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The Man Who Wasn't There
LONGLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR NON FICTION 2024
‘deeply powerful and beautiful’ - Trent Dalton, bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies
‘a riveting story well told.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
A true story about lies, murder and the Territory
‘Sorry, mate, but that’s the message.’ Zak says to grow some balls and defend him.
You’ve got to remember he is still a young bloke, stuck in Darwin prison where it’s always hot, the food is slop and they get rats in the wet season.
It’s not enough just to help him get out; Zak wants people to accept his innocence and that he was wrongfully convicted.
‘I don’t know what you want to do with that,’ he tells me.
Zak Grieve grew up in an outback town, at the crossroads between right and wrong, white and Black, punishment and forgiving. Convicted of a brutal killing despite even the judge saying he wasn’t there when it happened, he spent years writing letters describing his hopes and dreams, his role in what happened, and how when the real world came down on him with a tonne of punishment, he wasn’t ready.
This is a book about growing up, about dying and about writing. In the end, it is only Zak’s imagination, given life in the novels he writes inside prison, that hold the key to his survival.
In the grand tradition of Helen Garner’s Joe Cinque’s Consolation and Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man, this is a gripping story of injustice in the Deep North of Australia.
Praise for THE MAN WHO WASN'T
‘When crime journalist and Walkley winner Dan Box embarked upon this book about a young Indigenous man who claims he was wrongly convicted of murder in the Northern Territory, he admits he was motivated by the lure of another top journalism award. And with that admission, Box signals this is not your ordinary true crime page-turner (although the pages do turn easily). Box himself becomes a character in a complicated, self-aware story about family tragedy, an unlikely friendship, a media ecosystem that can do as much harm as good, and a justice system he comes to see as tragically flawed.’ - The Guardian
‘deeply powerful and beautiful’ - Trent Dalton, bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies
‘a riveting story well told.’ - Sydney Morning Herald
A true story about lies, murder and the Territory
‘Sorry, mate, but that’s the message.’ Zak says to grow some balls and defend him.
You’ve got to remember he is still a young bloke, stuck in Darwin prison where it’s always hot, the food is slop and they get rats in the wet season.
It’s not enough just to help him get out; Zak wants people to accept his innocence and that he was wrongfully convicted.
‘I don’t know what you want to do with that,’ he tells me.
Zak Grieve grew up in an outback town, at the crossroads between right and wrong, white and Black, punishment and forgiving. Convicted of a brutal killing despite even the judge saying he wasn’t there when it happened, he spent years writing letters describing his hopes and dreams, his role in what happened, and how when the real world came down on him with a tonne of punishment, he wasn’t ready.
This is a book about growing up, about dying and about writing. In the end, it is only Zak’s imagination, given life in the novels he writes inside prison, that hold the key to his survival.
In the grand tradition of Helen Garner’s Joe Cinque’s Consolation and Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man, this is a gripping story of injustice in the Deep North of Australia.
Praise for THE MAN WHO WASN'T
‘When crime journalist and Walkley winner Dan Box embarked upon this book about a young Indigenous man who claims he was wrongly convicted of murder in the Northern Territory, he admits he was motivated by the lure of another top journalism award. And with that admission, Box signals this is not your ordinary true crime page-turner (although the pages do turn easily). Box himself becomes a character in a complicated, self-aware story about family tragedy, an unlikely friendship, a media ecosystem that can do as much harm as good, and a justice system he comes to see as tragically flawed.’ - The Guardian
Kindle Edition
First published October 4, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 5, 2023
I’m really surprised this book doesn’t have a higher GR rating! It’s incredibly well written, the way the author weaves the story of what happened in the past alongside what’s happening currently is fantastic. He doesn’t just serve us the murder plot upfront, but drip-feeds us pieces of info along the way. He includes his own personal life experiences within - and his real struggle to determine whether or not the protagonist of the book actually committed murder. A story about the warped justice system in NT, centred around 1 moving, character-driven aspect. I love that Dan gives you his own thoughts on what happened the night of the murder in question, and how the friendship he cultivated with Zak ultimately changed his opinion. A great read!
