The Retriever: The True Story Of A Child Retrieval Expert And The Families He Has Reunited

Description

Clandestine meetings with CIA contacts, forged passports, the threat of being thrown in jail - all are part of a day's work for the Australian private investigator who has reunited over 100 abducted children with the desperate parent left behind. Australia has the highest per capita rate of parental child abductions in the world, with about 150 Australian children abducted each year, according to official figures. For more than three decades, Keith Schafferius has specialised in child retrieval cases, slipping into countries like Poland, Yemen and the Philippines to retrieve children taken overseas against court orders after the break-up of their parents' marriage. Over the years Keith has built up a vast array of contacts, paid thousands of dollars in bribes to officials, been on international wanted lists and found himself in many scary situations, including being shot at and pursued by police. This is Keith's remarkable, at times heart-rending, story - of his background as an air force man and ASIO spy, and of the incredible and often unbelievable retrieval missions that have taken him to all parts of the world, in his bid to reunite families torn apart by parental child abduction.

Award-winning journalist Grantlee Kieza OAM held senior editorial positions at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Courier-Mail for many years and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his writing. He is a Walkley Award finalist and the author of twenty-one acclaimed books, including bestsellers Hudson Fysh, The Kelly Hunters, Lawson, Banks, Macquarie, Banjo, Mrs Kelly, Monash, Sons of the Southern Cross and Bert Hinkler.