For Nic the mechanic, life is becoming a journey of stories: good, bad, happy and sad. When secretive Siobhan McConnell hurtles into his world, Nic’s life bounces between tragedy, romance and thriller.

Framed for armed robbery and on the brink of losing everything, he’s offered the job-of-a-lifetime in the remote township of Gimbly, where little is what it seems to be.

PaperBooks (2010)
ISBN: 978-1-9074611-6-3 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-9077564-4-3 (ebook)

Paul Burman’s work defies genre distinctions. His latest novel, The Grease Monkey’s Tale is part thriller, part romance, and part mystery. The plot is high tension and fast paced, but it isn’t a story driven by the plot. Instead, it’s a character driven journey – a story of lost and found that poses more questions than answers. Nic is the protagonist of the title – a mechanic whose flash car and fancy home is underscored by tragedy. He has somehow come to terms with the loss of his family when a beautiful mysterious woman calling herself Siobhan McConnell appears at his workshop with a Porsche in need of repair and a dinner invitation at the ready. If there’s one overriding theme running through this novel, it’s that “truth is a matter of perspective”. Nic’s perspective begins changing as soon as he meets Siobhan. His story begins to shift as he becomes naively and inadvertently involved in a strange and dangerous business set in a small Australian town in the middle of nowhere.

The Compulsive reader