John; Rule Silvester, Andrew

On a personal level, I love this book. On a reviewer level, I think the book needs to be updated and cleaned up a little. I’ll explain.

The gangland wars that took place in Melbourne, Australia between 1994-2004 were in a sense, movements by the next crew to take over and run the Melbourne underworld. This underbelly has a fascinating history and provides some of the background as to the how’s and why’s events unfolded as they did.

The Carlton Crew, who had taken over from the Richmond show more Crew, were the controlling force in Melbourne throughout the 1980’s. But all underworld stories in Melbourne start with the Painters and Dockers union and it is worth doing a little background because it is fascinating.

This book covers the demise of the Carlton Crew and the rise of “The New Boys”. The book is cobbled together from what was then current crime stories being published in local papers. In some cases, the names have been left out as court cases were still being heard when the book was written.

In that sense, it seems a bit pulpy and also unevenly written. The book also changes stylistically at one point and seems like there was some last minute add-ons to merely fill the book. There is more than enough information to write volumes on the goings on in Melbourne’s underworld so I think the book was pushed out quickly.

Time now then to go back and finesse the book putting in facts, names and other material that had to be left out at first print. If you want to treat yourself to the dramatized stories that the book tells, checkout the Australian series “Underbelly”. There are several seasons which are online or I found on Netflix. It will make the book more sensible. However, it is still great crime stuff that hasn’t been over told in multiple books….yet. show less

I am a huge fan of the Underbelly TV series and my wife and I have watched all four shows shown here in NZ, and we did attempt to watch the Kiwi-made one based on Mr Asia, but nope, rubbish when compared to the flashy and professional hits out of Aussie.

My favourite one was based on the Gangland Wars in Melbourne, the show focussing mostly on the Morans and Carl Williams, and this is the book on which the show was based. It was originally taken off the air in Aussie, (and subsequently show more delayed here) due to pending court action in Melbourne so didn't actually show until some months later in both countries.

This book is a great read, once you get used to the style it is written in - it tends to cover the same ground a lot as it goes into each chapter - and considering the show was viewed here well over 18mths ago it is easy to relate incidents and characters based on what was seen. Each chapter sort of focuses on a main 'player' in the Gangland Wars; Jason, Mark, and Lewis Moran, their nemesis Carl Williams, and those caught up in the cross-fire such as Mick Gatto, Andrew Veniamen, Nik Radev and others.

Short, brutal, and to the point, this book is a quick companion to any budding Mafioso without a brain in his head, and while the photo galleries are a little odd (side by side shots of the gangsters and their on-screen actors?? Really? I wanted to see crime shots and such) it is too hard to put down. show less

This was an eye-opener for me. The thought that all of this blatent lawlessness was going on right under the police's nose is horrific. It's interesting, however, that this book was written by two authors, as it reads as if they each wrote parts of the book and didn't tell each other. It's a mite disjointed and repetitive and I feel that it would have benefited from a bit of judicious editing.

awesome series