Setting off at a frantic pace and crammed with the biting commentary of special agent Alby Murdoch, D-E-D Dead! is a completely absorbing spy thriller that takes us from Melbourne to Bali before delivering an unforgettable ending in Australia’s Outback. Author Geoffrey McGeachin lures you in with an easy style and a likable protagonist before unleashing all manner of violence and mayhem on him.

Alby Murdoch is a sharp-tongued Australian special agent who initially appears to be a bumbling dolt riding his luck in the game. But this belies a highly-trained professional with quite a few hidden talents, talents that are about to become very necessary for his continued survival. He works for the highly secret Directorate for Extra-territorial Defence (D-E-D). Hiding behind a front photography company named Worldpix, a legitimate profit-making company by the way, it is Alby and his fellow agents jobs to gather sensitive information to keep the Australian government informed of what's going on outside its shores.

Alby has been working on a routine assignment to update their records on a US facility based in Australia with his partner, Harry. It’s such a mundane job that he blows it off onto Harry and is reassigned on another job that will take him to Hong Kong. The plane he is travelling on is unexpectedly diverted to Sydney where a passenger is asked to leave the plane. That person happens to be Alby and he is taken to a Double Bay coffee bar where he is greeted with the disturbing scene of his partner’s bullet-riddled body.

Barely recovering from this sight, he receives word that his luggage had exploded on the tarmac at Sydney Airport soon after it was taken from the plane. First his partner and then an attempt on him. What had he and his partner been working on that would prompt such drastic action?

Still mulling over these thoughts, he barely escapes another attempt on his life, this time a gunman. Saving his life and joining him in his flight is Grace Goodluck, an extremely talented and dangerous woman with whom Alby is fortunate to be allied.

Grace and Alby go on the run with a quarter million dollar contract hanging over Alby’s head – dead or alive. Someone out there has decided that Alby knows too much and must be silenced, but the problem is, Alby has no idea what it is he’s supposed to know. So, being possessed with endless supplies of determination and a talent for gathering intelligence he sets a plan in motion that, all going well, would get him out of the line of fire and then back to Australia in one piece and to the bottom of the mystery that is endangering his life.

This is a fast and furiously paced book in which the action rarely ceases. Alby is a seasoned veteran in the spy game and consequently has contacts all around the world. The importance of this is that no matter where he goes, particularly when the scene changes to Bali, he has the luxury of contacts who simply give him what he needs without having to break stride to set things up all over again.

The only time we pause to take breath is in Bali with an almost reverent appreciation of the beauty of the Bali landscape as well as the customs and traditions of its people. Through Alby, McGeachin provides a thoroughly fascinating commentary on a diverse and beautiful place, showing it off to its fullest advantage. But then, just as quickly we are thrown into the starkly contrasting landscape of the killer Australian Outback.

Seething just beneath the surface of this mad dash to safety is a well-constructed story that is a perplexing mix of dirty deals, betrayal constant danger. The fact that Alby and Grace can’t work out why they are being chased or who it is that is doing the chasing add to its desperate nature with guaranteed surprises at every turn.

Readers who have already enjoyed McGeachin’s first book, the intriguingly titled Fat, Fifty & F***ed, will no doubt recognise Martin and Faith, the couple Alby and Grace bump into while on the run in Bali. Their cameo appearance in the story provides an amusing little interlude regardless whether you have read the first book or not. As a matter of fact, they are such a fascinating couple I would expect you to be compelled to seek out a couple of Fat, Fifty & F***ed to enjoy their full story.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable spy thriller that combines robust and likable characters with thoughtful depictions of the landscape in which it is set. The main characters are well-drawn and complement each other nicely and the premise that holds the story together is wild, yet entirely believable. D-E-D Dead! is one of those books that grab you from page one and doesn’t let go until you’ve reached the shockingly satisfying end.


Recommended: Yes