ABOUT THE BOOK
Donny – An Undercover Cop with a Deathwish isn’t pretty, polished or dressed up for show. It’s a raw memoir about a young Queensland police officer whose life split in two the day his partner died by suicide.
Todd Maguire didn’t cope. Not even close. He drank and he walked straight into undercover work – dangerous, dirty, high-risk operations where the line between right and wrong blurred fast.
Back then, policing was a different beast. Todd stepped into that world already broken, wearing the name Donny Wilson like armour. Donny was the bloke who could walk into drug dens, sit across from traffickers, deal with the unpredictable and survive it. Todd wasn’t sure he could.
For two years, Todd lived as someone else, sinking further into organised crime circles while trying to quiet the grief that followed him everywhere. But trauma doesn’t stay buried. It waits. And when Todd finally left the job, everything he’d pushed down started to rise.
“It was only after stepping away from the Queensland Police Service that I began to confront the full weight of the trauma and loss that had silently shaped my life… What followed was a descent into the shadows of crime and chaos, compounding the emotional toll I was already carrying.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Todd Maguire spent 27 years with the Queensland Police Service – undercover operations, major crime investigations, tactical operations, counter-terrorism, bomb detection and work across the state. He helped put away traffickers, violent offenders and major criminal networks.
He’s received a Certificate of Recognition and a Commissioner’s Citation for his work infiltrating organised crime groups and helping bring more than 500 charges across major operations.
But behind the medals and commendations was a bloke carrying more than anyone knew.
Todd lived through the worst parts of humanity: violent assaults, suicides, fatal crashes, domestic violence, child abuse and the kind of grief that imprints itself onto your bones. He knocked on doors to deliver news that breaks families. He held people in their worst moments. He stood in scenes that stay with you forever.
For decades, he didn’t speak about the trauma, the drinking, the fallout, the complex PTSD. This book is him finally telling the truth; not as a polished author, but as a bloke who has lived through it, lost himself and fought like hell to come back.
He’s not trying to be perfect. He’s trying to be honest. And that honesty is the spine of Donny – Undercover Cop with a Deathwish.
A note from Todd
“If you’re reading this, I want you to know one thing: you’re not broken beyond repair. Life will hit hard, trauma will take pieces out of you, and some answers will never come, but you can still build something worth living for. Don’t wait for someone else to save you. Stand up, even if it’s shaky, and take one step. Then another. Healing is messy, painful and personal, but it’s possible. Hold onto the people who anchor you, let go of the bullshit that doesn’t matter, and keep fighting for the smallest moments of peace. You’re stronger than you think, and your scars don’t make you weak; they prove you’re still here.”
BOOK EXCERPT
“The backroads were getting narrower, more twisted. It felt like he was the backroads got narrower, more twisted. He felt like they were driving straight into a dead end. “Turn left here,” Lance said suddenly, pointing at a gap in the pines. He flicked the wheel without a word, and just like that, they slipped into Cordalba State Forest Pine Tree Forest, a place Lance claimed was the burial ground for stolen guns. As the car crawled deeper in, edged deeper into the shadows, Todd felt his stomach drop. faster than a junkie chasing his first hit of the day. The track wound in a full kilometre from the main road, and before long, the last of the sunlight vanished behind the canopy. The bush was still, heavy, and almost too quiet—like it was holding its breath. The trees closed in overhead, tall and skinny like silent spectators, watching it all, watching everything unfold with knowing smirks. It was the kind of place where you don’t just lose phone reception, you lose your grip
on reality.”
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