Ayliffe - managing editor of television and video for ABC News - has written two previous novels featuring the veteran, haunted Australian former war correspondent John Bailey.

There's enough backstory along the way to get a new reader up to speed, however.

Bailey has had more than his share of misfortune. He's a recovering alcoholic who was captured and tortured while working overseas and lost the love of his life. He's also been a victim of newspaper downsizing, but in this book has landed a new job in Sydney.

He's writing for the monthly Enquirer Magazine, a new publication bankrolled by billionaire Jock Donaldson, and is hard at work on his first investigative piece.

Neo-Nazism is on the rise in Australia and as part of his research into this disturbing phenomenon, Bailey attends a far-right event at which the speaker is American culture warrior and white supremacist Augustus Strong.

Afterwards, he's recognised and pushed down some stairs by Benny Hunter, leader of the Freedom Front, but he gets off lightly compared to one of the anti-Strong protesters, a young Sudanese man who ends up comatose in hospital.

Bailey is, of course, undeterred, suspecting Strong might be behind the racist attacks going in Sydney, and continues his search for the truth.

But things start getting worse.

Bailey's home is raided by the Federal Police, a crucial piece of evidence he's obtained disappears, and he winds up, briefly, in prison.

Again, though, he gets off relatively lightly. A number of his friends and contacts are murdered - it seems Bailey is a dangerous man to know - and it just might be that it's all coming from an even more dangerous place than Strong and his adherents.

And Bailey's problems might not simply stem from his current investigation.

As William Faulkner wrote, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

The perspective in the book shifts periodically between Bailey and his friend and former lover, TV journalist Annie Brooks, each approaching events from a different angle.

Another character who is a big help to Bailey is another friend, veteran CIA operative Ronnie Johnson. Some readers might resent the American intrusion but it's a realistic addition to the story given the subject matter and, with his wide-ranging contacts in the Australian intelligence network, he's a valuable ally.

Bailey is a memorable creation: a flawed but admirable man still fighting demons and willing to go wherever a story takes him and do what it takes to get it, but still human, vulnerable and sympathetic.

Those of us who are journalists can relate to some of Bailey's experiences and feelings, though he's braver and stronger than most of us could ever hope to be.

There's plenty of Sydney atmosphere, though the city comes across as dirty, smelly, crowded and dangerous, not the most attractive place to anyone who's not already sold on it.

The story has plenty of twists and surprises that don't come off as horribly contrived and Ayliffe does a good job of juggling the many characters who pop in and out and maintaining a fast-paced, compelling story.