Australian politicians have long been held in low regard by Australians, probably through a combination of widespread natural irreverence and a reaction to poor performance. The landscape is littered with discarded pollies chewed up and spat out, forgotten by an uncaring public. The reflexive stance an Australian will take upon meeting a politician is adversarial while simultaneously lowering our expectations and opinions. It's no wonder, then, that Shane Maloney's Murray Whelan series, devoted to the self-serving shenanigans surrounding Victoria's state government (although it would work just as well in any other Australian state) has been so enormously popular.

Whew! As a political commentator, that's almost as insightful as I get and I'm just about spent. This was all by was of introducing the 4th book in the Murray Whelan series, The Big Ask.

The year is 1991, the Australian Labor Party is in power in the state of Victoria but the writing is well and truly on the wall for the government. The Honourable Angelo Agnelli has somehow fought his way into the plum portfolio of Minister for Transport and Murray Whelan, who has been with him from the start, is his long-suffering political advisor.

Agnelli is trying to deal with the United Haulage Workers, one of the most powerful unions in the country and doesn't want to come across as a doormat. The current union leader has stood unopposed through six elections and, thanks to a combination of bribes and strongarm tactics has managed to ride roughshod over the entire trucking industry rendering attempts at government intervention ineffective. The Minister for Transport's solution is to get his political advisor to organise an opposing faction (secretly funded by the government) to take a tilt at the next leadership election.

So Murray finds himself at the Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Markets talking to a likely leadership contender at 4:30am. But he's got bigger problems on his plate, he has just run into the guy who knocked his front teeth out a couple of nights earlier, his 13 year old son, Red, who is living with his mother in Sydney has gone missing and finally, it looks as though he's about to be fired. As they say, concentrating on just one problem is a big ask.

Shane Maloney captures the essence of the union / government relationship here quite nicely displaying the dysfunctional head-kicking and thinly veiled threats in all their belligerent glory. And while it’s very commendable that Murray wades boldly into the middle of the union stoush, his failure to organise a reasonable backup before starting with his own threats ensures that the tension starts humming at the highest possible frequency as the story rushes towards its climax.

Apart from the sharp, biting commentary on Australian politics, the unassuming and essentially honest nature of Murray Whelan and an ongoing murder mystery that must be solved, you've also got the sexual encounters that Murray (a) stumbles into, (b) fantasises about engineering, or (c) almost succeeds in completing only to be rudely interrupted. The quiet desperation that almost seems out of character, the innuendo-laced description and the philosophical justifications for his urges make for some highly entertaining reading.

How I longed to federate with her, to capture her preferences, to scrutinise her affiliations. To man her booth, to poll her quorum, to table her amendments, to join her in congress, to have her sit on my administrative committee.

The Big Ask thrusts Murray into deep waters on many fronts requiring of him a monumental effort just to keep his health. His days as a political minder are numbered as are his days of living alone. For straight out strategic manoeuvring on the fly The Big Ask delivers a rollicking mystery.

I think The Big Ask would be best enjoyed read as the 4th book of the series, just to take advantage of all of the acquired knowledge of Murray's career to this point which puts his various relationships in perspective. But even reading the book on its own there is no denying that Murray is an intriguing character and half-arsed investigator.