Jackson Barton Manifold is a Australian sporting legend, affectionately known as The Bendigo Bullet, winning honours for Australia in polo, rodeo and cricket. Raised in Bendigo, he is the grand-nephew of Jack Ridley, immortalized by Banjo Paterson in the poem The Man from Snowy River. He marries the daughter of English aristocracy and they have five children, each gifted in their own fields of endeavour. The story takes place in the years 2022-2024. Jack, at the age of 62, having built a significant real estate business, is duped into investing into a chain of restaurants by his friend, Argentine Polo legend, Ignacio Mendez, which is uncovered by the Australian Federal Police as a staging post for the distribution of cocaine. Although Jack is declared an innocent victim, the restaurants are seized by the AFP as proceeds of crime. Jack loses everything including his beloved son Freddy to an assassin’s bullet. And so begins a family saga of epic proportions. Emotional. Evocative. Explosive.

Please contact the author at chris.herbert@sibj.com.au