Harvest of Greed — Michael Byrnes

Reggie Ballantyne is a firebug for the times. He's obsessively clever, an urban warrior of strong convictions, and he's using Australia's crazy, changing weather. It's baking hot and hasn't rained for months. Attacking some of the biggest wheat fields in the world, Reggie thinks he's his own man. But Reggie's a puppet, selling himself for a song. To China, the rising superstar of the world economy. To puppeteers playing him in a game of massive stakes built on cunning and fear. Harvest of Greed takes the reader on a fast-paced ride through skulduggery by master-manipulators in turbulent global markets. There is depth and truth behind every twist and turn, in the characters, good and bad, and in failures of financial, political and media systems which fan the flames. Young Reggie is caught by country cop Bruce Brown then freed on the instructions of lazy, corrupt police headquarters. They're too busy to bother. What a mistake. Big-city screen jockey Alix Kingston's telephone rings. To hell with office politics: sharp instincts lead him to the knock-out discovery that Chinese government officials are paying Reggie to fulfill his firebug dreams. China! The economic saviour of the world. What is it doing in arson attacks on Australian wheat? Lawless Chinese business practices lead Alix on a treacherous chase through Hong Kong, Outback China and Taiwan. This reveals a world of ruthless Chinese capitalists, decked out in Ray-Ban sunglasses and Gucci suits, and ever-spreading concrete over land grabbed from peasants. Is China saving the world or eating it alive? Bruce Brown and Alix Kingston form an unlikely alliance based on divergent needs to chase down a world-shaking scheme which goes far beyond simple arson. Shimmering heatwaves from the Australian wheatfield firebomb attacks hang like a mirage over a new world where rampant lust for money meets the climate crisis and global food fears in battles across grains bowls and commodities markets. Alix faces the challenge of his life chasing answers in a crooked global game of greed.