The first book in Barry Maitland’s projected Belltree Trilogy, Crucifixion Creek features veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, detective Harry Belltree. The eponymous Creek is a wasteland in south-western Sydney with a bloody history of settlement, including punitive expeditions against the local Aboriginal tribe; race-based riots that ended in the lynching of Chinese market gardeners; and the usual boom-and-bust fortunes of the ever-present Sydney developer. The Creek is now controlled by a criminal biker gang with fingers in every pie from illegal drugs to servicing corrupt politicians and policemen, developers, and paedophiles.