Last Long Drop

A rollicking novel of surf and celebrity, The Last Long Drop is a wild ride through the volatile world of killer waves and tabloid sensations, where any mess-up may be your last. When Johno Harcourt is shown the door at his high-profile newspaper job, he finds himself on the wrong side of fifty, pondering what to do with the rest of his life. While his go-getting wife and over-achieving children are otherwise occupied, he whiles away summer days surfing and playing funky music with his odd-bod gang of mates that is, until he lands the prize job of ghostwriting the autobiography of Australia's veteran movie megastar, Mike Vargas. Charismatic, confident and still a mad keen surfer, Vargas wins over Harcourt as they spend hours catching waves and drinking together while the screen legend tells of his ever-eventful life. But as Harcourt digs deeper, secrets from Vargas's distant past suddenly emerge, forcing him to realise there's a darker side to the star he thought he knew, but doesn't.

A rollicking novel of surf and celebrity, The Last Long Drop is a wild ride through the volatile world of killer waves and tabloid sensations, where any mess-up may be your last. When Johno Harcourt is shown the door at his high-profile newspaper job, he finds himself on the wrong side of fifty, pondering what to do with the rest of his life. While his go-getting wife and over-achieving children are otherwise occupied, he whiles away summer days surfing and playing funky music with his odd-bod gang of mates that is, until he lands the prize job of ghostwriting the autobiography of Australia's veteran movie megastar, Mike Vargas. Charismatic, confident and still a mad keen surfer, Vargas wins over Harcourt as they spend hours catching waves and drinking together while the screen legend tells of his ever-eventful life. But as Harcourt digs deeper, secrets from Vargas's distant past suddenly emerge, forcing him to realise there's a darker side to the star he thought he knew, but doesn't.