There’s a point in every investigation where the information runs out, but the decision can’t wait.


For more than 35 years, Glen McEwen operated at the highest levels of policing, leading complex investigations across Australia and the region. In Crime, Chaos and Controversy, he offers a rare, insider perspective on what it takes to make decisions when the stakes are high, the information is incomplete, and the outcome is never guaranteed.

From dismantling international crime networks to responding to the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2019 Sri Lankan Easter Sunday attacks and serving as mission commander during the Tham Luang Cave rescue in Thailand, McEwen takes readers beyond the headlines and inside operations where plans shift without warning and pressure is constant. These are not just accounts of major cases, but of the moments behind them — where judgment must be swift, risks are weighed in real time, and the margin for error is narrow.

But the most difficult challenges are not always found in the field. As decisions are examined in hindsight and scrutiny intensifies, McEwen reflects on the weight of responsibility that comes with command. The successes that go unseen. The mistakes that do not. And the personal cost of a career spent confronting uncertainty.

Crime, Chaos and Controversy is an account of leadership, resilience, and the reality of operating in a world where chaos is constant, control is never absolute, and every decision leaves a mark.


‘What stays with you isn’t just the scale of the cases, but the moments where everything could have gone another way.’

‘It’s the space between the information and the decision that defines this book.’