Paperback: Stuart Rattle, celebrated interior designer and creator of one of Australia's most remarkable gardens, and Michael O'Neill were the perfect couple. Country boys from working-class backgrounds, they became bon vivants and lovers, lifelong members of Australia’s exclusive A-Gays set, the envy of all their friends and together they created the stunning Musk Farm - until tragedy struck.
Stuart Rattle was at the peak of his design career, feted and entertained by hosts whose invitations were gold. His 'Rattle' interiors were his ticket into this executive lifestyle.
Michael O'Neill, his loyal and loving partner, employee, dogsbody and whipping boy, was always three steps behind, never in the limelight. In the words of Paul Bangay, the international garden designer and Stuart's former partner, 'Michael really had to fit into Stuart's way of life. Michael never really brought anything to the table from his former life. It was Stuart's career, Stuart's friends, even the way they decorated their houses and the way they looked and dressed was all about Stuart. Stuart had a definite style and lifestyle, and Michael took on that persona.'
It worked for sixteen years, until the fateful morning on 4 December 2013 when Michael violently killed Stuart as he lay in bed. He tucked him neatly back in and brought him cups of tea, takeaway curries and glasses of wine, trying to convince himself he had not committed this terrible deed. They even watched TV together.
Five days later, on 8 December 2013, Michael tried to preserve his much-loved partner's dignity by setting fire to their apartment.
How did it all go wrong? Smoke and Mirrors (2015) is both a love story and a tragedy, as well as being the story of an almost surreal murder. O'Neill, known as "The Talented Mr Ripley" for the way he constantly lied, was jailed in February 2015 for eighteen years with a non-parole period of thirteen years after pleading guilty to murder and arson charges.
"Fortunately, this book is not a biography, nor is it a real-life whodunit. Rather, it's an attempt to tell the story of an unlikely relationship, which synergised into the product Stuart created, 'Stuart Rattle Interior Design'... But this book is less about design than about a dependent relationship between two passionate men who, by a stroke of fate, had personalities that fitted so closely that in some ways they morphed into one - a fusion that ended with a perfect storm, a passionate explosion in which one killed the other, perhaps attempting to avert the complete disappearance of his own persona," wrote Bowles in the Author's Note.
About the author: Robin Bowles - Australia's True Crime Queen - is the author of nine true crime books, starting with the best-selling Blind Justice in 1998 and including the Davitt Award-winning Dead Centre. She has also written two works of crime fiction. During her new career as an investigative writer, she also obtained a university diploma to qualify her as a private inquiry agent and a national convenor of Sisters in Crime Australia. Robin lives in Melbourne with her husband Clive, and her Griffon Bruxellois called Miss Deva.
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