Power Without Glory [Paperback] Hardy, Frank

Melbourne in the 1920s: a city of backroom deals, racecourse standovers, and politicians who know the price of everything. Frank Hardy's epic roman à clef follows John West — ruthless, brilliant, utterly without sentiment — as he claws his way from Collingwood slums to become one of Australia's most powerful men. Built on illegal gambling networks, union manipulation, and a marriage of brutal convenience, West's empire is a portrait of unchecked ambition. Hardy wrote this while under threat of criminal libel (the character was based on real Melbourne identity John Wren), and the raw anger shows. It's sprawling, bitter, and unapologetically bleak about the machinery of power in Australia. For readers who want their historical fiction to bite back, or anyone drawn to the moral wreckage of outsized ambition. Australian crime fiction with literary weight.