Saturday 7 November 2015


Don't boss him - don't cross him. 

He's wild in his sorrow.




His dream was Eden Park - Number 10 jersey. His nightmare Mt Eden Prison - cell block 10. A promising All Black rugby career shattered. A sentence of a life behind bars can do much to change a man’s thinking. ‘A grave miscarriage of justice,’ were the words on the paper the Minister of Justice had handed to Terry Stamp when it was decided after fourteen years of incarceration he had not killed his wife. ‘Go home, my man. Start your life again. You have plenty of good years remaining.’ Yes, plenty of good years to control the bitterness filling his heart and driving him on in his personal quest for his wife’s killer. He and Cavanagh had been married ten years when she was taken from him in a brutal attack by a spurned group of rugby supporters, when Terry Stamp was a name on everyone’s lips whenever All Black football was mentioned. It was a misinformed and foolish man who dared to say Terry wouldn’t pull on the number 10 jersey the next time the All Blacks ran onto the field. It was inferred he might even lead them. Cavanagh’s death changed everything and with the nation against him he was sent to prison. He was found unconscious and intoxicated in his smashed car close to where his wife had died. Her blood was on his clothes. Witness stated they had heard his words that day when he threatened to kill her. Five years of fruitless search has Terry accepting those responsible may never be brought to justice, but the double death of his closest friends in their home opens up an incredible line of inquiry. Ken and Jean Fraser died because it was thought they knew too much, but they died for what they didn’t know. They knew nothing. Terry’s quest carries him to the gates of Maidstone Prison in Kent to meet an unsavoury character who has first hand information on the killing of twenty years earlier. Paedophilic Elliott Page has personal knowledge of the men who raped and strangled Cavanagh Stamp, an act of lust, but also retribution for being punched out by Terry at an after-match function on the night of the murder. Elliott Page has been blackmailing the killer with the intention of revealing all to a ‘glossy weekly’ for a substantial sum. The killer is ready to pay and ready to kill again. Terry Stamp is also prepared to pay and he ups the price. Too many innocent people have died because of these people and he is too far into this game now to quit. He knows they were responsible, not for Cavanagh’s death alone, but also for the death of his friends in Auckland. The trail of death and destruction widens as Terry follows the killer back to New Zealand and calls for settlement on a long overdue account. In the twenty bears since being falsely accused several people at that after match function in 2016 have aspired to responsible positions in the legal profession and in the field of New Zealand Rugby Union. When Terry Stamp starts to turn over stones certain individuals start to rock on their pedestals and Terry vows to be there when they come tumbling down. Terry needs no help in his venture. He has nothing to lose and has dreamed about this day of reckoning for twenty years. The scene grows decidedly ugly when he finally ‘takes his guns to town.’ This is a graphic account of a lonely man, wild in his sorrow, and hell bent on revenge. There are many intriguing characters as Terry is ruthless in his desire to pay back just a little of what is owed. (amazon.com - US$2.99)

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