Underbelly: The Golden Mile

Underbelly #14

by John Silvester, Andrew Rule

It's 1989 and the cops are on the take and the crims are on the make. They are kings of the Cross. They run the street that put the sin in Sin City. The Golden Mile. Kim Hollingsworth is a policeman's daughter who wants to follow daddy's footsteps. She's a stripper and a hooker but that's no problem - until she blows the whistle on bent cops who think they can stand over her. They are wrong. Then there's 'Teflon John' Ibrahim, the rising star who made his name looking after the Bayeh brothers. And there are Trevor Haken, Chook Fowler and the other Kings Cross cops who treat the street as their playground - and play as if there's no tomorrow. But, in 1995, tomorrow the Wood Royal Commission takes on the Black Knights in the police force. The result is mayhem. The Golden Mile is the story of the collapse of a gloriously corrupt empire, of the chaos that follows and the ultimate victory of strong and honest police. A story seen through the eyes of some of the most charming, corrupt, deadly and sexy people of the time. In the end, the police win control of the most infamous strip in Australia. For now.

Genres: Nonfiction, Crime, True Crime

Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stories of Sydney's seedy Kings Cross. Corrupt cops, drug dealers, standover men, nightclub czars, the works. Hard to believe some of the things that happened back in the Cross' heyday.

[Grant Knuckles · Rating 3 out of 5]

The series. Thanks John.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

The people (real people) in the book are interesting...which is why this book is so freaking horrible. The writing is bad--a bunch of cliches strung together to form chapters. There are limited references sited, so it's very difficult to deduce what really is hearsay and what is fact. Dates are mixed up, spelling errors, sentences that don't make sense or form complete sentences for that matter. Granted, I haven't read any of the other Underbelly stuff--this could be par for the course. But as stated it's a shame. These are interesting people with very interesting going-ons. Perhaps the books are thrown together only to supplement the televised mini-series? Kind of like Soap Opera Digest? If that's the case, I shouldn't have expected anything better.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was truly awesome. I could not help turning each page. It is all based around New South Wales Police corruption and the criminal network based in Kings Cross at the time. It is quite scary to read the accusations of the whistleblowers when the level of corruption was so high. This book showed me how far our police force has come since the 80s. Thank goodness the corruption culture died out. I am still sitting on the fence as to whether Roger Rogerson is a villain or a hero, perhaps I need to read up on him a little more!

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having already seen the mini series about this chapter of history, I had a fair idea about the characters.

I was a little dissapointed that they didn't branch into more of the characters. Some chapters/characters were more intersting than others and I would have loved to read more about them.

Overall it was a good read into the underworld of Sydney and has sparked my interest in finding more of the book to read, finding more history on these shady characters.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is interesting due to the actual happenings of the events. It's easy to lose your bearings though with so many names, events. Highly recommend it to those with an interest in Australian true crime.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story non fiction account of kings cross underworld figures. Some accounts had me wanting more, other not so much. The gangster and corrupt cop chapters were very interesting. 3.5 stars.

[Hybrid21889 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do enjoy these stories but I found this a little slow and at times put it done for awhile because I found it hard to pick it up.

[Peter Dickerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was leant this and still have it!! I read it in early 2012. It was a great read. The Golden Mile on TV was stunning of course. The book was very interesting.

[Alastair Rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this because I wanted to finish the series and it's certainly worth reading if you've seen the tv series. This is the source material for that particular season and as such, it's got a lot more detail and you'll find yourself referring to it from time to time. Don't think that this is the novel version of the season, it's not. This is a series of articles about that period of Australian history when crooked cops joined forces with crooks to cash in on drugs, prostitution and other crimes. I was in the Cross several times and always felt unsafe there, it had an atmosphere about it that was heady on the surface but you knew if you lost focus for an instant you might wind up dead.
Silvester has covered the slow unravelling of the corruption that gave Sydney its name as Sin City, every Australian city had its red light district but Sydney's was always high profile, almost commercial in a sense. We all knew Sydney cops were as bent as bananas, they couldn't lie straight in bed to coin another phrase but there were honest cops amongst them who worked hard to root out the corruption and end the façade.
As in the other Underbelly books, this is not a novelisation, it's a series of articles but once you've seen the series you can read this book to see how much they got wrong for dramatic effect, and it's a necessary thing when making a movie or series of a book. You can't get it all in so stop trying to do the impossible. Overall I liked it because I recall the headlines, I was from Melbourne and never had much to do with Sydney but it shines a light on Sydney's underbelly.
This has certainly been an interesting series to read, all three books have been well written.