Sucked In, the sixth instalment in Shane Maloney’s Murray Whelan series, is just what fans will be hoping for – a fast-paced mystery (with the obligatory dose of political wheeling and dealing) that never lets blackmail, violence or possible murder stand in the way of a laugh.

This time around, the former political dogsbody Whelan has climbed the ranks of the Labor party to a seat in the Victorian parliament. This is around 1997, when Whelan’s party has an unenviable reputation as ‘a rat-pack of financial incompetents who couldn’t be trusted to run a primary school tuck-shop’. Murray himself is happy enough, though, sharing domestic duties with his teenage son, Red, indulging in raunchy encounters with a television reporter with a penchant for sex in public places, and putting in the odd appearance at his electorate office or parliament. Happy enough, that is, until the sudden death of an old friend and fellow party member coincides with the discovery of long-hidden human remains, which requires some sleuthing on Murray’s part (and opens up a seat in federal parliament along the way).