Karen

Okay so I'm a bit of a fan - which after two books is quite an achievement. It's probably a little bit to do with the basic premise of genealogy being used to solve crimes (family tree research being an investigation in its own right after all), but mostly it's because Dan Waddell really can tell a bit of a tale.

There is a serial killer theme to BLOOD ATONEMENT, although initially it's only Detective Grant Foster who sees the parallels between the death of Katie Drake, and the disappearance of her 14 year old daughter, and a case 3 years earlier. But do not let that put you off, this isn't your standard mad, bad, feral serial killer. After Foster asks genealogist Nigel Barnes to look into the family history of these girls, the reason for this killer selecting his victims is finally resolved. It's the family tree research that gives Foster the leads he needs.

It's a real testament to the writing of Waddell that makes the idea of a consultant genealogist perfectly acceptable, it's the methodology in researching the past that makes for some of the real standouts of BLOOD ATONEMENT.

Whilst BLOOD ATONEMENT (and the earlier book THE BLOOD DETECTIVE) are effectively police procedurals, it's undoubtedly the spin of genealogy that creates the interest in these books. Having said that, at no stage does it seem like a trick or shtick or anything designed to make the books that little bit different. Instead the use of Nigel's skills seems seamless, makes sense.

Interesting premise this. Take a devastating hit, albeit targeted, in the name of radical environmentalism to engineer a change for the good of the planet. Use sleeper agents who have worked their way into positions of influence and power over many years. Make it even more devastating by having the strikes occur in quick succession, stretching authorities to the limit. Make the targets as varied and unpredictable as possible.

Because of the huge range of incidents the authorities are scrambling just to deal with the fallout, the connections aren't that easy to see to start off with. At the centre of it all is Dr Tori Swyft, ex-CIA member, Australian surfer girl, who, at university, briefly belonged to the group of sleeper agents - 9S. Lead by a most unexpected character, the group has spread out across all sorts of industries, cultures and backgrounds. These committed individuals, once inculcated to the cause, never contact each other again. It's really only Swyft that can work out the connections as the attacks build. Very fast train pileups, a code change in management software for nuclear reactors (okay so I had a bit of trouble swallowing the open source / nobody noticed bit of this one), a financial crisis instigated by within a bank (not so hard to picture), biohazards, and potential shipping disasters.

Swyft, now working for another secretive organisation involved in engineering major corporate outcomes for its clients, was in the middle of a major political / corporate coup when she is forced to walk away to discover where the trojan in her nuclear reactor code came from. This organisation and it's eccentric leader provide her with the resources, tools, and support she needs to find the connections, to go head to head with the sleeper agents, and stop the threat.

So we're obviously talking a very big threat scenario, with a lot of action happening all at once. There's also a big corporate feel to the anti-sleeper effort with private planes, fabulous yachts, high-tech gadgetry and much charging about in helicopters. A lot of the analysis, identification and outcomes that Swyft pulls off rely very heavily on the use of some very high-tech gadgetry. It's a testament to the pacing of the story that at no stage do you feel any desire to scratch a few estimates on the back of an envelope and do a spot of cost accounting - it's all very wild and cutting edge stuff yet it's compelling.

For something quite this “out there”, there is a sneaking sense of possibility, which is always a very good thing in a thriller of this kind. After all, sleeper spy agents are absolutely nothing new in the world of espionage. It's not that hard to imagine that the most trusted in corporate, financial and government circles could be a plant. With an agenda that's set by convictions deeply held. Fortunately THE TRUSTED is probably fiction. At least you'd hope so.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/trusted-john-m-green

THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD is the third book in the Michael Forsythe “Dead” Trilogy - [b:DEAD I WELL MAY BE 21282 Dead I Well May Be A Novel Adrian McKinty http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167321280s/21282.jpg 22463] and THE DEAD YARD are the earlier books. There's an awful lot to really like in THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD.Firstly, it is the third book in a trilogy but I've been very remiss and haven't yet read the first two (which failing I vow to rectify). Didn't matter. You can follow the story, you can glean the back story of Michael and how he got himself into the mess that he's trying to resolve in THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD. And it is a big mess. Michael Forsythe has been in a Witness Protection Program - hidden in Lima, Peru trying to stay off arch-enemy Bridget Callaghan's radar. He had killed her fiancée Darkey years before, and after taking over Darkey's criminal empire, Bridget vowed revenge. She'd had quite a few attempts, but as one assassin puts it - Michael's ‘un-fucking-killable'. But hostilities are temporarily shelved when two assassins in Michael's bedroom “suggest” a chat on the phone with Bridget is in order. Michael's somewhat confused to find she's not wanting to gloat over his final hour - instead she's asking for his help. Bridget's daughter has been kidnapped - and Michael has a deal on his hands. Get back to Belfast and find Siobhan in 24 hours - much will be forgiven.Secondly, it is written in a wonderful voice. Whilst the book is dark and the violence is overt and extreme, it's balanced with a lovely touch of gallows humour. Not put on, the tone of the book fits with the world that the story inhabits. There are little observations of how much Ireland has changed since Michael had to run - small glimpses into Michael's mind and out through Michael's eye. The style of writing is compelling - lyrical - quintessentially Irish, at least to this reader. The story rips along at a rapid pace, but all the time you're allowed to feel you know Michael, you can understand him. He's a blunt, brutal man on one level - prepared, willing and able to do whatever it takes to stay alive, but on another level, he's a bit of softie. He's got a history with Bridget and for what it's worth - that means a lot to him. Finally, it's just a darn good story. Perhaps this is where reading the first two books might, just might, give the reader the edge. There's obviously some threads being tied off in THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD. Knowing the full extent of the back story may just heighten the sense of finality - it certainly didn't make this book any less enjoyable. Really the only thing that wasn't enjoyable about THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD is that it looks like this is meant to be a trilogy and it's now over. And that's just flat out disappointing.

Nailing my colours firmly to the aerial of the ute, I love a book that evokes a place and a people strongly. THE BUILD UP is set in and around Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. A bit of a frontier town - they have a habit of referring to other states as “the shoe wearing states”. Darwin's always been just that bit different from the rest of Australia - it's tropical, it's closer to Asia than to most other Australian capital cities, and it used to be a town where cultures intermingled comfortably (probably still is - it's been a long time between visits).

Dusty's star has been waning a bit in the NT police. The failure to resolve a high profile missing female honeymooner rankles with her - and with her boss - The Big C (Commissioner of NT Police). The report of a body found in a billabong by a local fisherman might be the feather in the cap she needs, but everyone gets considerably more jaundiced about Dusty when the body disappears. It would have helped if she'd got the full name of her other witness, a German backpacker - but then she wasn't all that interested in his name when she picked him up in the pub the night before. To make matters worse, when a body is found in the desert and it looks like it's the missing honeymooner - Dusty is more than bloody annoyed that she's taken off that case and assigned to sorting out Case Exhibits. (Nobody has yet quite forgotten the exhibit mess that was revealed during the Dingo and baby case years ago). Toying with the idea of leaving the police, leaving the Territory, staying in both, dealing with her mother, her childless state - the fact that the man who is her true soulmate is gay, well, life with Dusty has that certain edge to it.

THE BUILD UP refers to that period between the Dry Season and the Wet - as the atmospheric pressure builds up, just before the rains start, when the locals get a bit antsy. Where THE BUILD UP really really works is in the way that it evokes the people and the place. You can feel the air getting heavier, stickier, oppressive. You can smell the way that the humidity swirls around you, mixed with the scent of the tropical flowers, the overripe mangoes, the Thai food, the unwashed backpackers, the beer and smoke of the pubs. You can see the way that the dark clouds roll in off the sea, and the lightening that flickers in the sky - teasing with a hint that the Wet is coming. You can see the people getting ratty, tense, slightly daft. You can sense the changes in Darwin since the early days of settlement, since Cyclone Tracy wiped out large parts of the city. You can roar with laughter at the idea that somebody would name their daughter after that devastating event. You can hear the combinations of accents - the cops, the absoluties, the Long Grassers, the Thais, the Vietnamese, the backpackers from all over the world.

