Lachie Munro is a humble painter from Newcastle. He’s the sort of bloke a politician might call a battler, until they figure out what he’s been up to and then they’d either distance themself or go into business with him. When we meet Lachie at the beginning of Hiding to Nothing he’s got a sawn-off shotgun pointed in his face, and who knew at the time but he’d come to miss those halcyon days.

Hiding to Nothing pitches the reader into the seedy world of Newcastle crime and the sweaty world of Newcastle painting during a hot summer.

Lachie wants to play it straight but he’s constantly dragged by circumstance and fate into the dodgier parts of town.