Whipping Boy — Gabrielle Lord

When high-flying Sydney lawyer Cass Meredith is appointed head of a state inquiry into a child pornography racket, she sees it as an opportunity to clean up the city. But she doesn't count on ex-Vice Squad detective John Carrigan - with his reputation for taking bribes and liking underage girls - being made her second-in-command. Loveday Larsen, a local prostitute, is hinting she has a video, which could unmask some of the country's most powerful men as pederasts. Suddenly it's not clear whether it's her eight-year-old son, Mozzie, or her career, that Cass is trying to protect when she plans to send him to boarding school. It seems that the closer Cass gets to discovering the identity of the men who torture children, the closer she gets to the truth about herself, as she, Carrigan and her young son are inexorably drawn towards the core of corruption.