Jack Irish is no ordinary investigator. He was a Melbourne criminal lawyer, but quit when a deranged client murdered his wife. After a long alcoholic binge of despair, he recovered sufficiently to set up a non-criminal practice in the suburb of Fitzroy. Jack has a big build, and women find him attractive. He has a dry wit and an observant eye. He's a gambler by nature. Jack's world—workshops, pubs and racetracks—is very different from that of most crime novel protagonists. He leads us through a world of light and shadows, until we barely recognise where the familiar has ended and the chilling darkness has begun. In The Jack Irish Double, new readers and old fans can enjoy the third and fourth books in the series—Dead Point, which won the 2000 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel, and White Dog, which won the Ned in 2003.