The Rules Of Backyard Cricket - Softcover

"Readers who have fallen in love with Australian mysteries, thrillers and crime novels have a whole world to discover with fantastic authors bringing the southern hemisphere to life... As in the UK, cricket is a national passion in Australia and Jock Serong delves into the murky world of professional sportsmen in his crime novel, The Rules of Backyard Cricket." -- Daily Mail

"The Rules of Backyard Cricket got the thumbs up from everyone." - Favourite Fiction for 2016, Avenue Bookstore

"There are moments of sheer delight in the boyhood sequences, where sibling rivalry is painted with unerring accuracy by Jock Serong." - Shots

"Blow me down if I didn t hang on every word." - Clare Wright, Best Books of 2016, Australian

"One of the great novels written about sport...Delicious. It s the top read of the summer." - Stuff.co.nz

"The best new novel I've read this year." --Crime Time

"A deeply interesting novel about sibling rivalry, family, masculinity, and the game of cricket... Serong is a talented storyteller, and he brings this unusual world to life." - Booklist

"Jock Serongapos;s gripping narrative is a compassionate exploration of masculinity and humanity as he chillingly questions whether we truly know those who are closest to us." - Reading

"Jock Serong returns with this bitterly, beautifully nostalgic look at a seventies childhood gone awry."--Reading

"The writing is sharp and the flawed characters compelling...Serong bowls with a wry eye." - Otago Daily Times

"Everything in The Rules of Backyard Cricket is brilliant... nearly as good as [a] 5 nil whitewash, home series defeat of the old enemy." - Aust Crime Fiction

"[A] gripping suspense novel tackling the macho world of sport, toxic masculinity and out-of-control celebrity." - Executive Style

"Fans of Serongapos;s work will not be disappointed; readers new to his work will want to seek out his first novel, Quota. This is literary crime at its best. Both funny and tragic, this is a brilliant read." --BookMooch

"A gripping tale of sibling rivalry as two Aussie brothers battle in cricket and in life." - New Zealand Listener

"Serong is an elegant writer who can move effortlessly from laugh out-loud funny to elegiac to downright touching. The Rules of Backyard Cricket is an unusual crime novel, but one of the best Iapos;ve read this year." - Crime Review

"This novel is an absolute winner...Serong pulls off what I consider an Australian crime writerapos;s most sought-after Quinella (to use a metaphor from another sport): a literary crime novel that qualifies as genuine Australian noir." --Angela Savage, Ned Kelly Award-winning author of The Half Child

*Nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original*

*Longlished for CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger*
Darren Keefe is in the boot of a car. The gag, the cable ties, the bullet hole in his knee - everything points towards a shallow grave. His story, now unrolling beneath him, starts with a boy wrestling his brother in a suburban backyard - all the fury in his small body poured into the rules of a made-up game. A kid with a pure talent that makes him a sporting star. A young man gorging himself on fame, seasoned with all the usual spices. A bloke who gets away with things, and just keeps getting. Until now...