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Ghostlines
Philip Trudeau, a once-respected investigative journalist, has stepped on the wrong toes in this cleverly plotted and tightly structured psychological thriller. With his health and personal life deteriorating, Philip is consigned to a suburban newspaper job where he writes trivial filler to be slotted in among the real estate and restaurant advertisements. When he’s sent to cover what appears to be a tragic yet routine death at a level crossing, he is suddenly plunged into a world of political intrigue, business corruption, art theft, and betrayal. Delving deeply into the Australian art world of the 1950s and today, this multilayered mystery packs a strong narrative punch and contains a convincing central character whose own personal story is every bit as compelling as the mystery he inhabits.
288 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2008
3 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Nick Gadd
5 books8 followersNick Gadd's first novel Ghostlines won a Victorian Premier's Literary Award and a Ned Kelly Award. His second, Death of a Typographer, was shortlisted for a Ned Kelly Award in 2020 and was described as "clever, stylish and very funny" (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald). His latest book, a work of non-fiction, is Melbourne Circle: Walking, Memory and Loss. His essays have been published in Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, and Griffith Review among others. He lives in the western suburbs of Melbourne and his interests include psychogeography, typography and urban wandering.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 16, 2024
The most rewarding types of books are often the ones you start, knowing very little about, only to be very pleasantly surprised by the totality in which you are engaged by the story. Ghostlines is that kind of book and Australian author Nick Gadd has created a fascinating thriller in this debut novel.
Phillip Trudeau is a man filled with self-loathing. He is a former Walkley Award winning journalist now in disgrace working the local interest beat at a suburban newspaper. His nights are whiskey soaked as he sits in the dark listening to Coltrane wondering how things could have gone so badly wrong.
He attends the scene of a level-crossing accident involving a boy on a bicycle, a horrific accident but Phillip is so used to such scenes that he simply goes through the motions in order to submit the story. He gets enough to write a bare bones story involving the usual kind of "How do you feel?" type of questions.
Just as he is preparing to call it a night his attention is taken by someone at the scene. A woman who appears deeply distraught by the boy's death, although to his knowledge she is not related to or connected to him. He decides to wander over to question her. When his quiet questions finally get through to her, her reaction is extreme and she suddenly flees. It's an unusual enough reaction to send his almost-forgotten investigative instincts into action.
Rather than let the story sit he begins digging and finds himself crossing paths with an art dealer who makes it clear that his attention is not welcome. Some people don't like reporters but very few will ring the head of the corporation to warn off their journalists. Phillip senses he's onto a story that's bigger than the tragic accident that started it.
Ghostlines is the debut novel by Nick Gadd. It is richly ethereal, which in one respect the title suggests it will be. It is also dense with raw emotion and fronted by a protagonist who has suffered some harsh setbacks in his life brought on by a determination that was too strong for his own good. Just as the investigation appears to be bearing some real fruit his editor warns him off the story, but the stubborn streak that got him into trouble years before surfaces and drives him on to break the rules, risking his job and his health.
A lonely old man with a house that is overflowing with worthless junk and an idea that his life is worthy of documenting in a memoir had hired Phillip years before to write his biography. It was a job that Phillip never finished - one of many. Now, in an eerie circular coincidence the same man has a connection to the tragic railway crossing accident that has now captured his attention.
The link is an art group from the 1950s, The Maribyrnong Group and the work of one of its members who later went on to produce some works of distinction and acclaim. Phillip's digging, though, has him stepping on the toes of the rich and powerful and ruthless.
I found this to be a powerful novel evoking strong feelings of sympathy for Trudeau even while it is plainly obvious that at times he can be his own worst enemy. On more than one occasion I found myself becoming impatient with him when he chose to confront people he knew to be dangerous armed only with the threat of revealing what he suspected in his paper. When you lead with your chin you should expect to get knocked out and, at times, the results were entirely predictable.