You're probably not going to be reading THE BUILD UP just for the plot - it's not bad, but there is some maverick behaviour going on that lovers of a traditional police procedural are going to find hard to swallow. You're definitely not going to be reading THE BUILD UP if you're into the idea of romance - the sex in this book is not intended to lead to a long-term relationship and picket fences all round. You definitely are not going to be reading this book if strong language and a hefty dose of slang is going to throw you. But given this book gets the highest possible rating from me - two nights of leftovers or takeway, I'm NOT putting this thing down to cook dinner - you should be reading this book if you want something that will give you a short, sharp, funny, realistic and sympathetic view of a world that rings a lot of bells with me, and hopefully is still up there - quietly sweating away in the build up to the wet.

Remember when you were a kid and The Adventurous Four, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven were just the ticket for an exciting read (okay so you have to be of “a certain age” for that to apply), but I still remember how satisfying those books were. An adventure, a puzzle that had to be solved - by a bunch of kids of a similar age to yourself, all done and dusted and home in time for tea. Many a person “of a certain age” will attest that these books were the ones that got them started on a life-long love of reading. Perhaps that's partly because they were so easy to identify with, or had scenarios that the average kid could aspire to, dream of. THE BILLIONAIRE'S CURSE could very well be the same sort of book for kids of a current age.

Definitely set in a more current day world - the book blurb starts off with “What would you do if you suddenly became a billionaire?”. It's the story of 13 year old Australian boy Gerald, who comes from a relatively staid, standard suburban life enlivened mostly by fantasies of great deeds and heroics. He could never have imagined the scenario that instead finds him home from school and bundled onto a luxury private jet, winging his way to London to become the richest thirteen-year-old in the world, as a hitherto unknown Great Aunt leaves the family fortune to him. Nor could he have dreamed up the theft of the world's most valuable diamond, and a murder that leads directly to Gerald's own life being in danger. Gerald's just the boy for the situation though - he's got his billionaire survival kit, he's got some new friends and they are off to solve the mystery!

Despite a considerably more current day setting and plotline than those great old books of our own childhood, there is quite a feel of the The Famous Five about the style of THE BILLIONAIRE'S CURSE. The language used is simple, yet engaging, slightly formal and every so slightly stagey, but it works. This is the sort of book that a child could read for themselves, or an adult would have great fun reading to children - either way the book works as a great entertainment, with just enough scary bits for a spot of hiding under the doona to add to the excitement.

The winner of the inaugural Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing, THE BILLIONAIRE'S CURSE made this adult reader very very happy. Whilst there is something nostalgic, old-fashioned, almost comfortable about reading a kids book about kids who save the day and solve the puzzle, there is something very satisfying about the idea that kids - of all ages - are still able to find a book like THE BILLIONAIRE'S CURSE that may, just may, lead to a life-long love of reading.

THE DEVIL'S GARDEN was a book I picked up because the case it covers - The Claremont Serial Killings - is unfortunately still unsolved, and because I've been reading a little about a number of cases in WA recently. It made me want to find out more about the nature of the investigation into the murders of two young women, and the disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997.

What I discovered from this book is an inkling into the tunnel vision of the police force which appears to be consistent with the attitude displayed in another case in the same state of Australia.

I also managed to discover a little about the girls who died, the impact their deaths had on the families, and in particular the devastation felt by one family, whose daughter's has never been found - assumed dead at the hands of the same killer.


True Crime for me works best when it either lays out the facts of a case allowing the reader to come to a better understanding of the events or when, in the case of miscarriages of justice or unsolved cases, it investigates, analyses the evidence and builds a possible scenario with supporting details.

What doesn't work for me is something that I'm increasingly noticing from books from this author - gratuitous intrusion of the author into the story. Fair enough if the author is interviewing witnesses, drawing out aspects of the case, working on an investigation on behalf of a wrongly convicted person, then observations / commentary are expected. What's not expected, and seemed increasingly discomforting are the author's “feelings” on driving around in cars in Perth, the way that the scene where one of the poor girls was found “felt”, and enough other off-pitch elements that left me with an increasing impression of grandstanding.

