New. ‘When Charlie’s good he’s great. But when he’s bad he’s better!’ John Ibrahim, best-selling author of Last King of the Cross
Charles Staunton was a good cop. Until he got sacked from the police force and sent to jail for refusing to inform on his mates. On both sides of the law that loyalty makes Charlie a ‘good bloke’. And in a world of shadows, where trust is the highest currency, a good bloke is worth his weight in gold.
Charlie becomes a private detective and Mr Fix-it in Sydney’s underworld. His associates are colourful, their adventures hair-raising. The good times roll the good bloke around the world, into fancy hotels and fast-lane living… then smack-bang into the Pacific Mariner Cartel.
Cool under pressure and handy in a gunfight, Charlie becomes ‘The Prince’ – a master of disguise and mythic smuggler of millions to all corners of the earth. Until the DEA kicks down the door and arrests him in one of the biggest drug busts in history.
Busted but unbroken, Charlie’s troubles are only just beginning. Stuck in Canada’s toughest prison, between two fiercely warring bikie gangs, Charlie must use all his street smarts to stay alive. After all, there’s a double-date with Madonna and a beer with The Godfather to get to…
Born in a London taxi in 1958, Charles Staunton emigrated to Sydney with his family in 1965. He joined NSW Police in 1978 but was drummed out in 1987 after refusing to ‘grass’ on colleagues. Charles built a career as a private investigator and Mr Fix-It in Sydney and then a globetrotting money smuggler for the Pacific Mariner Cartel. In 1997 in Montreal Charles was arrested by the DEA for trafficking 25 tonnes of hashish worth over one billion dollars. He served three and a half years in a supermax prison before moving to London. He has two sons, four grandchildren and lives in London.