The Last Aborigne
Roger E. Craig

THE BOOK

The Last Aborigine is a lusty novel. Mob violence and individual violent acts are its tapestry.

But in the end, the novel is a love story: an emotional spectrum coloring the lives of a once-bumed pugilist and life scarred television reporter.

Finally it is the story of the Australian character, forged by the likes of the outlaw, Ned Kelly and the indigenous peoples who spawned the last Aborigine.

If The Last Aborigine has a moral, it's "never fall in love if you're running from the mob."

SYNOPSIS

"But maybe three...no a little over four, four months ago, just after we made the deal, I ran into Teddy Gray at the gym. You remember Teddy? Sweet boxer. Started as a middleweight. Got two cracks at the cruiser belt.

"Well his brain is so scrambled he says everything twice. 'Hi Battler! Hi Battler!' He says to me.

"And I got to thinkin': anymore I don't have the smarts of proxide on an eyebrow cut."

Double crossing the mob comes in a container bearing a skull and crossbones. Danny Doyle, the first left-handed contender since the legendary Jimmy Goodrich, won a fight he was paid to lose.

The crayon for him in the Mafia Crayola box is ashy grey. Color him dead.

Adding physical to fiscal injury, Battling Danny Doyle, during his escape and reversing tradition, knee-capped a mob chief with the chief's own gun.

Run for your life! Change your face and change your name!

Will Brown, a changed man, took the money Danny Doyle made winning a fight he was to lose and fled to the land of little sad-faced bears and nervous kangaroos.

Low profile. Forget fistic skills. Never again let the left hand push back an unruly forelock.

It was a good plan. Might even have succeeded. But there was a girl, Tommie. A woman really. She wrote "Bomb" on the mirror of the toilet. Wanted to abort the Qantas flight and the lover who lied when he said they'd make a new life down under.

Danny Doyle, Will Brown now, erased her threat. Her gratitude was his undoing.

She discarded her two-faced lover and attached herself to Will.

With her in a pub in Melbourne, Will rescued Harley Dean, the former Globetrotter ure by Satiroff Productions to play the Last Aborigine. Harley took offense when none was intended and was on the short end of a fight with a local cricket team when Will Brown stepped in. With a succession of short lefts, Danny Doyle's trademark, Will subdued the attackers and rescued Harley.

As an expression of his gratitude, Harley arranged for both Tommie and Will to perform minor roles in a major film.

Unfortunately, at least for Will Brown, his performance at the pub in Melbourne—all with his left hand—identified him to Tommie's ex-lover, an amoral sex machine.

That one sells Will's identity to the mob.

The assassin for the mob—not at all what one would expect—takes his best shot.

He just doesn't reckon on The Last Aborigine.

SAMPLE OF WORK

"But maybe three...no a little over four, four months ago, just after we made the deal, I ran into Teddy Gray at the gym. You remember Teddy? Sweet boxer. Started as a middleweight. Got two cracks at the cruiser belt.

"Well his brain is so scrambled he says everything twice. 'Hi Battler! Hi Battler' he says to me.

"And I got to thinkin': anymore I don't have the smarts of proxide on an eyebrow cut."

DEDICATION

To Marlene, my love, who denies she married me for my prose.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To writer and editor Javan Kienzle whose By Love Possessed made me cry.

And Jim Goodrich whose brutal criticism of my understanding of things mechanical also made me cry.

Also, Diane Delo who did the artwork and whose conjugal liaison would make anyone cry.

Finally, all my kids who gave me no help with this one and will surely understand when my entire estate goes to Oral Roberts University

THE AUTHOR

Roger E. Craig also wrote The Vetowich Wall, Collateral Damage and ERG: Unit of Power, all published by Denlinger.

His writing draws on his life experiences: factory worker, Academic All-American in football, bouncer, private detective, state senator and trial lawyer are just a taste.

Last year in New Zealand, at the birth place of bungee jumping, he dove (jackknife with a full twist) 155 feet into a glacial river.

His enthusiastic embrace of life is reflected in his writing.

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