The Fatal Island: Bullets, magic and power in Timor
Paul Toohey
Jul 2026 · Simon and Schuster · Narrated by Paul Toohey
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6 hr 50 min
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By a Walkley Award-winning journalist, a gripping true crime-meets-political intrigue about East Timor, a place where animistic belief, witchcraft and tribal conflict ensure that truth and justice follow separate, uncertain paths.
A president shot, a prime minister attacked, a rebel leader executed at point-blank range, and a beautiful Australian-Timorese woman accused of orchestrating the chaos. All fifty minutes flying time from Darwin.
With President Jose Ramos Horta recovering from his wounds in Darwin, and Australia sent in to restore order, the rebels go on the run while their dead leader’s mistress, Angie Pires, is charged with being their ringleader.
To her rescue comes Australian barrister Jon Tippett, who soon breaks every professional responsibility by falling in love and sleeping with her.
As a dramatic political crisis ripples through the young nation of East Timor, conspiracy, treachery and a cloud of deceit quickly shrouds events, denying a clear path to the truth.
In this hard-boiled book based on his own reporting, journalist Paul Toohey unravels the circumstances that lead to the death of the rebel leader Reinado, a man many wanted to see dead. Fast-paced and razor-sharp, The Fatal Island exposes the dangerous power struggles behind the headlines, and Australia’s own role in the crisis.
A president shot, a prime minister attacked, a rebel leader executed at point-blank range, and a beautiful Australian-Timorese woman accused of orchestrating the chaos. All fifty minutes flying time from Darwin.
With President Jose Ramos Horta recovering from his wounds in Darwin, and Australia sent in to restore order, the rebels go on the run while their dead leader’s mistress, Angie Pires, is charged with being their ringleader.
To her rescue comes Australian barrister Jon Tippett, who soon breaks every professional responsibility by falling in love and sleeping with her.
As a dramatic political crisis ripples through the young nation of East Timor, conspiracy, treachery and a cloud of deceit quickly shrouds events, denying a clear path to the truth.
In this hard-boiled book based on his own reporting, journalist Paul Toohey unravels the circumstances that lead to the death of the rebel leader Reinado, a man many wanted to see dead. Fast-paced and razor-sharp, The Fatal Island exposes the dangerous power struggles behind the headlines, and Australia’s own role in the crisis.
By a Walkley Award-winning journalist, a gripping true crime-meets-political intrigue about East Timor, a place where animistic belief, witchcraft and tribal conflict ensure that truth and justice follow separate, uncertain paths.
A president shot, a prime minister attacked, a rebel leader execu...
About the author
Paul Toohey is a three-time Walkley Award-winning journalist and Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year. He spent most of his career with News Corp Australia covering Indigenous affairs and regional crises. He is the author of three non-fiction titles, God’s Little Acre, a collection of stories, and Rocky Goes West, about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in Irian Jaya (Duffy & Snellgrove), and The Killer Within (Allen & Unwin), about the murder of Peter Falconio. He has authored two Quarterly Essays on major political events, Last Drinks, on the Northern Territory intervention, and That Sinking Feeling, on asylum-seekers (Black Inc). He has been published in Granta and in collections of Australia’s best political writing. His first fiction work, Bad Face, a western, has been optioned for a film. He lives in Darwin.
Paul Toohey is a three-time Walkley Award-winning journalist and Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year. He spent most of his career with News Corp Australia covering Indigenous affairs and regional crises. He is the author of three non-fiction titles, God’s Little Acre, a collection of stories, and Rocky Goes West, about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in Irian Jaya (Duffy & Snellgrove), and The Killer Within (Allen & Unwin), about the murder of Peter Falconio. He has authored two Quarterly Essays on major political events, Last Drinks, on the Northern Territory intervention, and That Sinking Feeling, on asylum-seekers (Black Inc). He has been published in Granta and in collections of Australia’s best political writing. His first fiction work, Bad Face, a western, has been optioned for a film. He lives in Darwin.
Paul Toohey is a three-time Walkley Award-winning journalist and Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year. He spent most of his career with News Corp Australia covering Indigenous affairs and regional crises. He is the author of three non-fiction titles, God’s Little Acre, a collection of stories, and Rocky Goes West, about the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in Irian Jaya (Duffy & Snellgrove), and The Killer Within (Allen & Unwin), about the murder of Peter Falconio. He has authored two Quarterly Essays on major political events, Last Drinks, on the Northern Territory intervention, and That Sinking Feeling, on asylum-seekers (Black Inc). He has been published in Granta and in collections of Australia’s best political writing. His first fiction work, Bad Face, a western, has been optioned for a film. He lives in Darwin.
Paul Toohey is a three-time Walkley Award-winning journalist and Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year. He spent most of his career with News Corp Australia covering Indigenous affairs and regional crises. He is the author of three non-fiction titles, God’s Little Acre, a collection of stories, an...
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