The Tax Inspector was published by University of Queensland Press in 1991. Maria Takis, a pregnant tax inspector, arrives to audit the Catchprice family’s car dealership in suburban Sydney. What she finds is a family in the advanced stages of dysfunction: sexual abuse spanning generations, fraud, delusion, and a grandmother who holds the clan together through sheer will. The audit becomes the catalyst for the family’s disintegration.
The novel was Carey’s darkest and most confrontational work — a descent into the Gothic that used the mundane setting of a suburban car yard to heighten the horror.
Collecting The Tax Inspector
First edition (University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1991): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Australian first edition, fine in jacket: $50–$150
- UK first edition (Faber): $25–$75
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Suburban Gothic
When a tax inspector arrives to audit a failing car dealership in suburban Sydney, she enters a family that conceals abuse, madness, and violence behind the facade of ordinary Australian suburban life. The Tax Inspector is Carey’s darkest novel — a claustrophobic family drama that uses the banality of a tax audit to expose the rot beneath respectability. The Catchprice family, with its warring generations and buried secrets, is Carey’s most disturbing creation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Carey regarded in Australia? As one of the country’s greatest novelists — alongside Patrick White, Tim Winton, and Christina Stead. His two Booker Prizes, his international reputation, and his formal ambition give him a standing that few living Australian writers match. His move to New York has been a source of mild controversy, but his subjects remain overwhelmingly Australian.