March 19, 2024
This book is (almost) as much about author Dan Box as it is about what happened to Zak Grieve, sentenced to life for a murder he was not present for, and for once, that is not a terrible thing. From the start, this book is not what you expect. It plunges you straight into a future dystopia - so unexpected that I had to check I had opened the wrong book by accident. This is Box's way of centring the story on Zak as a person - not a subject - and it is remarkably effective. Second, Box fires out sentences designed to highlight his own self-interest: "I wasn't interested in Zak himself so much as using what had happened to him as a way of finding an answer to these bigger questions. Maybe that doesn't make me a good person. But I did it. Ivan and I agreed to work together. I wanted to win another Walkley."
This isn't your standard self-deprecating humour or humble bragging award winner. There is a rawness, an emotion to Box's take on himself that compels you to pay attention. As the book progresses, it becomes clearer that as Box's life fractures during his time investigating the story, Zak becomes part of his own support system, making it impossible to pretend that the barriers between author and subject are intact.
Which is not to say that Box makes the story about him, or that this turns into an anti-expose. Box pursues a strong line of investigation, tells us his conclusions and brings many of the characters to the page through interviews and descriptions, including the family of murder victim Ray Nicofero. Box weighs the various evidence for Nicofero's violence against Zak's best mate's mum, which is what was used to justify the murder (she paid for it). This book does its investigative job. But it does with insight into the impossibility of remaining objective, Box acknowledges his own vulnerabilites and role in the process, and accepts that his growing friendship with Zak starts to dominate the narrative.
This is also no bad thing because it brings into sharp focus the inhumanity of life in prison. Box peppers the book with Zak's correspondence with prison authorities, often through forms. His persistance in trying, unsuccessfully, various ways to get books in to the prison, to get supplies for the art classes he starts, to keep his laptop working. The sheer pettiness of the beaurocracy isn't just infuriating, it is life threatening as unbearable boredom and mental deterioration abound in the facility. Part of what becomes quite hard to read in this narrative is how much of a waste all this is: at nineteen, Zak had never had a full-time job, never had a partner, never had the kind of start many kids take for granted. He spent his days getting high, watching anime and gaming. This is more common than not for kids like him. He then spent the next 12 years (he was released shortly after the book was published) in prison. At 31, he has no 'regular' life experience, but plenty of dreams, persistance and courage. With a murder charge on his record, it is likely he will struggle for work and accommodation. Again, not so different from many Aboriginal kids whose stints in prison might be shorter, but are often frequent.
But there is a great deal of hope here too - largely through this unlikely friendship, which is forged through Zak's empathy and curiosity. Prison isn't a place people disappear, and while much of that is hard to accept - that people who do bad things are still people, living daily lives in a place which arguably denies them that humanity - parts of it are also re-affirming - people don't stop making relationships, learning and growing just because they committed a crime either.
This friendship comes from Box's deep need as he faces his own bouts of depression and the kind of devastating news no family wants to deal with. You can feel his sense of self, of the security of the world he lives in, fracturing. This causes him to take a more distanced view of what he does for a living. He wants to do right by Zak, but he also wants to make the money his family needs. He is no saint here, but being human also doesn't him a bad person either. None of us are saints, but thankfully we still get to have friends, communities, jokes, and what love we can offer each other.
In the end, I think it ceases to matter how culpable Zak is. Maybe that shouldn't be the outcome of this book, but it raises much bigger questions about how we treat people than you can fit into a guilty/innocent paradigm. There is a lot here about what it means to be human, how we navigate humanity when it involves great harm (including the importance of recognising the humanity of Ray Nicofero) and how we allow ourselves to move forward because, in the end, we are all still here.
And I would totally read that dystopian epic.
October 15, 2023
Zak Grieve, a 19 Aboriginal man from Katherine (NT) was found guilty of murder for the murder of Ray Niceforo. His defence claimed that Zak removed himself from the plans that two others committed. And because of the Northern Territory’s mandatory minimum sentencing provisions, Zak was sentenced to life.
Dan previously provided a voice for Zak through a documentary in 2017, yet this time, in print, it was a little different. Dan Box’s book is not only a true crime account of the crime, stripping away at every layer to gather as many of the facts and puzzle pieces he could about what happened and what led to the murder of Ray. It was also peeling away at pieces of himself, as through moments of this book, the reader writes starkly and honestly about his young daughter’s fight with neuroblastoma. Through the research and fact collection about the murder came a level of frustration, hopelessness and sadness in what Dan was feeling with his daughter. He and his wife threw all they could at her recovery, including seeking third and fourth opinions for hope. His personal spirit was raw and heartbreaking, and this came through how he was trying to document everything about Zach.
