Author: Eamonn Duff
Genre: Non fiction
Audience: Adult
Format: Lent by a friend
Synopsis: Schapelle Corby is an Australian girl who was accused of smuggling a large amount of marijuana into Indonesia. She has always maintained her innocence. Her family turned it into a media circus. This book examines her father's involvement in the drug trade in Australia, the families apparent hunger for media attention and whether Schapelle is as innocent as she pretends.
What I thought: This book had potential. You say the name "Schapelle Corby" to any Australian and they will have an opinion. The family, particularly her sister Mercedes, rode the media wave for a long time and still crop up on the cover of women's magazines. Debate has raged for awhile over the role of the media and Schapelle's innocence or guilt. For quite a time, the country believed she was innocent, believed she was set up, but as time has gone on, more people have questioned the truth of this. Me personally - I don't see how she couldn't know the drugs were in her boogie board bag. I don't think she was alone and I think she has taken the fall for others - most particularly her father. I also think if you are stupid enough to traffic drugs into Indonesia you cannot cry foul when you get caught. They aren't exactly secretive about how they treat drug runners. At the same time, I also believe all efforts should be made to bring her home to serve her sentence in an Australian jail.
Now, having said that, the book was not well written. It was clunky, disjointed and in real need of a good editor. What could have been a really interesting, insightful book in the end was just frustrating.
Challenges: Aussie Author Challenge