Which is unfortunate, as this is a case that seems to deserve a considered, factual telling.

It's refreshing to see more Australian Crime fiction moving out from the suburban and city streets - into the regional areas. DEATH AMONG THE VINES sets most of its action in and around the Ashcombe Vineyard in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales.

Col Ashcombe - a well known winemaker - is bashed to death in a creekbed on the winery, just as his son - Tim - is seeking finance to give the New York based advertising agency he is a partner in, a boost to take on some higher profile and larger accounts. Tim has only recently been in Australia - a flying visit during which he argued with his father. His delayed return for the funeral finds him involved in solving the murder of his father, and sorting out whether the winery will be sold or can remain in the family.

Writing a first book must be a nerve wracking undertaking - and when reading them, I often find it's important to consider the book from a number of viewpoints, and maybe cut the author a little slack as they develop a style and voice of their own. DEATH AMONG THE VINES is seen mostly from Tim's viewpoint. He has a very difficult relationship with his family, and maybe it's that difficulty that is being transmitted, but most of the rest of the family were sketchy at best. Tim's mother seems a very distant, remote woman, not really connected to her husband, the winery, her family or the murder all that strongly - she was almost ghostlike on the outskirts. There is some indication that she is supposed to be distant - but it was possibly too much, too circumstantial. Much the same with Tim's sister Janet who was present sporadically but also hard to get to know all that much. The concentration on Tim meant that he is the most vividly drawn character - and in his own right, somewhat difficult to like. He frequently seems more interested in the financial side of the business than who would have killed his father. Even allowing for the difficult relationship with his father, it seemed an overtly mercenary approach on occasions.

There is another winery next door to Ashcombe - Clements - owned by cousins, and it is from here that a family feud complicates the possible list of suspects, that complication made worse by Tim's strong attraction to Pearl Clements who is home, at the winery, when he returns after his father's death. There is no love lost between the two families, and there is a grudge against the victim in particular. Suspects in the death of Col Ashcombe could come from his own family, the Clements or maybe a disgruntled employee. As Tim snoops around, there is a formal police investigation which sort of comes and goes in the storyline.

DEATH AMONG THE VINES does have some problems. Firstly the plot is pretty easy to see coming, and there's very little tension or pace in the way that the elements are revealed. Maybe with a little more pace, the transparency would have been less of an issue. There is also some very stilted dialogue to read, and a few clanger lines. “It was the day after she had initiated him in the mysteries of sex.” - sorry but that just made me cringe and just dropped me right out of the story. The other problem with it is that Tim ended up a bit of a difficult character to like - his motivation in investigating being suspiciously more of a financial benefit for himself might have been okay - even believable - but it did seem to be strongly telegraphing that there was something very very dodgy about Col - more than just an overbearing ego.

But DEATH AMONG THE VINES is a first novel, and first novels are sometimes tricky. It's got a great setting, and it's nice to see some crime fiction out of the towns. There is a good police investigator lurking at the edges, who could have some real potential in a book where he has a chance to hold the focus, and whilst some of the elements of the motivation were a bit predictable, there was some attempt at a twist on the theme which was at least unusual, if not particularly comfortable. The pace of the book could really appeal to people who are looking for something a little on the gentler side.

In the summer of 1973, 11 year old Miller McAllister is very happy. His family own a house overlooking the sea on the East Coast of Scotland and the small island, Fidra, that's visible from the mainland house. The youngest of three children, Miller and his father Douglas love the island, with its birds, wildlife, old ruins and the simple cottage residence.

When Douglas is arrested, tried and found guilty of the rape and murder of three young girls, Miller is profoundly affected. To start with he believes in his father's innocence, but when the girl bodies are found on Fidra, he falls apart. While Miller's mother, sister and older brother stand stoically beside Douglas, protesting his innocence, Miller believes totally in his guilt and he cuts himself off from his father - a dramatic and damaging act for such a young boy. He tries to start his own life when he is old enough, but nothing is ever really right with Miller from that day on. More than 30 years later Miller is pulled back to the family home and island when his father dies. Despite Miller's reaction to his father, he alone has inherited the house and the island but the condition seems to have been a plea to re-assess the evidence against Douglas. Despite his better judgement Miller is pulled into rechecking the facts. With the help of his childhood friend Catriona Buchan and Duncan - a monk and close friend of his mother, Miller unearths the truth of the triple murders and confronts the whole family's demons.

