1. Your character, Murray Whelan, will always be associated with certain parts of Melbourne, and any survey of the literature of Melbourne will always need to include Whelan in its scope. Do you think he could survive as he does in any other city? Or are the character and the city too closely aligned to tear asunder?
Murray Whelan is very much a product of Melbourne - he grew up there and found his calling in its political sub-culture. He knows the place high and low. His political career is a product of Melbourne at a particular time in its history. Part of the reason I created him was a desire to take a snapshot of the city at a time when I was most familiar with it. It will always be his natural habitat. But Murray's attitudes, values and skills are universal and I suppose that there are Murrays in other places. They just don't happen to be my Murray.
2. What do you have planned for your next publication?
I am currently working on the seventh instalment of Murray's episodic adventures.
3. Do you read much Australian crime fiction? Can you give us a few standouts that you've read recently? What do you think of the current state of the Australian crime fiction scene?
Australian crime fiction has become very diverse and now takes in a variety of sub-genres which are not my cup of tea. What interests me is good writing, new territory, interesting ideas.
4. What do you think could be done to better promote Australian authors either at home or abroad (or both)?
Perhaps Peter Temple could strangle Dan Brown with a typewriter ribbon at the top of the Eiffel Tower.
5. If your fictional character could meet any fictional character who would you like it to be and why?
I'd like Murray to accompany Alice on her trip to Wonderland. Given his experience in he ALP, he could explain it to her.
Notes: Shane Maloney is the author of the Murray Whelan series of novels,
the most recent of which is Sucked In.
Shane Maloney's website
