Suburban Noir: Crime and Mishap in the 1950s and 1960s Sydney

Nothing in the post-war decades reveals the underbelly of Australian life the way police records do.

Small time heists. Failed robberies. Runs of bad luck. Payback. Love gone wrong. Drink, drugs and late-night assignations. Cops doing their job well. And badly. Plausible lies, unlikely truths. Murder and misadventure. In Suburban Noir Peter Doyle - author of City of Shadows and Crooks Like Us - explores the everyday crime and catastrophe that went on in the fibro and brick veneers, the backyards, bedrooms, vacant lots and pokie palaces of 1950s and 1960s suburbia.

Extensive research into forensic archives, public records and the private papers of the late Brian Doyle (1960s detective, later assistant commissioner of police, and Peter Doyle’s uncle) also reveals important new information about two of the most famous crimes in Australian history - the Kingsgrove Slasher case and the Graeme Thorne kidnap-murder.

’A fabulous insight into violent crimes of the 1950s and 1960s through the eyes of one of Australia’s then top cops, Brian Doyle, as interpreted and related by his nephew, true-crime writer, curator and crime aficionado, Peter Doyle. Often accompanied by great photos and drawings, each story is a gem that highlights the differences in criminal activity and police investigations in those days. Well researched and eminently readable.’ - Mark Tedeschi

Peter Doyle is a novelist and non-fiction writer. He has curated major exhibitions on pulp publishing and forensic material cultures. His books include City of Shadows, 2005 and Crooks Like Us, 2009, and the novel The Big Whatever, 2015. He is the recipient of two Ned Kelly Awards for his fiction, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an Honorary Associate Professor of Media at Macquarie University, Sydney