However, this only served to reinforce the strength of belief in what drove Trudeau forward, a quality that few appreciated least of all, I suspect, himself. This is a story that takes some surprising directions while remaining true to the solid theme of the forthright defender of justice duking it out with opponents capable of crushing him completely.
Nick Gadd earned the 2007 Victorian Premiers Literary Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript with Ghostlines. The haunting notes of Coltrane are well suited to the background mood of the story. There is a true desperation in Trudeau as he finds himself touched in ways that he was unprepared for. He is haunted by artists from the past and a woman from the present. This is a memorable novel, rich of character and powerful of voice.
Phillip Trudeau is a man filled with self-loathing. He is a former Walkley Award winning journalist now in disgrace working the local interest beat at a suburban newspaper. His nights are whiskey soaked as he sits in the dark listening to Coltrane wondering how things could have gone so badly wrong.
He attends the scene of a level-crossing accident involving a boy on a bicycle, a horrific accident but Phillip is so used to such scenes that he simply goes through the motions in order to submit the story. He gets enough to write a bare bones story involving the usual kind of "How do you feel?" type of questions.
Just as he is preparing to call it a night his attention is taken by someone at the scene. A woman who appears deeply distraught by the boy's death, although to his knowledge she is not related to or connected to him. He decides to wander over to question her. When his quiet questions finally get through to her, her reaction is extreme and she suddenly flees. It's an unusual enough reaction to send his almost-forgotten investigative instincts into action.
Rather than let the story sit he begins digging and finds himself crossing paths with an art dealer who makes it clear that his attention is not welcome. Some people don't like reporters but very few will ring the head of the corporation to warn off their journalists. Phillip senses he's onto a story that's bigger than the tragic accident that started it.
Ghostlines is the debut novel by Nick Gadd. It is richly ethereal, which in one respect the title suggests it will be. It is also dense with raw emotion and fronted by a protagonist who has suffered some harsh setbacks in his life brought on by a determination that was too strong for his own good. Just as the investigation appears to be bearing some real fruit his editor warns him off the story, but the stubborn streak that got him into trouble years before surfaces and drives him on to break the rules, risking his job and his health.
A lonely old man with a house that is overflowing with worthless junk and an idea that his life is worthy of documenting in a memoir had hired Phillip years before to write his biography. It was a job that Phillip never finished - one of many. Now, in an eerie circular coincidence the same man has a connection to the tragic railway crossing accident that has now captured his attention.
The link is an art group from the 1950s, The Maribyrnong Group and the work of one of its members who later went on to produce some works of distinction and acclaim. Phillip's digging, though, has him stepping on the toes of the rich and powerful and ruthless.
I found this to be a powerful novel evoking strong feelings of sympathy for Trudeau even while it is plainly obvious that at times he can be his own worst enemy. On more than one occasion I found myself becoming impatient with him when he chose to confront people he knew to be dangerous armed only with the threat of revealing what he suspected in his paper. When you lead with your chin you should expect to get knocked out and, at times, the results were entirely predictable.
However, this only served to reinforce the strength of belief in what drove Trudeau forward, a quality that few appreciated least of all, I suspect, himself. This is a story that takes some surprising directions while remaining true to the solid theme of the forthright defender of justice duking it out with opponents capable of crushing him completely.
Nick Gadd earned the 2007 Victorian Premiers Literary Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript with Ghostlines. The haunting notes of Coltrane are well suited to the background mood of the story. There is a true desperation in Trudeau as he finds himself touched in ways that he was unprepared for. He is haunted by artists from the past and a woman from the present. This is a memorable novel, rich of character and powerful of voice.
September 10, 2008
GHOSTLINES won the 2007 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript, before being published by Scribe in 2008. It's the author's first novel, the tale of a profoundly flawed hero - journalist Philip Trudeau, a very driven man. Unfortunately a lot of that drive is self-destructive, but in Gadd's hands, Trudeau is a character who can engender sympathy and maintain the reader's interest and concern - despite those myriad and very obvious faults.
