Chris Robbins served as an elected representative in the City of Gold Coast at a time when the state’s Criminal Misconduct and Crime & Corruption commissions investigated a number of councillors and councils in South East Queensland. 

It was, indeed, an interesting period, with newspaper headlines boldly proclaiming (yes, in that era the news cycle was driven primarily by the print media):

‘COUNCIL RORT PROBE’ (GC Bulletin)

CYCLE OF SCANDAL’ (Courier Mail).

One SEQ mayor ended up in jail, yet another admitted receiving a secret commission, a whole council was dismissed and further assertions, rumours and innuendo abounded. 

Upon retiring from public life and reflecting on her eleven years in politics, Chris had fun creating an entirely fictional town with fictional leaders, some of whom behaved well while others didn’t. 

Murder in the Mudflats is set in the made-up town of Queens Bay and features Councillor Maggie Ashburn and her partner Mark. It follows on from Chris’s premier novel in this series, Drowning in a Sea of Duplicity, released in 2018.