Running on Empty: Watching the 2007 Election

by Shane Maloney

Put a cliff-hanger election together with the creator of the bestselling Murray Whealan crime novels and you have the makings of a classic account of the sharp end of the Australian electoral cycle. This year's federal election campaign will be closely fought and keenly watched, not least by Shane Maloney, author of six crime novels set amid the machinations of inner-Melbourne Labor Party politics. Glued to the television, one ear on the radio, leafing through the morning papers, Shane Maloney will watch the election unfold as most of us see it - via the media. The result - published two weeks after the election - will be a funny and revealing view of the election, as well as a unique insight into how the media covers Australian politics.

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

About the author

Shane Maloney (born 1953) is an Australian novelist, based in Melbourne, best known for his crime fiction novels. He is a graduate of the Australian National University.

Maloney has written non-fiction and journalistic essays, but is best known for his six crime fiction novels - in the "hard-boiled" sub-genre - featuring Murray Whelan, a Labour party functionary working for a Victorian state political member, who finds himself investigating crimes linked to his job. The series (1994 - 2007) is popular for its wit and its portrayal of Melbourne's political and social culture. The novels are set slightly earlier than written, during the late 1980s when Labour was in power at both a federal and state level. The first two novels, "Stiff" and "The Brush-Off", were adapted into TV movies starring David Wenham in 2004.

"The Brush-Off" won the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction in 1997. In 2009, Maloney received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers Association of Australia.