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This page lists novels that feature the Australian children's author and amateur investigator Micky Douglas.

Death On A Hot Summer Night

Anne Infante

1989

A Micky Douglas novel.

" Popular children’s author Micky Douglas is in trouble. Either he’s incredibly accident prone or someone is trying to kill him. Returning home one hot and sticky Brisbane afternoon, intent on relaxing in a tub of cold water, he finds his bath already occupied by his illustrator Owen Pendleton. Owen isn’t trying to beat the heat. Owen is very dead. Micky’s old friend Richard Jordan, an investigative journalist, turns up on the trail of a Chinese Triad organisation, hoping to link the laundering of drug money to casino owner Eric Saunders. Hearing about the spate of accidents, Jordan is instantly suspicious. Not only is Saunders up to his neck in shady deals, he is also having an affair with Micky’s ex-wife and trying to buy Micky’s house. Micky has no intention of selling, but that’s hardly a motive for attempted murder. After all, there are other houses on the market. But it’s Pendleton’s death that is the really bad news for Jordan, for the drug-addict artist was just about to lift the lid off a major drug racket and give Jordan the biggest story of his life. As Micky joins forces with Jordan to discover the grim secret of the house the casino boss wants so badly, he finds himself caught in a desperate race to save his ex-wife and others from a ruthless gang."

Death Among the Dunes

Anne Infante

1990

A Micky Douglas novel.

" When popular children’s author Micky Douglas takes his niece and nephew for a caravan holiday on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast, he’s expecting nothing more exciting than three weeks of sun, sand and swimming. And he wouldn’t mind getting to know fellow camper Lorraine Marshall a little better, either. The holiday begins to turn sour when the strangled body of a local teenage girl is uncovered by children digging in a sand dune. The police are confident that, despite an epidemic of summer ’flu, they can solve the murder quickly; until Micky, enjoying an early morning run on the beach, comes across the body of another local teenager. Micky’s friend from Brisbane Homicide, Inspector Reeves, is called in, and it soon becomes clear that a serial killer is at large with two more victims are discovered. Can the murderer really be one of the seemingly innocent holiday-makers? Micky can’t believe it, but he takes up the Inspector’s challenge to solve the murders. He has all the clues, yet he’s almost too late in putting them together as he battles frantically to save himself and his companion Lorraine and bring a dangerous murderer to justice."

Deathwater

Anne Infante

1991

A Micky Douglas novel.

" Darkwater is a historic home near Brisbane, still owned by the Forrests, the pioneer family whose founder built it in colonial times. Journalist Bob Slater, who is writing an article about the house and family for a local paper, is killed in a car accident on a dark wet night in the steep and dangerous Kaye Street, so children’s author Micky Douglas agrees to finish the article. But Bob’s death bears an uncanny resemblance to that of William, son of the autocratic Eileen Forrest, in the same spot sixteen years previously and, after finding a cryptic message doodled by Bob Slater shortly before he died, Micky begins to wonder just how ‘accidental’ both deaths really were. Driven by curiosity, Micky sets out to investigate and, in spite of being warned by his friend Inspector Reeves uncovers a deadly plot to suppress and old scandal of Government and police corruption, the truth about the supposed suicide of Eileen Forrest’s husband, a horrific crime against the original native tribe which once inhabited the Darkwater land – and a cunning murderer who is determined to remove Micky before he discovers the truth."

Death In Green

Anne Infante

1992

A Micky Douglas novel.

" Mitchell Island, a rare sand island off the Queensland coast, has become the focus of conflict between timber workers who want to continue to log its abundant forests and conservationists who seek to ban logging. Into this potential battleground comes Damien White, ecologist and presenter of a popular TV series, to film a documentary on the island at the invitation of Hugh Grant, head of the anti-logging campaign. Before White arrives, there is an attempt on Grant’s life, seemingly by someone in Eversleigh, the mainland town which owes its existence to logging, followed by an attack by ‘Greenies’ on the manager of the timber mill. Then White’s scriptwriter is found drowned in suspicious circumstances. Children’s author Micky Douglas agrees to step in to complete the script but is torn between his allegiance to White, his friendship with Inspector Reeves who is investigating the scriptwriter’s death, his love for Annie Mason, also working for White, and his loyalty to his friend, journalist Duke Jordan, with whom he sets out to investigate the possibility that the warring groups are being secretly manipulated by someone with quite different plans for the island."

Death Launch

Anne Infante

1993

A Micky Douglas novel.

" When children’s author Micky Douglas invites Maddy Grey to launch his latest book, he has no idea he’s inviting trouble. Maddy, well-known hostess of the successful children’s TV show Kids’ World isn’t as popular with her colleagues as she is with her adoring young audience. In fact, she’s managed to alienate quite a number of her acquaintances, some of whom are finding their very livelihood and future happiness threatened by her vindictive behaviour. It seems a lot of people have very good reason for wishing Maddy Grey dead. So when her body turns up after the launch, the police have quite a list of suspects. But who killed Maddy Grey? Was it her ex-lover and co-host? Or her own daughter? The Kids’ World producer – or his wife? The over-emotional writer of teenage novels whom Maddy threatened to destroy? Or perhaps the journalist whose lover Maddy seduced from her? It might be her agent, or the TV newsreader, or one of the family who runs the bookshop where the launch took place. The killer is determined to cover any tracks and Micky, realising that he himself has been responsible for one of the following deaths, is determined to bring a murderer to justice."