One year before the end of World War II, Australian signalman Warwick Meale was found near death in the garrison town of Townsville. He’d been beaten by an unknown assailant and, although two of his friends alerted authorities, his life couldn’t be saved. The assailant has never been found. Jonathan Butler feels an affinity with Warwick: not just because he was his grandmother’s cousin, but an early photograph of him displays a possible gender/sexual fluidity which resonates with the author.

This is a mix of true crime, history and memoir which takes you through the events leading up to Meale’s death. His post overseas was cut short by dengue fever and Meale was repatriated to Townsville, where both Australian and US forces were based and where Meale met his fate. Butler then traces the police investigation, the obstructions imposed by the armies and navies of both countries and the similarities of Meale’s case with at least one other.

Butler’s early penchant for dressing in his mother’s clothes attracted him to Meale’s case. As there’s no other evidence of Meale’s sexuality, this feels like a wishful transference. Butler admits as much but uses this as a vehicle for discussing his own (difficult) coming out. The narrative is diminished by Butler’s insistence on adding imagined descriptive ‘colour’ to the story, but does contain insightful moments.

Reviewed by Bob Moore