Blue Streak-bookcover

By: Michael Toomey

Blue Streak

Pages: 220 Ratings: 4.0
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Mark Wyles fell hard as a policeman, demoted, and sent to the isolated Hawker Station on the fringe of South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. However, a missing person creates a surprising opportunity to regain detective status when he and rookie policewoman Katherine Cooper follow a trail of disappearances from outback Hawker to Adelaide. The unlikely pair make a formidable team and unearth a plot involving a network of Communist sympathisers seeking intelligence about British missile tests at Woomera. However, to prevent the intelligence from escaping to the USSR, they must stop a ruthless killer.


Blue Streak ticks all the boxes of suspense.” Krystyna Duszniak, Lost Histories.

Mike has a long history of educating and storytelling. He taught English and history at various secondary colleges for thirty years and was a regular educational reviewer for Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper. Mike frequently presented to English teachers for the Victorian English Teachers Association. Adolescent literature is a special interest and Austin Macauley published his first adolescent novel Dig, in 2022. ‘Dig’ was commended for its subtle exploration of themes like war and masculine identity by Dr Mary Purcell, Melbourne University: ‘Young secondary readers would connect with Michael’s engaging characters.’ (VATE, 2022). Mike also has an interest in Cold War history, so it’s not surprising ‘Blue Streak’ is a Cold War thriller. He is currently preparing a sequel to ‘Blue Streak’.

Customer Reviews
4.0
1 reviews
1 reviews
  • Tricia O'Brien

    Having spent my childhood in the late 1950s listening to whispered concerns of adults about the pervading threat of communism in Australia, "Blue Streak" was a 'must read' when it hit the shelves. As a devotee of espionage, the very catchphrases in the novel's blurb - 'Communist sympathisers', 'Woomera', 'British missile tests' and 'USSR' transfixed me. Here was the stuff of le Carre, but with a plot situated an Australian setting. In place of George Smiley, Mark the main character is a bit of a down an' out but 'true blue' outback cop who takes the reader through a series of twists and turns as he seeks to solve the whereabouts of the mystery person, but stumbles onto something bigger - a network of communist sympathisers wanting to catch out the Brits and their missile testing at Woomera. And to thicken the plot, ASIO makes an appearance! What would the late PM Sir Robert Menzies make of the public exposure? Toomey captures the reader with great suspense and some lovely atmospheric prose set in the harsh and isolated outback Australia. If you are an espionage fan, you'll enjoy the read.

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