There are a lot of moments in this book about truth and trust and there is a level of contempt from many family members and witnesses when Dan asked for their opinion. Were they telling the truth? What were they still hiding what they know? Why were they so afraid to speak? Does hearsay count? Throughout out all of these interviews, Dan corresponded by old fashioned hand-written mail with Zak. Sometimes letters would be returned, sometimes vetted. This painted such an eye opening account on life in prison, and how fickle things really were.
This book also touched on the treatment of the Indigenous populations in the Northern Territory, and the impact of the maximum sentencing provision s had on people who were incarcerated for stealing a bottle of soft drink to murder – all of them spent time in prison. There was a great quote from Zak’s barrister that summed this up for me when Dan asked him what it would take for the laws to change: “It takes a significant injustice. this sort of injustice and not merely one but a couple. There always has to be a martyr. Somebody has to be burned at the legal stake before the community is prepared to shift”.
Dan previously provided a voice for Zak through a documentary in 2017, yet this time, in print, it was a little different. Dan Box’s book is not only a true crime account of the crime, stripping away at every layer to gather as many of the facts and puzzle pieces he could about what happened and what led to the murder of Ray. It was also peeling away at pieces of himself, as through moments of this book, the reader writes starkly and honestly about his young daughter’s fight with neuroblastoma. Through the research and fact collection about the murder came a level of frustration, hopelessness and sadness in what Dan was feeling with his daughter. He and his wife threw all they could at her recovery, including seeking third and fourth opinions for hope. His personal spirit was raw and heartbreaking, and this came through how he was trying to document everything about Zach.
There are a lot of moments in this book about truth and trust and there is a level of contempt from many family members and witnesses when Dan asked for their opinion. Were they telling the truth? What were they still hiding what they know? Why were they so afraid to speak? Does hearsay count? Throughout out all of these interviews, Dan corresponded by old fashioned hand-written mail with Zak. Sometimes letters would be returned, sometimes vetted. This painted such an eye opening account on life in prison, and how fickle things really were.
This book also touched on the treatment of the Indigenous populations in the Northern Territory, and the impact of the maximum sentencing provision s had on people who were incarcerated for stealing a bottle of soft drink to murder – all of them spent time in prison. There was a great quote from Zak’s barrister that summed this up for me when Dan asked him what it would take for the laws to change: “It takes a significant injustice. this sort of injustice and not merely one but a couple. There always has to be a martyr. Somebody has to be burned at the legal stake before the community is prepared to shift”.
October 13, 2023
A journalist discovers the story of Zac Grieve, a young Aboriginal lad sentenced to life imprisonment for murder - a crime he says, and much of the evidence supports the notion, that he was not present for.
An examination of the circumstances around the murder, the plotting, the background of the murdered man, and motives, are reviewed. The key players interviewed, and the pain of family left reeling, shared. The idle, video game, pot smoking teenage world of the young people in Katherine at the time, is a mood and mode.
But also, a review of Northern Territory laws and mandatory sentencing, the role the media and politics has on the judicial system. The injustices, the deals and games of lies, and the harsh all encompassing standard not allowing for case variables and variations.
The bias and systematic disadvantage of Aboriginal people in our prison system, and the treatment by police and the courts, is highlighted in the most real way. But also exposed with research, statistics and truth.
Whilst researching and writing this book, Dan Box and his family go through an extraordinary hardship themselves, and through his letter writing and developing connection with Zac, a man in prison, he gets through this. Through the darkest times, his flourishing friendship provides support, perspective and care.
A fascinating, informative and emotive case study of the impact of a life sentence for a young man who maintains he was not even present for the murder he was convicted for. Through letters back and forward from prison, and interviews with his mother, and so many other people around this story, a full picture is painted. Many questions remain, so much pain shared, and the stark injustice of multiple layers of the justice system revealed - whilst a man's life wastes away in prison.
An examination of the circumstances around the murder, the plotting, the background of the murdered man, and motives, are reviewed. The key players interviewed, and the pain of family left reeling, shared. The idle, video game, pot smoking teenage world of the young people in Katherine at the time, is a mood and mode.
But also, a review of Northern Territory laws and mandatory sentencing, the role the media and politics has on the judicial system. The injustices, the deals and games of lies, and the harsh all encompassing standard not allowing for case variables and variations.
The bias and systematic disadvantage of Aboriginal people in our prison system, and the treatment by police and the courts, is highlighted in the most real way. But also exposed with research, statistics and truth.
