Winner of the 2001 Ned Kelly Award for Australian crime writing.

He was closing in on me. I could hear his running foot-steps over the sound of my heart, of the blood in my ears, of my panting. The Children's playground ahead, beyond that the road gleaming wetly in the streetlight, the school, a light on in the school, a cleaner at work...If I could reach the road. Just reach the road. Jack Irish - lawyer, gambler and people-finder - is hunting down the villains who hijacked the winnings from his latest betting coup when he is hired by a mystery client to find missing barman Robbie Colbourne. But Robbie turns up dead of a drug overdose.