Cocaine And Dirty Water: ‘The Heads’ by John Livings
A missing shipment of cocaine, ruthless crooks and mountains of cash – there is a lot at stake in ‘The Heads’, the new crime thriller from author, comedian and playwright John Livings.
‘The Heads’ is John’s second novel and due for release in September through Foreshore Publishing. The story revolves around a drug smuggling syndicate trafficking millions of dollars of cocaine into Australia and what happens when things don’t go to plan.
Set in Sydney and named after the famous twin ramparts that guard the city harbour, ‘The Heads’ takes readers into a gritty, powder-dusted world of avarice and human folly inhabited by a colourful cast of criminals and misfits.
“For me, the subject matter must be edgy as well as darkly humorous. I don’t do cosy crime,” John states.
“The idea grew over time as I read more and more articles regarding the global cocaine market. Crucially, Australian demand exceeding supply is making the country’s cocaine market a magnet for chancers and smugglers of all stripes and increasingly ruthless crime gangs fight vicious turf wars for control of the lucrative trade. Yes, lots of people are getting hurt but like all of my work I’ve endeavoured to inject a modicum of humour into what is a serious and growing concern.”
For ‘The Heads’, John says he was interested in creating a work of pure fiction. After publishing his debut novel ‘Pommy Bastard!’ in 2008, John turned his hand to theatre, writing several award-winning stage productions, including musical ‘At Last: The Etta James Story’, narrative concert ‘Let’s Get It On: The Life and Music of Marvin Gaye’, and comedy cabaret ‘Bugle Boys: A Salute to The Andrews Sisters’.
“Well, my first attempt at writing followed the usual path of the debut novelist in that the work was largely autobiographical,” John says.
“And though thrilled with the success I’ve enjoyed in my theatre work, the shows are all biographies of other lives lived. So, I found myself desirous of a challenge and to that end I aspired to write something completely fictitious. I seriously enjoyed writing ‘The Heads’.
“The truth is, once I’d established the various characters, the story really did seem to write itself and some days I couldn’t wait to sit down to see what was going to happen next. These characters got under my skin to such an extent that they’d wake me at night, vying for attention, jabbering away and jockeying for position.”
Although ‘The Heads’ is a work of fiction, the story is premised on the grim reality that Australians and New Zealanders lead the world in cocaine use, making the Oceania region a lucratively profitable market for cartels.
John says that with such vast profits, the high-risk/high-return cocaine trade continues to attract a growing number of criminal organisations that use increasingly covert tactics to avoid being nabbed by the authorities.
“In 2024, the Columbian Navy intercepted a third narco-submarine packed to the gills with cocaine and heading across the Pacific for Australia,” he remarks.
“And ending 2023 on a high (pun intended), the good citizens of Australia were treated to something of a white Christmas when millions of dollars-worth of cocaine bales began washing up on the beaches of Sydney.
“Police managed to recover 124kg of the drug, said to be worth an estimated AU$50 million, and warned the public not to give into temptation if they happened to stumble across any of the barnacle-encrusted booty…and good luck with that!
“Yet the amount of illicit contraband that is either seized or lost represent just the tip of a very large ‘viceberg’ when compared to the titanic amounts of drugs that are successfully smuggled across borders throughout the world.”
Like so many wayward kilos of high-grade cocaine washing up on the coastline, John’s manuscript for ‘The Heads’ fortuitously found its way to the desk of Foreshore publisher-in-chief Phil M. Shirley, who was enthralled by the compelling narrative.
“When I first read ‘The Heads’, I was completely absorbed by the plot as well as the execution of it,” Phil comments.
“John is a huge talent and has written a fun and ingenious crime novel that is gripping from start to finish.”
John adds: “Pitching is hard, can be soul destroying and is not for the faint hearted. One’s manuscript needs to land on the right desk and I’ll be forever grateful that mine found its way to the good people at Foreshore Publishing. Hallelujah!”