When a young boy is killed at a level crossing, Trudeau reports it initially as a tragic accident. He finds, when forced to dig a little further, that there is a lot more to why a young boy was mown down by a train, late at night, on his own, riding his pushbike as if he was very very scared. There are ghosts of other presences that night - and it's those ghostlines referenced in the name of the book that describes the investigation that Trudeau embarks on. There is just the hint of something more at the train line, and it often seems that Trudeau is the only person that is seeing the hints. That is, until he finds himself in peril, and he knows for sure that there was a lot more going on that night.
GHOSTLINES is a fascinating book. The use of a flawed hero is a well known device nowadays but it's not necessarily easy to pull off - an author can run the risk of turning off the reader, making his hero annoying or pathetic. Trudeau dances a line between truly annoying and frustrating and somebody who can engender, if not sympathy, than at least understanding. He's also a most unapologetic flawed hero - which helped for this reader at least. There is a little bit of the supernatural going on in the book, and that may be slightly offputting for the more traditional crime fan. The fact that GHOSTLINES is not about the gore or the traditional procedural in solving a mystery, and more about the psychology of our central character, makes the supernatural work as it becomes part of the thought process of Trudeau as he drags himself through his self-made mire. But that's also not completely fair - GHOSTLINES is dark and dire and sad and flat out miserable in some places, but it's not without hope. Personally I hope that Trudeau returns - I want to know what's happening to him.
When a young boy is killed at a level crossing, Trudeau reports it initially as a tragic accident. He finds, when forced to dig a little further, that there is a lot more to why a young boy was mown down by a train, late at night, on his own, riding his pushbike as if he was very very scared. There are ghosts of other presences that night - and it's those ghostlines referenced in the name of the book that describes the investigation that Trudeau embarks on. There is just the hint of something more at the train line, and it often seems that Trudeau is the only person that is seeing the hints. That is, until he finds himself in peril, and he knows for sure that there was a lot more going on that night.
GHOSTLINES is a fascinating book. The use of a flawed hero is a well known device nowadays but it's not necessarily easy to pull off - an author can run the risk of turning off the reader, making his hero annoying or pathetic. Trudeau dances a line between truly annoying and frustrating and somebody who can engender, if not sympathy, than at least understanding. He's also a most unapologetic flawed hero - which helped for this reader at least. There is a little bit of the supernatural going on in the book, and that may be slightly offputting for the more traditional crime fan. The fact that GHOSTLINES is not about the gore or the traditional procedural in solving a mystery, and more about the psychology of our central character, makes the supernatural work as it becomes part of the thought process of Trudeau as he drags himself through his self-made mire. But that's also not completely fair - GHOSTLINES is dark and dire and sad and flat out miserable in some places, but it's not without hope. Personally I hope that Trudeau returns - I want to know what's happening to him.
September 22, 2025
Such a gripping story that held me till the very last page and I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend for anyone looking for a good crime thriller as this is one that deserves all its hype!
July 29, 2025
great. thriller. refreshing story and author
December 13, 2010
Philip Trudeau, who once wrote for a top-flight Melbourne paper, is down and almost out after landing on the wrong side of a story involving some very powerful people. After spending a few years in prison, he now goes through the motions of putting his name to press releases at a minor local paper in Yarraville, an old factory town that's experiencing suburban birth pains. But when he's called out to cover the death of 13-year-old Micheal, killed late at night by a train at a gated crossing, something unexpected happens—Philip finds the story just won't fade away; it keeps coming back to haunt him, no matter how much he drinks, no matter where he goes. And when the boy's death appears to somehow be tied to John Price, an art collector found dead in his own home, Phillip feels an old itch rising—a story he has to chase.
