The Guts
After being violently warned off a story, investigative journalist Adam Osprey has pretty much resigned himself to the easy life of lifestyle journalism, eating and drinking for a living. But his old instincts are triggered when a mysterious message on his computer interrupts his research for an article on Sydney’s best restaurant toilets.
Justine has returned to Sydney after a stint working in Africa as an aid worker. Many of her friends are beginning to get married and have babies. She is getting itchy feet when a chance meeting with an old lover in a pub leads to a dangerous, somewhat repulsive mission.
Roger Houston, Minister for Development in the Sporty Party, is one of the old school, whose career in politics has followed a buffet logic of hedonism and self-enrichment. But just when it looks as if he has succeeded in becoming the master puppeteer, the disappearance of Alexander Parker MP sets in train a surprising series of events.
The Guts is a sharp literary thriller about Sydney’s power, politics and lifestyle obsessions as the internet began to change everything.
C. E. Grimes worked in politics and journalism without excelling at either of them. He has also worked as an English language teacher, prawn trawler fisherman, short-order cook, and roof insulation installer. He lives in an off-grid tiny house in the Illawarra hinterland and sells homemade fermented produce at markets around the area. The Guts is his first book.
