Karen

HERO is the 5th book in the DS Lucas Walker series that has taken him from outback Queensland to Germany and back, and from the Australian Federal Police to the Queensland Police Force. One thing that stays the same though is the outreach of organised crime, which is surprisingly prevalent in these small Queensland towns.

Walker is stationed in the small outback town of Katima, driving distance from his home in Caloodie, working as a DS with a local cop who rapidly proves himself to be an able partner. For readers new to this series, there's been quite a bit happen in Walker's backstory, starting out when AFP DS Walker was at home in Caloodie on leave, only to find himself the only cop around to look into the disappearance of young German backpackers in OUTBACK. Which lead to a relationship with a German police officer - Barbara, and a run-in with organised crime and a major criminal bikie group, this time in Surfers Paradise, in the novel titled PARADISE. Back in the outback, and family involvement in OPAL, which then leads to Germany, and another close run in with the leader of that criminal bikie group in NEMESIS. All of which leads to the obvious question - is this a series that needs to be read in order, and pretty much that's a yes.

These novels centre heavily on DS Lucas Walker, his stuttering love life and his extended family. Why he still calls Caloodie home, living in his grandmother's house there, where Ginger the dog came from, how he ended up working as a Queensland Police Officer after years in the AFP is all background that is really going to help you understand how everything fits together. Especially as the action in HERO is mostly about corruption, and criminal activities again, only this time in the world of high-profile sport. Although there's a twist at the end.

The title of this novel refers to Caden Conroy, a famous fast bowler, a cricketer that everyone admires. Good at the game, a supporter of up and coming talent, he's made a lot of money in his life, and his brother Cameron and his wife and daughter, as well as his girlfriend Bronte and business Manager Ollie all work hard at ensuring that what Conroy wants and needs, he gets. Until he's found bashed to death in his palatial country estate just outside Katima.

Whilst Walker and his colleague are first on scene, it doesn't take long for the higher ups to fly in the elite murder investigation squad, and Walker finds himself back in Katima trying to work out the story behind the unknown man found hanging from a tree in the local park, and whether or not that death is connected to the unsolved death of another young unidentified man in the area a few years before.

In many aspects, HERO is a hark back to the first novel in the series, in that it's good old fashioned, boots on the ground, investigation and chasing down leads that ultimately means that they are able to solve those two local cases, and the death of a national hero along the way. There's a hefty dose of romantic personal angst in there as well as some career jeopardy, and some complications with his immediate family back in Caloodie that has a bit of a hattip to a common theme these days - sovcit's and their ridiculous carry on.

Whether or not that aspect is actually going to head somewhere in future novels it's hard to tell, and to be honest, one would hope so because it went nowhere pretty rapidly in this one, but that was a minor distraction from the whole question of sport, corruption, money and power. Walker's past in the AFP gave him plenty of ways to find out the things that a standard outback cop might not have access to, and there's plenty of meat to the main plotline, including a lot of things to think about when it comes to sporting heroes.

I don't know why I read this, but I guess these two have been in the news again recently, I have Virginia Roberts Giuffre's book on the stacks, and I realised I knew next to nothing about Andrew or his ex-wife, other than the occasional bit of gossip that passes as news. Which I kind of suspected this book might turn out to be, or even worse, a massive attempt at reputation restoration.

It was neither. Mostly it's politely scathing, although I could have done without the little bit of motivation explanation - mostly on her part at the end, although to be fair, it was minor and it wasn't wholehearted. I think, on reflection, this book is exactly what it needed to be. Scathing, pointed, detailed and illuminating, without sensationalism, or judgement. This reads as well researched, with plenty of comments and observations from people close to them, as well as facts (like the eye-watering dollar amounts churned through on nothing much), and the never ending pushing, shoving and demanding of yet more money. There's details about both their childhoods, and their meeting, a bit about their marriage, and a lot about their "business" dealings, and associations. It's a litany of what might seem like poor choices, if it wasn't the same story over and over again.

Ultimately came away from this read realising what a particularly appalling pair, in a world full of appalling people. Money-grubbing, attention seeking grifters. Nothing admirable or redeeming about either of them. Let's hope with the burying of his existence going on at the moment they both disappear from view and we can all concentrate our attention, more rightly, on victims.