THE RECKONING is a pretty harrowing book. The setting, which incorporates the old house, the island, rugged coastlines and the brooding presence of a ruined castle perched high above the sea create a feeling of closed off, sinister insularity. Add to that a family, initially seemingly very happy, who are forced, with very few close and lifelong friends, to close ranks and protect themselves in the aftermath of the conviction of the father for such dreadful crimes. The insularity of the family translates directly into Miller's own personality - he has become more and more disconnected from himself, his own wife and children, and his siblings. As he fights the conflict he feels towards the memory of his father and reinvestigating the trial, he becomes more stressed and more fragile.

The story is relatively well paced, and there are a reasonable set of possible suspects - including the man who Scottish justice convicted of the crime. There are attempts peppered throughout the book to provide third party background on the case, the island and the family. This does break up the flow of the narrative slightly and, given that Miller is such an intense, worrying, almost foreboding character in his own right, these forays into extra information are a bit distracting and give the whole book a bit of a choppy feel at times. It's certainly a very busy plot, moving from the current, back to the lead up to the deaths of the girls, through the investigation and then briefly into the families lives post the trial, although sometimes some of these areas were overly detailed and some too brush stroke.

What was really interesting about THE RECKONING was the exploration of a brutal series of murders and the affect that they have on more than just the victim's family. In this case there were three dead girls, and one very damaged little boy.

A few years ago I made a promise to myself to catch up on some of the back catalogue lurking around in darkened corners in this place.

Some months I get that right - other months I make a real hash of it and that's to my own detriment.

Although in an odd way, taking SOOO long to get to this collection of Disher short stories actually worked for me, as many of them are obviously the starting point of some of my favourite of the later novels. That made for a fascinating insight into the way an idea starts, and can be expanded.

But as a collection of short stories in their own right, this is a great book. Divided up into the sections outlined on the blurb, this is really enjoyable collection overall. As is the way with all these collections, there will be some stories that appeal more than others, there are some that are tight, and interesting, and they just work really well at telling a story, building an atmosphere and getting to the point quickly and succinctly. There are some that aren't quite as well-rounded, but there are absolutely none that don't work on some level.

If you're a fan of Disher's novels and you can track down a copy of this collection, it's well worth the bother of finding.

PUZZLE ME DEAD is the story of Careen Tamley, a survivor of the Clown Killer. On her nineteenth birthday, she survived a terrifying assault by a still unidentified serial killer, eleven other girls were not so lucky. Each murder scene included a card, numbered two to twelve. Careen moved on as best she could, despite the killer constantly sending her creepy messages, despite never knowing who they are, or why she was picked. She's become a bit of a workaholic, obsessed with her own security, but still she's been receiving pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, making up the face of a clown, each piece numbered, counting down again from twelve. The messages seems pretty clear, number one in his scheme is still on his mind.

Careen Tamley seems to be a trauma magnet in PUZZLE ME DEAD. As if the close call from a serial killer in her past wasn't enough, there's also plenty of mystery about the presumed suicide of her beloved mentor, founder of the company that she has worked so hard to maintain. Then there's the gutter journalist who seems to enjoy poking about in Careen's past, and somebody close who is in an abusive relationship with a dangerous, angry, partner.

Needless to say, anybody suffering from coulrophobia (fear of clowns) would do well to proceed with extreme caution. Although there's a hell of a lot going on in PUZZLE ME DEAD to the point where it gets a bit cinematic, with decided horror-movie overtones, it does keep coming back to the Clown Killer thread. Needless to say with this much happening, it's a swirling vortex of nasty, all spinning Careen into a state of terror, increasingly aware that nobody, even those with best intentions, can be trusted because there's a master manipulator sitting at the centre of all these threads and they are very good at crafting impenetrable knots.

