| The Rules of Backyard Cricket | |
| Author: | Jock Serong |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Publisher: | Text Publishing |
| Release Date: | 2016 |
| Media Type: | |
| Pages: | 291 pp. |
| Isbn: | 9781925355215 |
The Rules of Backyard Cricket is a 2016 crime fiction novel by Australian author Jock Serong.[1]
It was described as a "bestseller" on the Publishers Weekly website in October 2016.[2]
This is the story of two Australian brothers who start off playing cricket against each other in their backyard: Wally Keefe who ends up a professional cricketer; and Darren who ends up shot in the knee, bound and gagged in the boot of a car.
Writing in Australian Book Review reviewer Craig Billingham noted: "Reminiscent of Malcolm Knox's A Private Man (2004), which also featured a professional cricketer, the subject under investigation in The Rules of Backyard Cricket is a recognisable variant of the Australian male: white, laconic, barrel-chested, hands shaped by long exposure to bats and balls and beer bottles."[3]
In the Sydney Morning Herald Sue Turnbull called the novel "Beautifully written and acutely observed, The Rules of Backyard Cricket is a noir tour de force."[4]