't exactly the stuff a quiet life is made of. Maybe it's his friends–like Price Galese, the urbane and well-connected owner of the Kelly Club, or Eddie Salita, the hitman who learned to kill in Vietnam, or Reg Campbell, struggling artist and dope dealer. But then again, maybe Les is just unlucky...

Les Norton is back - and having an overdose Arranging the hit on Fabio was off tap, and Les knew it. And when you get Sydney′s deadliest killer to do the hit, there′s always a quid pro quo. So Les is off to Nimbin in NSW to help an old army mate of Eddie Salita′s open a bar, the Double L. Ranch. Which suited Les since he had to take his friend Tony Nathan the surf photographer to the waxhead wedding of the year at Blueys Beach, and it was on the way. The waxhead wedding of the year turned into the ethnic brawl of the decade. However, Les found comfort in the arms of Janet the Gannet from the Forbidden Planet. In Nimbin, Les found himself working as a DJ for a nutter with a nightclub where dancing was prohibited. He also found racial tension, the Russian Spetsnaz and Norwegian backpackers. Add a drug overdose and, before Les knew it, he found himself in a firefight with a bunch of inbreds wanting to kill the bar owner. A...

They don't call him Lucky Les for nothing. A ticket in a raffle and Norton was off to see to US of A–Siestasota, Florida, where it turned out hot, red hot, and it wasn't just the weather.Night club brawls, mafia hitmen, too many girls called Lori, gun crazed Americans and the whole lot washed along in a sea of margaritas. Even for Les Norton it was just too hot to handle. So it was off to 'greener' pastures–the Caribbean–for reggae, rum and Rastafarians, not to mention Sultry Delta, sweet-lipped Esme, and Millwood Downie, schoolteacher, historian and would-be stand-up comic, who helps Les trace his family tree and possibly uncover the biggest earn ever.The world is finally Norton's oyster. All he has to do is get the shell open.