Whilst researching and writing this book, Dan Box and his family go through an extraordinary hardship themselves, and through his letter writing and developing connection with Zac, a man in prison, he gets through this. Through the darkest times, his flourishing friendship provides support, perspective and care.
A fascinating, informative and emotive case study of the impact of a life sentence for a young man who maintains he was not even present for the murder he was convicted for. Through letters back and forward from prison, and interviews with his mother, and so many other people around this story, a full picture is painted. Many questions remain, so much pain shared, and the stark injustice of multiple layers of the justice system revealed - whilst a man's life wastes away in prison.
March 28, 2024
Profoundly frustrating. Northern Territory justice is terrifying.
A well told, clear and concise story. The heart is on the page, and it beats strongly
A well told, clear and concise story. The heart is on the page, and it beats strongly
March 10, 2024
Interesting read about a well publicised case in the Northern Territory involving Zak Grieve. Box is quite the emotive story teller, and paints a pretty vivid picture of life in an NT prison, as well as the hardships he is going through with his family during the writing of the book.
My main issues come with the fact that the book reaaaaaaaally wants you to think of Grieve as a misunderstood harmless boy who didn't really do anything. The title of the book even sets you up for it...except he did...he did do something. He conspired to murder someone (albeit a horrible person), and made no attempt to stop it from happening. Although he 'wasn't there', he was 100% complicit in the planning and cover up of a murder.
Box attempts to make it sound as if Grieve's sentence is quirk of NT law (and in some respects it may be slightly with respect to mandatory sentencing) but the differences in results are semantic at best. In most/if not all jurisdictions, conspiracy to commit an offence can carry the same result as having committed the offence. This is a well known part of criminal law. Just because Grieve was not there right at the moment the murder was committed does not absolve him from criminal responsibility as much as Box, Grieve, and Grieve's mum seem to think it does.
The crime committed was not a crime of passion. It was deliberate, planned, and executed with the goal of violently ending someones life. Grieve had many opportunities to back out, or attempt to stop it but he didn't. He continually made choice after choice that lead him to be complicit in the murder of another person, and for that he was rightfully sent to prison for a long time.
Also, we only really hear from one side of the story. Box does say this, and I don't doubt the murder victim was a horrible individual, but I got a bit tired of hearing one sided accounts from the Grieve's mother and Zack himself.
Regardless of your view on the topic, I would say this is a pretty well written book. I struggled to get past the bias in it, but others may take something different away from it.
My main issues come with the fact that the book reaaaaaaaally wants you to think of Grieve as a misunderstood harmless boy who didn't really do anything. The title of the book even sets you up for it...except he did...he did do something. He conspired to murder someone (albeit a horrible person), and made no attempt to stop it from happening. Although he 'wasn't there', he was 100% complicit in the planning and cover up of a murder.
Box attempts to make it sound as if Grieve's sentence is quirk of NT law (and in some respects it may be slightly with respect to mandatory sentencing) but the differences in results are semantic at best. In most/if not all jurisdictions, conspiracy to commit an offence can carry the same result as having committed the offence. This is a well known part of criminal law. Just because Grieve was not there right at the moment the murder was committed does not absolve him from criminal responsibility as much as Box, Grieve, and Grieve's mum seem to think it does.
The crime committed was not a crime of passion. It was deliberate, planned, and executed with the goal of violently ending someones life. Grieve had many opportunities to back out, or attempt to stop it but he didn't. He continually made choice after choice that lead him to be complicit in the murder of another person, and for that he was rightfully sent to prison for a long time.
Also, we only really hear from one side of the story. Box does say this, and I don't doubt the murder victim was a horrible individual, but I got a bit tired of hearing one sided accounts from the Grieve's mother and Zack himself.
Regardless of your view on the topic, I would say this is a pretty well written book. I struggled to get past the bias in it, but others may take something different away from it.
November 2, 2023
✍️ Zak Grieve was found guilty in the murder of Ray Niceforo when he was nineteen and sentenced to life in prison. He always claimed that he was not involved. This is his story written by journalist and award winning author Dan Box as he pieced together the story of the crime through letters from Zak in prison.
True Crime is one of my favourite Genres and this True Story was Fascinating and Fabulous all rolled into one by one of Australia's greatest Journalists and Investigative Reporters.
