Fear and Leasing

Macready is given a choice: return to Cairns for a bigger title, better air-conditioning, and more corporate nonsense, or stay in Gordonvale with the broken blinds, weird calm, and people who almost make sense. In Chapter 16 of  Fear and Leasing , an unexpected offer forces him to decide whether he’s finally found rock bottom, or something dangerously close to belonging.

Ray’s triumphant return from the stationery cupboard leaves Gordonvale’s internet faster, the fax machine haunted, and Macready once again summoned back to Cairns for a leadership debrief. In Chapter 15 of  Fear and Leasing , Chad tries to turn survival into strategy, Ray invents something called “RAYFI 2.0,” and Macready faces the terrifying possibility of being promoted again.

A strange and dangerous thing happens in Gordonvale: everything starts working. In Chapter 14 of  Fear and Leasing , Macready experiences functioning equipment, decent people, and the terrifying possibility of peace, right before Ray emerges from a cupboard covered in printer cables and restores the natural order.

A routine inspection in Gordonvale takes an unexpected turn when Macready meets Glenn: a tidy tenant, backyard brewer, and possibly the first sane man he’s encountered in years. In Chapter 13 of  Fear and Leasing , one “quick inspection” becomes a four-hour tasting session, a philosophical debate in the shed, and a hangover Chad is deeply unwilling to understand.

Exiled to the Gordonvale satellite office, Macready finds himself among beige walls, takeaway oil fumes, and a strangely functional crew of regional survivors. In Chapter 12 of  Fear and Leasing , peace briefly seems possible, until Ray arrives for “printer maintenance” and turns one paper jam into a full-scale office systems collapse.

Fresh from the wreckage of the Brisbane conference, Macready returns to work and finds Chad waiting with disappointment, a manila folder, and a demotion. In Chapter 11 of  Fear and Leasing , career advancement finally corrects itself, Trevor offers unexpected moral support, and the satellite office above a Gordonvale fish and chip shop begins to look suspiciously like freedom.

A regional real estate conference in Brisbane promises professional growth, valuable networking, and absolutely no unpaid emotional damage. In Chapter 10 of  Fear and Leasing , Macready escapes a keynote speech, finds Ray on a roulette-fuelled hot streak, and wakes up back in Cairns with no shoes, a casino chip, and several unanswered questions.

Macready’s first staff meeting as Head of Property Management is already circling the drain when the fire alarm abruptly improves proceedings. In Chapter 9 of  Fear and Leasing , a leadership speech is derailed by panic, Ray’s illegal cupboard jaffle station, and the unexpected discovery that nothing brings a team together quite like smoke, sirens, and avoiding PowerPoint.

A rare compliment from a landlord sends Macready’s career lurching in the worst possible direction: upward. In Chapter 8 of  Fear and Leasing , a desperate attempt to sabotage his own promotion somehow convinces management he’s a visionary, leading to haiku reports, an office ibis, and the terrifying discovery that corporate success may be completely meaningless.

A corporate retreat in the bush promises connection, collaboration, and personal growth. What it delivers is blindfolded workplace sabotage, interdepartmental guerrilla warfare, and Ray disappearing into the wilderness only to return with a possum skull and a spiritual breakthrough. In Chapter 7 of  Fear and Leasing , team-building becomes survival.

A flat Wednesday drags Macready into the quiet horror of emails, office rituals, fake professionalism, and the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t make noise. In Chapter 6 of  Fear and Leasing , the chaos briefly gives way to something worse: stillness, fluorescent dread, and the creeping suspicion that the job has started hollowing him out from the inside.

Ray Williams has a drill, a toolbox, and the terrifying confidence of a man who once nearly passed wood shop. In Chapter 5 of  Fear and Leasing , a simple cupboard hinge becomes a hostage situation, before the office descends into a heatwave-fuelled civil war over air-conditioning, coconut water, and the very limits of workplace diplomacy.

Hungover, overheated, and trapped in a Grafton Street rental with a parade of increasingly alarming prospective tenants, Macready endures an open home from hell. In Chapter 4 of  Fear and Leasing , termite hunters, fermentation influencers, drone-wary crypto nomads, possible ghosts, and eight allegedly well-behaved cats turn one Saturday morning into a slow-motion collapse.

A 2:47 a.m. phone call from Henderson, the owner of one very ordinary rental property and several extraordinary anxieties, drags Macready into a fresh circle of hell. In Chapter 3 of  Fear and Leasing , shrinking skirting boards, surveillance-fuelled paranoia, and a blurry photo of a cloud push one property manager dangerously close to the edge.

Back at the office, Macready is summoned by Chad, his procedure-loving boss, for a post-Trevor debrief that quickly becomes less “professional reflection” and more fluorescent-lit interrogation. In Chapter 2 of  Fear and Leasing , workplace diplomacy, tribunal fallout, and one truly cursed breach notice collide in another day at the property-management coalface.

It begins with mould, a hangover, and a phone call from the office: Unit 3 has gone feral again. In Chapter 1 of  Fear and Leasing , John Macready meets Trevor, the tenant who turns a routine inspection into a full-scale descent into tropical rental madness. A darkly comic opening chapter filled with mildew, mushrooms, ferrets, and the creeping suspicion that this job may eventually kill him.