The Job: Fighting Crime from the Frontline
Australian History Local History Reference True Crime Criminology Biography & Memoir Law Enforcement Non-Fiction Thriller
Charlie Bezzina’s The Job: Fighting Crime from the Frontline is the ultimate insider’s look at Victoria Police Homicide Squad, signed by the legendary detective himself. This 2010 first-edition paperback drops readers straight onto Australia’s most brutal crime scenes—armed with nothing but a notebook, a Glock, and 36 years of Bezzina’s hard-won instinct. From the Walsh Street shootings to the haunting Mr Cruel child-abduction series, every case is relayed in the blunt, fast-paced voice that made Bezzina a household name on nightly news bulletins. The 16 pages of colour photographs—crime-scene shots, evidence close-ups, candid squad-room snaps—are rarely reprinted elsewhere, giving collectors and criminology students a visual archive that textbooks simply don’t provide.
What separates this copy from the dozens of reading-worn ex-library editions flooding the second-hand market is condition plus provenance: tight, square spine, clean unmarked pages, no dog-ears or stamps, and the author’s bold black sharpie signature on the title page. At 234 mm high it fits standard bookshelves yet still feels substantial in the hand (441 g, 352 pp.), making it a display-worthy conversation starter for true-crime shelves or university reference stacks. Young adults studying policing, forensic psychology or Australian legal history will appreciate Bezzina’s honest breakdown of investigative failures as well as successes, while general readers get a page-turning memoir that reads like a crime thriller set in their own suburbs.
Because Bezzina has largely stepped away from public life, signed copies in collectible condition are increasingly scarce. Owning this one means holding an autographed piece of Australian criminal history—perfect for gifting to the true-crime aficionado who thinks they’ve already heard every Melbourne underworld tale, or for anchoring a regional history collection that demands primary-source authenticity.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
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