I will admit that for this reader it got a little too busy at some points, which kind of downplayed the credibility levels a bit too much. There are elements of this story though, that are flat out scary despite a bit of femjep that stopped short of nighties, high-heels and candles in basements thankfully. Although not completely convinced by the ending, I could definitely see PUZZLE ME DEAD as one of those stories that would work for readers who are particularly drawn to the central themes of manipulation and terrorisation.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/puzzle-me-dead-kathy-childs

Confession up front - I don't read these books for their plots, their scenarios or even in an attempt to find the flaws in the procedural elements. I read them because I love Frost, Mullet, George Toolan, Ernie Trigg and the ever changing assortment of DS's that come and go in Frost's world. I love Denton, (wouldn't want to live there - the constant crime waves would do your head in after a while), but really, the point of the Frost books for me, at least, is more about time with old friends than it is necessarily about strong police procedurals.

I guess I should also admit that it's now pretty well impossible to read a Frost book without seeing and hearing David Jason in the title role from the TV series, which is possibly also why I don't see some personality characteristics that other readers often comment on. I “see” the dialogue with a twinkle in the eye, with a strong coating of irony or self-deprecation. I hear a quintessentially tongue in cheek bit of a rogue policeman with a way of needling away at a case until it gets solved. Regardless of the resourcing problems, regardless of how much he annoys the upper echelons, and how many favours he calls in from his colleagues.

I realise there is a distinct possibility that this could be seen as very odd, as often the cases are violent, and there is always a lot of simultaneous crime going on in these books, but I really do find the Frost series increasingly a bit of a comfort read. Not just because Frost is a copper who keeps going until everything's solved, not just because he's a copper who you'd trust to do the right thing, but also because there's something wonderfully English, something very realistic about the way that the cases are portrayed, the juggling that goes on everyday in an under-resourced, overworked and extremely human police force.

Little housework first - Melissa Chan is a pseudonym for Dr Jocelynne Scutt, Australian feminist lawyer, writer and commentator. TOO RICH was published in 1991 by Spinifex Press, and I distinctly remember when reading it originally at the time of publication, feeling somewhat “cause battered” by the end of the book.

Re-reading it again, some observations remained constant, some became more finely attuned with the passing years. The constant is that whilst nobody could possibly object to the righteousness of the feminist message being delivered, particularly given the time in which the book was originally published, the message gets lost in the delivery. The problem is with the stridency, which, with the passing of years, I can now articulate more clearly. TOO RICH is falling way too short of show, don't tell. Tell is not strong enough - it is, to be frank, rather on the shouty side. Made me profoundly uncomfortable then, makes me even more so now. Particularly as the more finely attuned observation with the passage of time is inconsistency. Whilst hammering away with the messages of affirmative action, TOO RICH has a plot which is extremely clichéd. We've got the chubby, slightly “unacceptably” wealthy, nouveau rich, working class done good, battered wife; versus the gorgeous, thin, attractive, gold digging girlfriend. We've got a message which is trying to say something real and pertinent about the difficulties that abused and battered women have in getting their life back on track, alongside some mindless prattle about Lady this, and society event that, and off to Hong Kong and Paris for the weekend shopping. We've got the one dimensional daughter married to the vacuous son of the landed gentry, the all hope lost drunken disappointment son, versus the abused but worthy daughter who rejects her background....

Worse than that, we've got the pointless pairing of the heart of gold cop, and the determined independent Feminist detective, for absolutely no apparent reason, other, one assumes, than to make some sort of statement about the lack of women in the upper echelons of police detecting at the time. Or something. Frankly I'm grasping for reasons.

Add to that a series of red herrings that whiffed, and TOO RICH was. For taste - not body size or bank balance.

“The Honest Conman” (aka Nicholas J Johnson) used to do a warning segment on scams and frauds on ABC Local Radio, but it was a pleasant surprise to find he'd written a heist / scam novel. Needless to say his debut novel, CHASING THE ACE, reads like the author knows a lot about the subject matter.

