Thunder down Under — W.H. Mefford

When a young Washington D.C. intern suddenly disappears, no one - including the U.S. senator with whom she has been romantically linked - seems to know where she might have gone. And those who may know certainly aren't talking. Suspicious of foul play from the beginning, the intern's older sister, a no-nonsense LAPD cop, takes it upon herself to follow what little trail was left behind, a trail that takes her to Sydney, Australia, where a young American girl with no identity has been inexplicably murdered and dismembered in a grotty Kings Cross pub. Partnering with outlandish and politically incorrect Sydney Police Detective Thunder Pearce, the LAPD officer chases down leads that snake through the perilous innards of Sydney's criminal underworld, eventually winding its way back to Washington's hallowed halls of power and corruption. Along the way, the investigators encounter a host of unconventional characters - a young Chinese woman who runs a crime gang in Sydney's Chinatown, a transvestite who is magic with switchblades, a smarmy attache in the U.S. Consulate's office, and a transplanted wealthy South African who lives high on the cliffs of Rose Bay, where stucco walls hide a multitude of sin. To make matters worse, the detectives must fight not only the bad guys, but also some of Australia's deadliest man-killers, including poisonous spiders and snakes, wild dogs and a predatory Great White shark.