A Bloody Good Cox

An Uplifting Story of a Young Man's Inner Strength, Physical Daring and Emotional Growth (Australian Sports Fiction)

By: Christopher Bartlett

Narrated by: Lukas Arnold

Love, family secrets, vengeance… everything is on the line in this gripping story of competitive rivalry and personal redemption.

When Rupert Kramer ousts him as coxswain of University’s Championship crew, Finn Sullivan’s dreams of athletic glory disappear into the murky Brisbane River. Picking himself up to pursue his passionate competitive ambitions, Finn commits to becoming a great rowing coach. But his growing achievements are upended when a tragic incident reignites his rivalry with Rupert and unearths the long-buried family secret behind his toxic relationship with his father.

With support from his spirited partner Sam, Finn continues pursuing his dream of being recognized as an elite athlete through unrelenting challenges on and off the water. But to succeed in his pursuit of ultimate triumph and retribution, he must first reconcile with his father and mend his threatened relationship with Sam.

Finn's final challenge is to prove whether second chances can lead to victory and reconciliation.

This gripping story of inner strength, physical daring and emotional growth, combines the tenacity of "The Boys in the Boat" with the passion of "Barbarian Days."

©2023 Christopher Bartlett (P)2024 Christopher Bartlett

Highly entertaining story, superbly narrated

As a person with previously little knowledge or interest in rowing, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a novel that featured the sport at the center of it. But since A Bloody Good Cox came recommended by a good friend who has never steered me wrong with reading suggestions, I decided to give it a shot, and I’m so glad I did.

All the exhilarating drama around the sport is sure to make this book an especially fun ride for rowing enthusiasts, but I also found myself quickly engaged in a juicy storyline full of interesting characters. As much as I enjoyed the story's arc of the main character, Finn, I found many of the side characters were equally rich and memorable. In particular I was endeared to a wise and witty elderly Scotsman who becomes a close friend to Finn, and a beloved former coach who develops into an important mentor to the young coach.

Genuine, heartfelt friendships between men feature prominently in this story. Though I live in the United States and I wasn't alive in the 70s, something that really strikes me is the quality of the friendships between men in this book which seem much deeper than is common in the United States, at least in this day and age. I believe the Australian terminology is "mateship"- and while I've heard this term in my times visiting Australia, I'd never had such a close, intimate view of what I presume mateship to be until experiencing this novel.

Finally, this book is wonderfully witty. I thought I might walk away with a slightly enhanced understanding of rowing- and that is the case. But my greatest education came from exposure to a long and wildly entertaining lexicon of Australian slang. Some of it is ridiculous, some of it is a bit crass, but all of it made me wish my own vocabulary were more weirdly colorful, like the characters in the book.

I'm sure I would have enjoyed consuming this novel in book form, but listening to the audio version done by an incredibly talented narrator made the experience even more enjoyable. Bartlett's novel features characters with at least 7 or 8 different international accents, and Arnold absolutely crushes them, and even gives distinctive voices to the book's various Australian characters. Really impressive voice work that makes for an especially entertaining listen.