What Happens In Bali

It is known as the Island of Gods - and what happens in Bali might leave the spiritual guardians of this dreamy holiday destination weeping tears of dismay or gazing down with contentment that all is well in this Hindu domain.

These are the events that made headlines around the world, or which were quietly played out behind a veil of tropical serenity. More than four million tourists, both rich and budget-conscious, visit the island each year; it is inevitable that things go wrong. Drugs, surfing, murder, love, death on the roads, hangovers, bombs, relaxation…they are all part of a cocktail of life in a land of looming volcanoes, hillside rice paddies and idyllic beaches Bali was the backdrop for two extraordinarily colourful weddings that ended in tears - the ‘marriage’ of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall and the ceremony that saw an English model joined in matrimony to a Prince who never was.

There are the drug smugglers, such as the infamous Bali Nine, Schapelle Corby and the English grandmother Lindsay Sandiford, and the story of an American hold-up man who hit the convenience stores with a knife and a Balinese wife who plotted the brutal murder of her British-Australian husband. Then there are are the terrorists who killed more than 200 tourists and local people in an infamous bombing and the shocking story of the ‘Body in the Suitcase’ Murder, when a wealthy US socialite was brutally murdered by her daughter and her boyfriend.

About the Author

As a career journalist, Richard Shears has covered stories all over the world, from Yellowknife in Canada, to the African continent, the tiny island of Mog Mog in the Pacific and the Antarctic circle. There have been vast oceans and jungles in between. His assignments, one of which has resulted in being awarded a prestigious UK Press award for foreign reporting, have included wars all over the world, among them the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor. Photos he has taken have been used in magazines and exhibitions.

The thirty or so books he has published encompass fiction, true crime and general nonfiction including Highway to Nowhere: The Chilling True Story of the Backpacker Murders (1996), Bloodstain: The Hunt for the Killer of Peter Falconio (2005), and Swamp: Who Murdered Margaret Clement? (2017) for New Holland Publishers.