‘Jesus Christ. I found one.‘ These words, blurted over the phone to Constable Snowy Lane, preoccupied with a ham sandwich and the odds of getting a game with the East Fremantle league side on Saturday, signal the beginning of a series of events which are to shake Perth to its foundations.

It is 1979, and Perth is jumping with pub bands and overnight millionaires. ‘Mr Gruesome’ has taken another victim, and Perth is riveted by the dark bloom that spreads across the City of Light.

Snowy Lane starts out as a fresh-faced young cop and fringe footy player. Ten years on, he’s been through the mill, and is now working as a private detective. In the course of a decade he finds himself inextricably linked with Mr Gruesome, and the human and political power plays that unfold against the excess and corruption of the 1980s.