But he's made enemies that haven't forgotten him, and alcohol has dulled his mind to where he can't always be sure just what's real and what's his imagination. He's haunted by a picture he saw in Price's home before he died, a red-haired woman like the one he also glimpsed in the window of Price's home when it was auctioned off after his death. But the picture has disappeared. He'd like to find out more about Nina, the woman he met at the railroad crossing the night Michael died, but she doesn't want to talk to him. And Maureen, his journalism partner at the Melbourne paper, pops back into his life but then she, too, disappears and her phone has been disconnected. As he finally begins to put the pieces together, he discovers once again that the itch of the story may prove hazardous to his health.
Nick Gadd's Ghostlines is a rare find. Philip Trudeau is a deeply flawed but fascinating character; the plot is fresh and complex; and the psychological drama plays with the reader's mind as well as Trudeau's. What is real and what is the product of Tudeau's battered brain? Even without the Victoria Premier's Literary Award, Ghostlines would be and is a winner!
But he's made enemies that haven't forgotten him, and alcohol has dulled his mind to where he can't always be sure just what's real and what's his imagination. He's haunted by a picture he saw in Price's home before he died, a red-haired woman like the one he also glimpsed in the window of Price's home when it was auctioned off after his death. But the picture has disappeared. He'd like to find out more about Nina, the woman he met at the railroad crossing the night Michael died, but she doesn't want to talk to him. And Maureen, his journalism partner at the Melbourne paper, pops back into his life but then she, too, disappears and her phone has been disconnected. As he finally begins to put the pieces together, he discovers once again that the itch of the story may prove hazardous to his health.
Nick Gadd's Ghostlines is a rare find. Philip Trudeau is a deeply flawed but fascinating character; the plot is fresh and complex; and the psychological drama plays with the reader's mind as well as Trudeau's. What is real and what is the product of Tudeau's battered brain? Even without the Victoria Premier's Literary Award, Ghostlines would be and is a winner!
August 1, 2016
An engaging read that I thoroughly enjoyed and would've missed if the author wasn't attending my local writers festival. This reminded me a little of a hard boiled detective story. Philip Trudeau is by no means a very likable character, he's flawed, (aren't all the bet characters?), but Gadd writes him in a way that I still cared what happened to him. I wanted to uncover the mystery as he did. This has few supernatural elements, which I enjoyed, they aren't too heavy handed and I think they compliment the story. I thought the author did a great job of capturing Melbourne, although when Gadd was discussing the novel at the festival, he relayed a story of a reader letting him know that there was no way that one of the characters could've rode their bike that way as the street was a dead end and he should've turned left instead of right! I am disappointed there probably won't be a follow up to this book, I think it would've made a great series.
March 28, 2010
Nick Gadd's Ghostlines is a classic kind of detective novel. His detective Phillip Trudeau is a jaded, scarred by the world type with a drinking problem, a little Rebus, a little Humprey Bogart as Marlowe. The writing, fittingly, is very clean and manly. Straight up as it were...
While the plot with it's underdog exposing the unethical rich narrative is appealing, what is extraordinary about this novel is its wonderful evocation of Melbourne. It begins with a kid on a bike being hit by a train and continues from this point to an old man's cluttered house in Williamstown to the sushi bar infected cbd. I loved a sub plot about the Maribyrnong group and and artist named Valerie. He managed to weave in much that was really Melbourne.
While the plot with it's underdog exposing the unethical rich narrative is appealing, what is extraordinary about this novel is its wonderful evocation of Melbourne. It begins with a kid on a bike being hit by a train and continues from this point to an old man's cluttered house in Williamstown to the sushi bar infected cbd. I loved a sub plot about the Maribyrnong group and and artist named Valerie. He managed to weave in much that was really Melbourne.
January 22, 2017
I'm not normally a crime reader, but this is one book which drew me in. I think it was the well developed characters, plus the clear setting (being from Melbourne, I can picture the scenes which are painted so well), and the realism of the characters. An engaging read.
February 5, 2014
This isn't a bad novel. A little cliched in places but the plot is believable and it's an enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews