This has absolutely nothing to do with strata, unless you count the fact that it was written in a flat in Kings Cross and the hero lives in a pad in Surry Hills, both in Sydney.

But then there’s me.  I am outing myself as James Dunbar, author of the crime novel Mole Creek which has just been short-listed for the Danger Sydney Crime Writing Awards.

Why the name change?  Because Jimmy Thomson writes about strata (so no one can or should take him seriously), and James and Dunbar are my first two names anyway.

Now, there are a some very good writers on the shortlist so the chances of my winning are about the same as a first-time buyer getting an honest estimate of their levies on an off-the-plan apartment from a dodgy developer and his sneaky strata manager mate.

However, if you were one of the smart people of impeccable taste who bought the book when it came out last year and actually enjoyed it, you can vote for it in the People’s Choice category.

Have look at the Danger “Bad Sydney” Crime Writing Festival web page. The line-up for their festival next month looks pretty good, it has to be said. I will certainly be hovering around looking for some story ideas to steal (hey, it’s a crime writing festival, after all).

And if your cursor should drift down to the bottom of the screen, you can vote for Mole Creek (or any of the other books on the list).

If you missed out on Mole Creek, here’s the summary from the Abbeys Bookshop website (which also has a slightly embarrassing video of yours truly spruiking the book):

Betrayal cannot be buried forever. In the tiny Tasmanian town of Mole Creek, retired Australian cop and Vietnam veteran Pete McAuslan has retreated to his fishing cabin to write his memoirs. In Sydney, his grandson, journalist and trashy true crime author Xander, learns that Pete has taken his own life, begging forgiveness in a suicide note.

Arriving in Mole Creek in the aftermath of Pete’s death, Xander discovers that his grandfather’s laptop is missing. He begins to suspect that something is wrong, refusing to accept the facts as presented. With the local police not interested in investigating an apparently open-and-shut suicide, Xander sets about uncovering the truth of what happened to his grandfather.

In the process, he discovers long-buried secrets from Pete’s time serving in the Vietnam war: secrets that Pete has withheld from him and everyone else for fifty years; secrets that powerful people would prefer to stay buried. Ensnared in a web of betrayals that began a generation before, Xander finds himself on the hitlist of a clinically violent assassin. Now he must race to identify the connection between the seemingly unremarkable death of an old Australian soldier and the imminent reactivation of the most powerful and potentially destructive ‘sleeper’ in the history of espionage – before the truth catches up with him.

And if that whets your appetite, you can buy the paperback, Kindle and audiobooks here on Amazon.

Happy reading (or listening)!