A child disappears in broad daylight—and no one sees a thing.

Three-year-old Oliver, whose nickname is Apple Man (explained as the story progresses), was sleeping in the car in a remote carpark, whilst his father Scott, was supposedly only away for a few minutes, carrying fishing gear down to the beach. On Scott's return, the boy had disappeared, vanished without a trace. Only the reader knows what's happened, meanwhile Scott and his mate frantically search for the boy, then have to report the disappearance first to the police and then, eventually to Apple Man's mother, Fae.

There's a lot going on with this child's family, the baby that Scott and Fae had when she was barely 16, after what could only be called a momentary encounter at a party. They'd tried the couple thing, but really two strangers living in his mother's basement, with a baby - that was never going to work, especially as they are both young, and understandably not ready for anything like that responsibility. Complicated by the fact that Fae's own family background is dysfunctional. All of which comes into play as the story of the disappearance of a young boy is told alongside the absolute train wreck of relationships, heightened by a tendency for just about everybody in this story to be the sort of people you'd normally put a lot of work into avoiding at all costs.

Which sounds like a lack of empathy for a couple of young people in a difficult situation, no doubt about that. The reader's who get the most out of this book will be those that find themselves feeling for Scott and Fae, especially as their background stories fill out. They are annoying undoubtedly, but then so are a lot of people whose lives are off the rails. The contrast between the two of them is also interesting - she's on edge, anguished, flighty, determined to live and party hard. He seems almost passive, put upon in contrast.

The other main player in this story is Tessa. A woman unable to have children she's dealing with an ex-husband who has moved onto parenthood with his new partner, and she's most definitely not coping well with that. A possibly sympathetic figure, it's equally possible she will come across as entitled and overly superior. There's something about that woman that meant this reader, in particular, struggled with any sense of empathy.

Even allowing for the backgrounds of all these main characters, and the situation they find themselves in with a missing young boy in what seems to be the dense, cold bush of New Zealand, I really struggled with the overwhelming feeling that if there were ever people who needed to be lined up and given a bloody good talking to, these 3 were it. I mean Fae's mother is a bloody nightmare, and the terror of where that young boy went should be more than enough to have you caring a hell of a lot about this young couple, and there's a whole heap of ethical and moral considerations in all of this to give the reader more than enough to think on, but fair warning, there was something so annoying about the lot of them, that it did require some hard sock pulling up to keep on with it at points.

A feeling of slog that wasn't particularly helped by the fact that it all turned into an emotional mishmash towards the middle of the novel which made for some very heavy going. Particularly as the basic premise was played out very early on and there wasn't a lot of tension in what was likely to happen from here.

All of which probably makes this sound like it wasn't the greatest read, which is unfair. For audiences invested in the parental nightmare this may work really well. For those really invested in the train wreck that unfolded after the disappearance of the child this may indeed work really well. For those, like this reader, who find the choice to make everyone at the core of a story a pretty unpleasant character to be around, it could indeed work well also. Definitely one for a bookclub, with wine. And a long session of full and frank discussion.

Recently our senior cat died. Not completely unexpectedly, she'd had a bad heart murmur for a number of years, but still it was pretty quick - she was fine, albeit a bit wobbly for a day and dead the next morning. Which put a spanner in the works of crime fiction reading for a few days while I adjusted. For some reason I went looking at the library's ebook catalogue and there was THE MEMORY BOOKSHOP. No idea why I selected it, but I glad I did.

The story, it seems, has been a Korean sensation. I have to confess I'd never heard of it at all, but then it's magical realism, which is very much outside my normal area of interest. It's frankly beautiful, lyrical, weird and moving, just the right thing for me as I came to terms with a little furry big gap in my life.

Reading the blurb will give you an idea of the premise behind the story:

If you could relive the past with the time you have left – what would you choose?

Jiwon’s life has been slowly disintegrating since her mum died. Until one day, caught in a downpour, Jiwon comes across a mysterious bookstore. Uneasy, she turns to leave when a voice calls ‘If you open that door—You can leave, but you can never come back here.’

