Robert G. BarrettBesprekingen

Bloody funny read. Very Australian turns of phrase. The TV series is very close to the books.½

El electricista Mick Vincent tenía casi todo lo que siempre había querido tener en la vida. Lo único que le faltaba para ser feliz era un plato de presión del embrague para su Buick Roadmaster de 1936. A través de una extraña anciana, Mick encuentra la codiciada pieza. Y también el diario de Nikola Tesla, un reputado genio de la electricidad con fama de ser más inteligente que el propio Einstein. Pero ¿qué hacía Tesla en la deprimida Nueva Gales del Sur en 1925? El Pentágono lo sabe, y Mick y su novia Jesse lo quieren averiguar: empieza la competición para dar con el legado de Tesla. Las pistas conducen a una remota mina de cobre y a un viejo caballo de carreras llamado Lágrimas de Fuego.

When Robert G. Barrett created Les Norton, he presumably thought that Norton would be considered a likeable character. Norton is not. Indeed, he has few, if any, likeable characteristics. Add the fact that Barrett wasn't the greatest writer around, means that And De Fun Don't Done is a difficult book to like or even finish.

And De Fun Don't Done has Norton winning free flights to the US but after getting sick of Florida, heads to Jamaica and meets up with Rastafarians and gets into his usual tangles, including meeting a lot of women who for some inexplicable reason find Norton handsome. Please avoid reading this.

The first Les Norton book is one of the better in the series; not quite as misogynistic as later entries and the jokes and tropes are still relatively fresh here, although You wouldn't be dead for quids shows its age as a child of 1980s Sydney.

Norton, a rugby league player from country Queensland, comes to the big smoke of Sydney to play for South Sydney, gets punted from said club for punching out an official, and finds himself a gig as a bouncer at an illegal casino in Kings Cross. Here he gets up to all sorts of occasionally humorous shenanigans.

An early collection of Les Norton stories, The Real Thing is, like all the other entries in the Les Norton series, not very good. The fact that it is at least better than some of the later books in the series is faint praise indeed.

If you've read other Les Norton books you know what you're getting here; Les beats up some dickheads, is somehow attractive to women and his dodgy plans somehow work.½

Another round of misogynistic drivel from Les Norton. This time round Les Norton travels to the Gold Coast and meets a model with very large breasts (this is what passes for plot in Les Norton books). Hijinks of a not particularly interesting kind ensue.½

This entry in the seemingly interminable Les Norton series has Norton befriend a member of the British aristocracy, and after a number of slightly interesting adventures, including very non-plausibly finding an extremely valuable painting, Norton gives the highest accolade an Australian can give an Englishman, by declaring the Brit "not a bad bloke, for a Pom."

Oddly, for what is essentially a feel good book, "The Godson" ends in a rather macabre way that manages to tie in the Northern Ireland troubles.

Les Norton finds himself at a health spa near Cessnock and upon arrival discovers the body of a guest. He casually tries to work out whether foul play was involved and who the culprit might be.

A pretty slow-paced plot, however enough going on to keep you reading. Full of Aussie sayings & one-liners that may leave non-Aussie speakers scratching their heads.

I found some of the language a bit crass and unnecessary, but an otherwise enjoyable light read.

I can't believe that two people gave "The Wind and the Monkey" four stars. This was awful. The Les Norton series of books was a good money spinner for Barrett and closely followed the trope of Big Meat Head somehow gets the girl while beating some bloke up.

"The Wind and the Monkey" has Norton turning up in Port Macquarie, having sex with a variety of women, who all seem bafflingly attracted to him, getting into all sorts of not overly interesting scrapes and killing the odd person. Barrett seems to be going through the paces here and "The Wind and the Monkey" should be avoided at all costs.

great for what it is - pulp that gives one a break on the train journey. very anti-hero hero with a laconic australian feel.

If you like your books sexist, full of poor stereotypes and not particularly interesting, then "The boys from Binjiwunyawunya" is for you.

There are three stories included here, although the story on the Binjiwunyawunya lads takes up most of the book. The plot involves the protagonist Les Norton deciding to bump off his boss's enemy by engaging some Aboriginal friends of his to "point the bone" at the enemy. Anyone with even a rudimentry knowledge of Australian Aboriginal culture would know that Aboriginal people with the culture and standing to be a Kurdaitcha man (or similar), would not be using their power to knock off some bloke on the say so of a whitefella. I realise this is fiction but it's poor fiction and the story could have been much better if Barrett had performed at least some research on the matter.

Beyond this, the plot meanders as it allows Norton to score with ladies and the bone pointing to reach it conclusion.

The other two short stories that make up this book are even less interesting.½

Robert Barrett is best known for his series of Les Norton novels but this is a stand alone work about a butcher who gets beaten up by a gang and goes a bit over the top revenging himself against them.

Like all Barrett books, "Davo's little something" was no chance of winning any literature awards, what with its poor writing, cliches by the truck load and minimal character development. Still, what Davos does in retribution to one of the gang remains with me to this day, usually in nightmares.

Action thriller set in Sydney in the early eighties. Detectives try to solve a series of brutal murders of members of a skinhead gang. They are up against the crazy Davo seeking revenge for his mate's gruesome death.

Robert Barrett is a well-known Australian crime writer. His stories are usually a rollicking good read, in the old fashioned hard-boiled detective mould. This one sold well when it was released.
And this one was exactly as advertised - a bit 'blokey' for my liking, with too much emphasis on the 'hard-boiled, macho' look. But nonetheless well written with some good character development and some interesting action. The descriptions of the Port Macquarie area were spot on - it is one of the nicest areas in Australia. The accidental method of disposal of the bad guys was a nice touch, as was the discovery of WWII relics after the earth tremor.