The Narrative was filled with Attention-To-Detail and a depth of Insight that was Profoundly and Respectfully written as I was immersed in the heartbreak and injustice of the story that was told in a emotional way to the reader.
The Research that went into this story was Thorough, Precise and Comprehensive in its entirety with a detailed analysis of the timeline conducted in a Methodical way.
It was compelling to read about the Northern Territory and its history, laws, treatment of indigenous peoples and the justice system.
True Crime is one of my favourite Genres and this True Story was Fascinating and Fabulous all rolled into one by one of Australia's greatest Journalists and Investigative Reporters.
The Narrative was filled with Attention-To-Detail and a depth of Insight that was Profoundly and Respectfully written as I was immersed in the heartbreak and injustice of the story that was told in a emotional way to the reader.
The Research that went into this story was Thorough, Precise and Comprehensive in its entirety with a detailed analysis of the timeline conducted in a Methodical way.
It was compelling to read about the Northern Territory and its history, laws, treatment of indigenous peoples and the justice system.
December 12, 2023
A late contender for favourite non fiction of the year. A deeply compassionate and empathetic examination of how the justice system of the NT works. There are extreme failures of the justice system across all levels, but more devastating are the depictions of the system working as dictated by law (spoiler- not much actual justice happening). This book is not really true crime, though the central crime is described in all its complexities, but more about what happens to the people and the communities after the crime happens, and the broader political forces that shape the lives of people in remote Australia. I don’t think you can read this and not think that there is something very wrong with our prison systems. My only critique is that while Box draws an unflinching map of the NT justice system as a whole, he really skates around the role of the police and their failures.
(Read via audiobook, author is the narrator which is great and can recommend, but his pronunciation of Neon Genesis Evangelion drove me nuts lol)
(Read via audiobook, author is the narrator which is great and can recommend, but his pronunciation of Neon Genesis Evangelion drove me nuts lol)
October 12, 2023
This was definitely a confronting read about the injustice that has and still goes on in Northern Territory. I did quite enjoy learning about the stark comparison of justice systems between the states of Australia and being able to see the flow on effects of that. I always love a good true crime read, but I guess the thing with true crime opposed to a crime fiction, there is not always a resolute ending, nor a happy ending where the true bad guy gets what is coming to him. So it can often leave you feeling a little hopeless.
Ultimately, a very sad and unfortunate story of a boy who had the odds stacked against him and didn’t come out on top in the end. I of course admire how Zac Grieve has maintained high spirits and tried to find light in such a terrible situation. Dan Box absolutely succeeded in making the reader feel attached to Zac and feel empathy for his situation, well worth the read.
Read by Sage
Ultimately, a very sad and unfortunate story of a boy who had the odds stacked against him and didn’t come out on top in the end. I of course admire how Zac Grieve has maintained high spirits and tried to find light in such a terrible situation. Dan Box absolutely succeeded in making the reader feel attached to Zac and feel empathy for his situation, well worth the read.
Read by Sage
January 7, 2024
Trigger warnings: murder, domestic violence, drug use, death of a friend, incarceration, First Nations death in custody, cancer, medical procedures
I picked this up because I really loved Bowraville by the same author and I was really intrigued to see what he was going to do with another true crime story about First Nations Australians. This one, being a more recent case, felt more......fragmented?......than Bowraville did. It felt at times like it was Box's story as much as it was Zac's. And given that a lot of the story felt almost like it was about a friendship developing between Box and Zac, it worked? But it did sometimes feel like Zac got a little lost in the story.
That being said, it was compelling and I very much enjoyed it. I just kind of wished Box had centred himself SLIGHTLY less than he did.
I picked this up because I really loved Bowraville by the same author and I was really intrigued to see what he was going to do with another true crime story about First Nations Australians. This one, being a more recent case, felt more......fragmented?......than Bowraville did. It felt at times like it was Box's story as much as it was Zac's. And given that a lot of the story felt almost like it was about a friendship developing between Box and Zac, it worked? But it did sometimes feel like Zac got a little lost in the story.
That being said, it was compelling and I very much enjoyed it. I just kind of wished Box had centred himself SLIGHTLY less than he did.
December 20, 2023
Extremely well written, crafted like a novel weaving facts and storytelling with history.
A compelling read.
A compelling read.
December 21, 2023
Or: Yet another young First Nations man gets screwed by flawed legal system set up and enforced by colonisers.
May 10, 2024
I found this book really hard to grasp. Didn't finish , but after reading reviews , I will try again
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