The Memory Bookshop stores all of one’s memories within an infinite number of books and appears to those who are looking for a reason to live. Its manager, 'K', offers visitors the chance to travel back three times, in exchange for part of their futures.

Browsing the shelves, Jiwon must choose whether to revisit three chapters of her life. But will changing the past really rewrite her future? Only The Memory Bookshop has the answers – and it’ll teach Jiwon about what it really means to live…

The journey that Jiwon willingly takes herself on is a rediscovery of family, connection and a chance to revisit important moments, she perceives she missed as a result of distraction, or lack of thought. It's the story of a teenager not recognising the moments that will come to mean so much in adult life - and haven't we all been there.

The author note at the end of the story touches on her motivations for the book, and how it's not meant to be an ultimate answer to navigating loss, but in many ways, it works exactly as that. It's reflective, gentle and surprisingly enthralling. Not a long ebook at 184 pages, it's not exactly a quick read either, as it's contemplative and involving. All in all, I loved this one and it came into my life at exactly the right time.

In 2018 a novel barnstormed its way into the Ngaio Marsh Awards with THE SOUND OF HER VOICE making it to double finalist in both the Best First and Best Novel categories. At the time I remember thinking this is an author with such potential, and knowing it was a pseudonym, stood by patiently waiting to see if the author would be able to emerge, or would continue to write under that name. Chris Blake is that author, and his second novel, SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL is as good as that debut, continuing on with the intense, unsparing, and oh so realistic stylings of the first offering.

Following on with Matt Buchanan's career and personal story, for some context, from my review of the first book:

Every year the Ngaio Marsh awards for New Zealand crime fiction throw up an unexpected perspective, something brave and unusual that will set you back on your heels and make you think. For this reviewer, this year, that book was THE SOUND OF HER VOICE. In what's a combination of police procedural, and tragic police perspective, Detective Matt Buchanan has been in the job too long, and he's had a gut full of the nastiness of human nature. Unsolved murder cases haunt him, people being bastards haunt him, everything haunts him. He's bitter and he's well on the way to being twisted, and the murder of 14 year old Samantha Coates puts him on the trail of something big, and even nastier than he had even thought possible.

This second outing for Buchanan sees him back in uniform, in a small town, doing typical small town policing. And he's more settled, seemingly happier in himself, and what might seem like a demotion to some, is a chance to regroup, and rethink life and career, although the quieter world of traffic offences, kids behaving badly and the odd drug dealer, suddenly gets blown apart when his much admired predecessor in the job, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet in his head. Gus had been doing a bit of digging around in an old murder-suicide in the local area, the parent's bodies discovered but their daughter never found. For all the world it looked like a violent and controlling father had inevitably flipped, and the missing daughter had always been assumed dead, as there had never been a trace of her. Matt's detective spider senses are tweaked though, and as much as he doesn't want to think it, it seems that there's been some rifts in this seemingly close-knit community, until more murders push him firmly back into his old detecting ways.

Refreshingly this novel doesn't make out that all the higher-ups and/or colleagues are idiots, and Buchanan isn't set up to be a lone wolf that saves the day. Rather the effects of his own trauma, and loss, are incorporated into the story of a decent bloke, trying to do the right thing, by a community of people he feels responsible for. He's also able to make some forward movement in his personal life, which very nearly doesn't work out, something that was surprisingly moving.

SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL is one of those crime novels that, on the face of it, is a standard police procedural, written by somebody who knows that world back to front (Blake runs the Behavioural Science unit of the NZ Police in Wellington). He's also incredibly skilled at making it all about the story, not the process, and at no stage does this read like a training manual, or a self-help treatise.

Instead, this is a fast paced, nicely twisty mystery with a particularly nasty killer at the centre of it - killing to protect themselves from their past, as is so often the way. There is also something very real about the way this story addresses the complications and trauma of an ongoing policing career, and how the connections with other serving officers who understand, and a community that supports and sympathises can be the difference between burn out and thriving.

Told in a brisk, no nonsense tone that is richly interlaced with laconic humour, and compelling observation, SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL delivers and then some on the promise of THE SOUND OF HER VOICE. Bring on the third novel please.