If you’re the type who reads a thriller and immediately pulls up Google Maps, welcome to your kind of story.

In Mort 5: Double Tap, AJ Wilton doesn’t just give us a nail-biting, emotionally charged investigation, he roots it in real places. No hazy “Somewhere in Queensland” business here. From suburban Brisbane to beachside cafés, you’ll recognise the streets, venues, and vibes, right down to the brand of beer and layout of the stairwell.

Let’s trace the trail Mort Ireland takes and spotlight a few key locations you can actually visit. The settings are central characters in this tension-packed plot.

1. Chapter & Verse: The Calm Before the Plot Twist

Referenced on: Page 8
Google Maps Link: Chapter & Verse Lounge and Bar

Page 8 opens at the Chapter & Verse Lounge, where Mort meets with the girl’s grandparents. The tone is heavy. The location? Visibly serene — “soft music, smooth wood tones, and the gentle clatter of polished cutlery.”

Nestled in Surfers Paradise, the Chapter & Verse Lounge serves as a real-life lobby bar, serving flat whites by day and cocktails by night. In the book, it becomes an emotional junction; the starting point of a case that quickly escalates.

2. Real Streets, Real Speed: Mort on the M1

Referenced on: Page 11
Google Maps Link: M1 Motorway, Queensland

By Page 11, Mort is on the move, specifically heading “down the M1, hitting Exit 66.” That’s not just filler detail. It’s the Gold Coast Highway for real. You could make the same drive, eyes peeled for suspicious rental cars and the occasional drone buzz.

Wilton uses real streets to anchor readers. It’s not just immersive — it adds believability. Mort isn’t teleporting between vague coordinates. He’s working a case in the same world you live in.

3. Ascot, Brisbane: Too Polished to Be Innocent

Referenced on: Pages 58–59
Google Maps Link: Ascot, Brisbane

In Pages 58 to 59, Mort heads to Ascot, a leafy suburb in Brisbane known for quiet wealth and impressive postcodes. It’s here the team follows up on intel that leads them to a "white stucco house on a corner lot," surrounded by manicured hedges and silent neighbours.

This setting delivers on tension. It’s beautiful, familiar, and deeply unnerving when the doors close. If you’re local, walking down those streets after reading this scene might just raise the hairs on your arms.

4. A Pizza Box, a Stakeout, and a Brisbane Night

Referenced on: Page 64
Google Maps Link: Hamilton, Brisbane

In Page 64, we get one of Mort’s quieter moments: a pizza and beer debrief in Hamilton, just north of the city. It’s where the surveillance team regroups. Suzie’s feet are up. Mort is digging through a meat-lovers box. And despite the calm, you know what’s coming next will be anything but quiet.

This scene isn’t just downtime — it humanises the team and anchors them somewhere real, where locals live and breathe. That mix of everyday normalcy and looming chaos? Wilton nails it.

5. The High-Rise Stairwell Scene

Referenced on: Page 28
Google Maps Link: Redacted for spoilers (but if you know, you know)

Page 28 drops us into one of the most pulse-spiking scenes in the book — a high-rise stairwell search. Mort and the team race against time in a building where the layout is described so precisely, you could almost map it out.

While the location isn’t named outright (for good reason), readers familiar with coastal high-rises may get a flicker of recognition. The marble foyer. The curved lift bay. The soft hum of air conditioning just before all hell breaks loose.

Why Use Real Places in a Thriller?

AJ Wilton isn’t throwing darts at a map. His choice to ground Mort 5 in real locations is a deliberate move — one that boosts immersion, credibility, and emotional punch.

When the café is one you’ve actually visited, the stakes feel closer.

When Mort exits a motorway you’ve driven on, the tension lingers longer.

When a suburban street in Ascot turns into a critical plot point, you start looking at your own neighbourhood just a little differently.

Bonus: Blink-and-You’ll-Miss-’Em Locations That Add Grit and Grounding

AJ Wilton doesn’t just anchor Mort 5 in high-rises and hotel bars. He layers in blink-fast, easily missed real-world references that locals will spot instantly — and outsiders can explore with a quick Google Maps tap.

Take Smith Street Motorway (Exit 66) on Page 11, where Mort veers off the M1 like a man on a mission. Not just a throwaway detail — it’s a real highway turnoff straight into Gold Coast chaos. Then there’s Helensvale on Page 19, a busy suburban interchange that doubles as a surveillance sweet spot, where someone could vanish into retail centres or train stations without a trace.

Mudgeeraba Range, mentioned on Page 24, adds tension from above — drone surveillance and hilly backdrops giving the story its sweeping cinematic feel. Between Pages 35 and 39, Wilton subtly hints at movements across the Brisbane River and Gateway Motorway, adding more mileage to Mort’s chase and bringing traffic-laden tension into the mix.

And finally, the Brisbane Airport doesn’t make a dramatic entrance — but its shadow looms large. It’s a quiet nod to the human trafficking backdrop threading through the story, showing how even the most routine hubs can hold darker implications when viewed through Mort’s lens.

Each of these locations might only get a line or two — but they all serve one purpose: to make the world of Mort 5 feel lived in, mapped out, and dangerously real.

Want to Experience the Story First-Hand? Start with Chapter 1

Whether you’re a Queensland local, a thriller fan, or someone who just loves seeing the lines blur between fiction and fact, Mort 5: Double Tap delivers a ride that’s as grounded as it is gripping.

Download Chapter 1 for free at ajwilton.com

No strings. No spoilers. Just the first piece of a puzzle you’ll want to see through to the end.

Real Places You Can Visit from Mort 5