Allan McFadden trained as a secondary school music teacher and has worked as teacher, actor, musician, music director and orchestrator. With fellow Australian, Peter Fleming, he has written several stage musicals: Airheart, Madame de, Frank Christie, Frank Clarke and Noli me Tangere. His first published novel is Big Gig in Rock ’n’ Roll Heaven. Une Autre Fois, Mate! is the third book in the Dougay Roberre series following on from Au Revoir, Mate. All four books are published by Austin Macauley Publishers.
My name is Dougay Roberre. My passport reads: Douglas Roberts. I don’t think either is real. At age three, my parents fled France to go into witness protection. I grew up in Sydney, Australia, among the sun, the sand, and the surf. As I neared forty, I had a yearning to discover my French roots, selling my Bondi Beach apartment and buying an attic apartment in Nice on the Cote d’Azur. I can speak French, though not read nor write it. I can use my fists – as a teenager I was taught to box. Without academic qualifications, I take whatever employment comes my way. I am a man for hire. I looked to where the car had stopped. On the footpath was a dark form – a non geometric shape. Curiosity aroused, I crossed to it. It was a person. I turned the body over and she moaned, “Don’t phone the police. Don’t phone the police.”
Never get sexually involved with a client. I should’ve heeded my own advice. But one look at Mandy and you’d have fallen too. She was a real ball breaker. Serving divorce papers shouldn’t get a private investigator shot. But it happened to me. But life goes on, right? I was summoned upstairs to Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven. Someone was trying to sabotage the upcoming big gig. A humorous tale of music and intrigue on a fantasy world.
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My name is Dougay Roberre. Approaching 40, I left Sydney, Australia, to live in Nice, France. I was raised in the land of sea, sand, sustenance, and sex. There I’d experienced a lot of the first three.
On the Cote d’Azur I bought an attic apartment; saved a beautiful woman from dying on my doorstep; discovered who killed a beautiful blonde; and in an off-handed way brought about the tragic death of a Hollywood heart throb.
All that lay in the past. I couldn’t foresee I’d soon be stepping on the toes of a crime gang; I’d be fighting off thugs in a street in Milan; I’d be spending the night on a roadside garbage dump; and I’d become enthralled in a 40-year-old kidnapping. If I could have foreseen all that, I’d have stayed in bed.
My name is Dougay Roberre. I've been living on the Cote d’Azur for nine months and in that time, I’ve solved the death of a beautiful blonde, survived a serious beating by criminals, and unraveled a 40-year-old mystery.
Now with a five percent share in l’Opera Mozart, I have big plans for ‘my café’. That is if I can stay out of trouble and solve a few nagging questions.
Why is there an out-of-town detective shining a torch onto the cafe from the alley?
Why is Paul Villan, property developer, interested in a family park?
Why is notorious film star Belinda Swann back in town dressed as a man?
“The sad thing about widespread corruption,” continued M’sieur Pom, “is that most of it is for small amounts. Why do people sell their souls for such little return? They should make the deceitfulness worthwhile. Forget 10 euro, pocket 10,000 from behind a smoke screen.”
On the French Riviera, summer was approaching, and Mary-Anne Walton was due back in Cannes. I could hardly wait!
I’m Dougay Roberre, ex-pat Australian living in Nice, and Mary-Anne had employed me as a second unit director for international movie producer Harold Kempenski to supervise the filming of snow-capped Swiss mountains for his upcoming production of Heidi.
Ahead lay an uncomplicated sensuous summer with Mary-Anne. However, suspect property developer Paul Villan; a Thai kick-boxer; a Swiss starlet; and meddlesome international lawyers had other ideas.
Why does trouble search me out? And why can’t people just keep their hands off my hedonistic dreams?
Sumbeach on the Gulf of Thailand is home to fishermen, tradesmen, labourers, businessmen, policemen, service providers, expats and tourists all going about their lives in measured tranquillity under the heat of the oriental sun - its bars, restaurants and golf courses overlooked by the towering L’Hotel Majestique.
Sumbar, a short walk along the beach, offers upstairs rooms with a sea view, a swimming pool, and cold beers in the noon day sun.
For Australian tourist Jack Featherstone, Sumbeach is a locale to relax in, on stop-over to Paris.
For wealthy Texan businessman Donald Randalson Jnr, Sumbeach offers a week of golf.
For Australian librarians Beatrice Young and Eugene Parry, Sumbeach is a place for unexpected love and the exposure of dark secrets.
For English police-woman Amelia Sanderson, Sumbeach is where she’ll search among the expats for a murderer.
Overseeing all is Police Captain Choniburshakanari. He knows everything about the activities in his sleepy town, particularly among the expats. Or does he?
Sumbeach is an idyllic paradise, though that may be a façade, particularly when the disparate guests celebrate a fortieth birthday at Sumbar on Sumbeach.
Mary-Anne Walton wasn’t coming back. Caught up in the explosive scandal destroying the reputation of her boss, international movie producer Harold Kempenski, she’d slipped off the stern of The Blue Dahlia. Her body was never found. I was rocked by her disappearance because I knew she was innocent.
I’m Dougay Roberre, an Australian living on the French Riviera, and after Mary-Anne’s demise, friends suggested I get away, to go to Gallipoli on an Australian pilgrimage; however, when there, they didn’t advise me to become entangled with a gorgeous Brazilian-American woman who seemed to have stepped from the sands of Copacabana Beach!
Before I could enjoy Türkiye, there were a few things to be done. I had to assist a young woman in love escape the overbearing clutches of her obsessive brother; track down a stolen jade chess set; and try not get involved in the aftermath of a blaze in a car yard.
All in all, nothing out of the ordinary for me, n’est ce pas?
Copies of Big Gig in Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven now on the shelves at Dymocks Sydney city store.
I was invited in the show Confessional, on Newcastle Live Radio. I told the listeners about my interest in music and sports. And, now a musician turned writer is heading towards launching two mo ........
This is where I write my books and music. Yes, it’s a mess, but I know where everything is!
All the characters in Sumbar on Sumbeach are fictional, though many of their germinations lie in my memory of people I’ve met while travelling outside Australia. When one travels alone, one meets ........
Very pleased to have the first four books of Dougay Roberre’s French Riviera adventures now out. Book five is on the way…
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