1
of
1
The Dark Prince of Melbourne
The short, flashy life of Squizzy Taylor and the birth of organised crime, from the top crime author of The Golden Gang and On Radji Beach
Brief Description
Bad boys, bright lights and sorry ends: the story of a gangster. Joseph Leslie 'Squizzy' Taylor was many things to many people: a kind and caring husband, father and stepfather, a reliable son and brother, a generous and considerate neighbour and patron. He was also a...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock
Sorry, we're currently out of stock of The Dark Prince of Melbourne. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Latest News
The First Ever NZ Children's Book Week!
We are so excited to celebrate kids reading books with the first NZ Children's Book...
What Lizzy's Family Loved on a Long Weekend Away
We recently went on a family long weekend away to Ohakune, a new spot for...
Why We Still Love Pokémon
Pokémon has changed enormously since I was trading cards at school and playing it on...
Paw Patrol : The Dino Movie Toys Have Arrived!
The new Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie toys have arrived & are ready to ship!
New Releases to add to your TBR (11th August)
There's a new release for everyone this week - here's your TBR roundup! Lizzy shares...
See more
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Bad boys, bright lights and sorry ends: the story of a gangster.
Joseph Leslie 'Squizzy' Taylor was many things to many people: a kind and caring husband, father and stepfather, a reliable son and brother, a generous and considerate neighbour and patron. He was also a criminal willing to consider any type of crime, provided it supported his lifestyle and his ego.
Squizzy graduated from teenage pickpocket to adult murderer, from organising smash-and-grab raids on jewellers to corrupting juries and suborning witnesses. And he was nothing if not newsworthy. Whether appearing at the opening night of a new show at the top end of Bourke Street or climbing the steps en route to an appearance in the Supreme Court, Squizzy was news.
For more than a decade, Victoria's best detectives were unable to pin any one of a dozen major crimes he organised on him. Yet he met his match when street punk turned gunman Snowy Cutmore materialised in a darkened bedroom in a boarding house in Carlton.
In this first detailed biography of arguably Australia's most well-known standover man, Ian W. Shaw traces the life of the criminal who set the trend in city gangster life in not just Melbourne but Australia in The Dark Prince of Melbourne.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780733344299
Publisher: ABC Books
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 25 November 2025
Country: Australia
Imprint: ABC Books
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Weight: 250g
Pages: 352
About the Author
Ian W. Shaw is an acclaimed writer of narrative nonfiction who has made an important contribution to Australian history and to the understanding of our nation. Ian has published 12 works of Australian and military history, all of which are characterised by his ability to locate and access hidden tales from our past, and for his meticulous and far-reaching research. His intention is to make our collective past accessible and relatable. His most recent book is The Golden Gang, a biography of Australian bushranger Frank Gardiner and was published in 2024 by Simon & Schuster. Other books include Into the Sunset, exploring the story of the Dalton gang (University of Kansas Press, 2023), which was named a Kansas Notable Book, and On Radji Beach, which was optioned for film in 2024. Ian lives in Isaacs in the ACT.
Also by Ian W. Shaw
View all-
The Golden Gang
The first comprehensive biography of the godfather of Australian bushranging – Frank Gardiner – leader of the Lachlan gang and mastermind of the largest gold heist in Australian history. Atop the hierarchy of Australian bushrangers sits Ned Kelly – the ultimate outlaw – and just below him, the tragic figure of Ben Hall, who joined a gang led by a...Paperback$3600Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Murder at Dusk
Far away from any World War II battlefront, the citizens of Melbourne lived in fear of a serial killer - the Brownout Strangler. May 1942: Melbourne was torn between fearing Japanese invasion and revelling in the carnival atmosphere brought by the influx of 15,000 cashed-up American servicemen. But those US forces didn't guarantee safety. Not long after their arrival, the...PaperbackSold Out -
Operation Babylift
In late March 1975, as the Vietnam War raged, an Australian voluntary aid worker named Rosemary Taylor approached the Australian Embassy seeking assistance to fly 600 orphans out of Saigon to safety. Rosemary and Margaret Moses, two former nuns from Adelaide, had spent eight years in Vietnam during the war, building up a complex of nurseries to house war orphans...PaperbackSold Out -
Missing
Missing is the tragic and carefully researched story of a WWII fighter pilot’s brutal sacrifice and the painstaking search for the truth. Not all casualties in wartime occur on the frontline; when a loved one is posted "Missing," hope and fear bloom in the hearts of those who wait for news. Lives can fray when that wait extends to years....PaperbackSold Out
More from Crime & Thriller
View all-
New ReleaseDying Days
Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Country Road Murders
From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseEvery Lake
Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New Release
Nautilus
The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New Release
Cold River
The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseIt Could Have Been Her
PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
26 Beauties
The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New Release
The Secrets We Hide
The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Parkwood Murders
They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Hope Rises
'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Slash
A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
A River Red With Blood
The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Crime & Thriller lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
