The Sydney Dahlia

By A.J. Sendall

When aging journalist Sam Autenburg is approached by a young woman claiming to have an exclusive story, he suspects she's just another in a long line of cranks, except this one is connected to the underworld. When she's murdered, he fears that he'll be next.
Sam must walk away or find a way to expose her story without being the next murder victim.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A.J. Sendall
• Release date: Dec 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005762834

A.J. Sendall

I've always written, as far back as I can recall anyway. Until 2011, that writing was just for me, or as rambling letters to friends, and travelogues to family. I never thought about why, or if others did similarly, and the thought of publishing never entered my head. Since I left England in 1979, I've travelled widely, collecting experiences, people, and places as I did so. From the blood-soaked streets of Kampala, the polluted dust bowls of the Sahara, or the pristine ice floes of the Antarctic, I've gathered and filed them away. Some have recently squeezed through the bars of insecurity and are now at large in the pages of my first four novels. Others await their future fates. Although I grew up in Norfolk, UK, I never felt truly at home until I lived in Australia, and that is no doubt the reason my first published novels are set there. All of my books this far have some element of fact in them. I guess it's hard for any writer not to include events from their life. Our experiences shape our thoughts and the words and actions of our characters. I sometimes wish I'd become a novelist earlier in life, but then if I had, I wouldn't have the range of characters and events that I do. After spending much of my adult life travelling, I now live in Whitley Bay, UK.

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Published in 2020

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The Sydney Dahlia

By 

A.J. Sendall 

The Sydney Dahlia

It was the third time I’d caught her looking at me. This time I held her gaze for a five-beat before turning back to the barman and holding my glass up for a refill.

‘One more for the road, Sam?’ he asked.

‘Sure, and one for the nosey kid in the black and white shirt,’ I said, tipping my head towards her.

Eddie took my glass and pushed it against an optic, waited for the sight-glass to drain and did it again. He laid the tumbler in front of me, and said, ‘You’ll need this double if you’re going to tangle with her.’

‘Why, who is she?’

Without answering he poured a single malt into a crystal tumbler, walked away and laid the tumbler in front of her, then leaned forward and spoke in a low voice. She turned her head, studied me, then turned away again. She was in her mid-twenties, slightly built with a soft, attractive face free of makeup. What possible interest she could have in a hack journalist old enough to be her father.