Timothy Quabba

When a delirious prisoner on death row tells Dr Blake he is innocent of the police shooting for which he is soon to hang, Blake is stunned – and believes him. But no-one else seems interested in uncovering the truth. Recidivist criminal Sean McBride is accused of shooting a policeman, Clive Cooper. Sealing his fate on death row, Sean originally pleaded guilty to the crime and refused to defend himself in court.

When a Ballarat College schoolboy-rower wins a race on Lake Wendouree, only to drown after being ceremonially tossed in the lake, his mother asks Doctor Blake to find the truth behind her son's death. But Blake discovers that the truth is murkier, and that the boy was not the small-town sporting hero everyone (his mother included) thinks he is.

Blake returns home to Ballarat without Jean, to find himself thrown straight into another murder investigation; Ballarat is hosting a stopover in a round-Australia race, and a young mechanic has been found dead underneath another competitor’s car. There’s pressure from business to wrap up the investigation quickly, but Blake has dealt with that kind of interference before. But when Lawson is run down, Blake finds himself facing a very different case. And Jean’s absence – and the appearance of an intrusive reporter – only makes things more complicated.

Blake meets new Chief Superintendent Frank Carlyle, and helps him investigate the apparent drowning of prominent businessman Reg Foster. Blake soon establishes that Reg didn’t drown where he was found and begins the hunt for the murder site, hoping that will reveal his killer. Meanwhile Carlyle grills several suspects from the corrupt councilman to the aggrieved lover to bereaved family members. But it’s only when Blake eventually finds the site of Reg’s murder that the pieces begin to fall into place…

When the wife of the winner of the first ever lottery is kidnapped and held for ransom, Blake is drawn into a world of state-sponsored gambling and tabloid newspaper reporting. Greed, envy and social mobility are the buzzwords of the new age. Meanwhile marriage is in the air for Mattie and Joe, and maybe even for Jean and Lucien. But will Blake have the time to propose before a figure from his dark past arrives?