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Milat

Milat 3

Inside Australia's Biggest Manhunt

by Clive Small and Tom Gilling
Age range: + years old Publication Date: 23/04/2014
4/5 Rating 3 Reviews

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Milat - the serial killer who preyed on young hitchhikers. The backpackers - the innocent victims of a brutal murderer. Belanglo - a place that became synonymous with pure evil. It was the biggest and most complex manhunt in Australian history, an investigation that gripped a nation. Behind the many false leads and dead ends, precious clues emerged that pointed to one man. This is the story of how Ivan Milat was caught. Clive Small takes us inside the operation he led as his team painstakingly pieced together the evidence that put Milat behind bars. But questions remain. Did he act alone? Were there other victims? How much did his family know? And what of his great-nephew, who brutally killed a young man in 2010? Chilling, forensic, compassionate - this is the definitive story that could only be told by someone at the centre of the police operation. It is also a powerful argument for the reinvestigation of more than a hundred unsolved murders.
ISBN:
9781743317914
9781743317914
Category:
True crime
Age range:
+ years old
Publication Date:
23-04-2014
Language:
English
Publisher:
ALLEN & UNWIN
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
352
Dimensions (mm):
234x152x26mm
Weight:
0.48kg
Clive Small

Clive Small is a former detective and Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Police.

His investigations included the murder of anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay, the Nugan Hand bank, the shooting of police officer Michael Drury, the murder of Cabramatta MP John Newman, and the backpacker murders which led to Ivan Milat being convicted.

Tom Gilling

Tom Gilling's acclaimed novels, The Sooterkin, Miles McGinty and Dreamland have all been published in Australia, as well as in London and New York.

His is co-author with Clive Small of the highly successful Smack Express, Blood Money, Evil Life and The Dark Side.

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Reviews

3.75

Based on 3 reviews

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3 Reviews

I have spent many hours, countless essays and a fair amount of round table discussion time speaking about and hypothesising about the backpacker murders. I was a little bit hesitant to buy another book on the Belanglo forest atrocities, but had heard interesting tidbits in the press regarding this book. I was particularly interested as the leading detective on the Case, Clive Small, had written the book from an investigators perspective and was hoping that it would provide insight into the analysis of evidence and the hunt for the killer. I expected transcripts from interviews and insider information that the other books failed to provide.

The book is different from the others out there (the most noteworthy being "Sins of the Brother" which is a must read if you're looking for a well researched and rounded book on the Milat family) but perhaps lacking in the information that you would have expected Small to provide.

A substantial amount of the book is used to describe the aftermath of the arrest and conviction of Milat. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the victims and the method of their demise has certainly been well covered in other books, but what you're left with post conviction can be dry reading at times, and disjointed at others. There are some confusing chapters relating to infighting in the task force, as well as others on corruption and dissent within the police ranks. These can sometimes make you lose sight of what you're meant to be reading about, as it comes across as a "tell all of the NSW Police Force" rather than an insiders perspective of one of Australia's worst murderers.

It's not necessarily a bad book, but it doesn't deliver what you would expect. The chapters can be a bit hodgepodge in the middle (especially the one that dealt with an interpreter that assisted the victim's families, it came out of nowhere and I wasn't quite sure why it was included in that particular section of the book) but it is a well written book, and Clive Small comes across as competent and sensitive to the topic at hand.

If you're looking for something that doesn't delve too deep into gore and post mortem information, this is a good book for you. If you're looking for psychological profiling and an insight into the Milat family, I would recommend other books that tackle the subject from that perspective.

There isn't any new information in this book, but it's worthwhile reading nevertheless.

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Clive Small is an Australian law enforcement legend and It was an honour to work under his command in this massive investigation. As a cadaver dog trainer and handler I spent weeks with task force air searching the forest. Clive Small was the best and the men had so much respect for him. This is a must read straight from the man himself. Congratulations Clive and Tom on such a wonderful achievement. Gary Jackson Dog Trainer

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As an avid true crime reader, what draws me to the genre is for the contents to both shock and, to an extent, surprise me. With this in mind, I would advise that you skip over the timeline of key events that is prologue to this brutal true story of Ivan Milat; Australia's worst serial killer who was the basis for the fictional Mick Taylor in the "Wolf Creek" films.

It is the early 1990s in the days before the Wood Royal Commission and, against a backdrop of corruption and shady dealings in the New South Wales Police Force, a young detective is reassigned to a case that will go down in infamy in the annals of Australian crime history; The Backpacker Murders.

While this is primarily a first hand account of the pakinstaking investigation undertaken by Clive Small and his task force, the book also gives in-depth and explicit details on the crimes, a look in to the mind and making of a serial killer and, perhaps most shocking, how the arrest and subsequent jailing of Ivan Milat lead to similar "cold cases", some commited years before Milat's killing spree, were reopened.

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