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Mr Big
Lennie McPherson and his life of crime
When Nellie McPherson reached her eightieth year, her clan got together to give the sprightly grandmother a birthday bash. Her youngest son, Lennie, wasn't invited. He turned up later on her doorstep with a live white rabbit. He didn't give it to her as a gift: Lennie put one hand around the animal's neck, grasped its head and in a splash of blood, ripped it asunder. He threw the twitch remains on the doormat of his horrified mother. This was someone who would never forgive.

Meet Lennie McPherson, the man who came to be known as the Mr Big of Australian crime. Brutality punctuated his whole life. He was a standover man, murderer, a rapist and a thief. He ran crooked police and corrupt politicians. He was involved in drugs and prostitution. And he did business with the US Mafia and the CIA.

In this chilling portrait of Australian crime, Tony Reeves uncovers a heart of evil and takes us deep into a dark and violent criminal underworld. It is a story that could only be told after Lennie's death.

Mr Big, Lennie McPherson and his life of crime was published in 2005 by Allen & Unwin, Sydney. It was winner of the 2005 Ned Kelly Award, presented to Tony Reeves by the Crime Writers Association of Australia for "Best True Crime" 2005.

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A critic's comments:
"Reeves has worked hard on this book. He ... creates a world which has a disturbing similarity to the New Jersey depicted in The Spranos, and describes crimes in such detail you almost feel as though he were there. This is the Cliff Hardy story that Peter Corris has been trying to write for decades, and it's all true." —Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald.