The Cooktown Grave

In adulthood Danny and his boss, Jim Mitchell are both murdered for asking the wrong questions and David, blamed for his brother’s manslaughter, is gaoled but escapes Known only as Mac, a pseudodrunken bum and loner, David becomes hidden in the North Queensland fishing fleet without incident for the next ten years. But on a pub-crawl in Cairns one evening he is the victim of a vicious assault and is admitted—a comatose John Doe—to Cairns Base Hospital. Upon waking, David feigns amnesia to avoid too close scrutiny by police. Nevertheless, in an attempt to identify him, he is photographed by the police roundsman from the Cairns Sentinel. David’s photo crosses the desks of two who seek his recapture. Detective Sergeant Russell Byers wants him back in gaol to serve his remaining term. Phillip Benson, a drug baron and engineer of Danny’s murder, wants him dead, he sends two men on a mission to kill. One a psychopath, the other a neurotic coward. Along the way they account for many innocent victims in their relentless, and ultimately successful, hunt for their quarry. David and the two killers square off on a muddy river bank in the far north of Cape York Peninsula.