Think a dual handed TV's Hustle style scenario in which Joel, a young man with no purpose in life, hooks up with Richard, an older man, experienced in the fine art of scams and swindles. What Joel doesn't realise is that the man he's adopted as his mentor and working partner is sick of the whole thing. Being taken under Richard's wing might turn out to be the break that Joel wanted, or it could turn out to be a disaster. Nobody's going to know until the end of the novel (and maybe not even then).

Reading somewhere between a good fun heist novel and a salutory warning manual, CHASING THE ACE is utterly believable. It's also quite touching, with both of these characters being flawed, a little bit sad and lonely. Granted Joel does eventually get a girlfriend, although his attitude about her needs some adjustment (it's downright off).

It's not just about these two characters though. Joel has a family and a difficult relationship with a mother who's not been backward in getting her hands on compensation money that's really Joel's. He's got more respect for his stepfather and stepsister, although the family situation overall is tricky. Richard has friends, and a long history of being mentored and mentoring another young man. There's history about him that's revealed (mostly via third parties) along the way. Luckily, despite a slightly strained relationship, Joel has found out enough about Richard to be there when the going gets tough, but the final twist and turns are less expected.

Now having compared CHASING THE ACE to Hustle, it's only fair to warn potential readers that there's nothing glamorous about most of the scams pulled here. It's all a bit tawdry really, but keep an eye out for the twist in the tail of a few of them. There are actually a lot of twists and turns here, all ending up with an obvious intent to carry on the story of a scam merchant.

You'd be almost tempted to get people to read CHASING THE ACE if only as a warning about the sorts of scams and tricks being perpetrated in the real world. Doesn't hurt that it's an entertaining read along the way.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-chasing-ace-nicholas-j-johnson

Set in Dunedin, New Zealand, local writer Jane Woodham obviously loves the place that she lives in. Incorporating a lot of local landmarks, geographical elements and a strong sense of place, TWISTER is her debut novel featuring DSS Leo Judd and a series of investigations into everything from animal torture to gay bashings, and the death of a young schoolgirl.

Starting out in an apocalyptic style, Dunedin is gripped initially by a flu epidemic, and then, after five days of biblical rain, an unusual twister rips through the place, causing havoc, and exposing the body of a missing schoolgirl in a local creek. DSS Judd is the lead investigator on the case, a difficult position for him to be in after the unsolved disappearance of his own daughter nine years earlier. He also isn't overly aware that his marriage is teetering on the edge, with his wife Kate contemplating leaving him to move in with her lover Rea.

TWISTER is extremely heavy on the personal elements, particularly the will she / won't she moving out of Kate. Rea is an old family friend, neighbour and somebody with who Kate shares a very big personal secret. She's much more forthright than Kate and applying hefty pressure for a decision to be made, and them both to be able to move on. This thread inserts itself into the investigative aspects of the book in such a hefty manner that it does frequently take over, although for those that are more interested in inter-personal relationships, and the pressures of coming out after many years of heterosexual relationships that might well be an interesting aspect. It could also result in an enormous amount of flicking, searching constantly for the crime threads, in what felt at times more like a romance novel.

Whilst the character of Kate is definitely a little on the wishy-washy side, that of DSS Leo Judd is stronger. They are both obviously still deeply affected by the disappearance of their daughter, but for Judd there's that professional disappointment as well as the personal loss. The fact that he's never been able to resolve what happened to his daughter gives this current investigation a little more of an edge, although again, that can sometimes be a little washed out by the real-estate conversations and the gardening, and the swimming and everything else.

Because of the byways, side-alleys and distractions liberally inserted into the action in TWISTER, this is definitely not a novel for those for whom plot and resolution are everything in their crime fiction reading. For anyone who is looking for something with all of those complications, with the emphasis on personal elements, and with such a strong sense of place, it would be well worth a look.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-twister-jane-woodham

Set in New Zealand, written by an Australian author, POISON BAY by Belinda Pollard is one of those novels that you just can't help but wonder what tourism authorities reaction would be...

Located in one of New Zealand's most rugged and beautiful locations - Fiordland - the place and the circumstances combine to create some real menace for a group of high school friends on a trekking holiday that goes horribly wrong. Starting out with a flashback to the tragic death of one of their friends, the focus switches quickly to the current day and a reunion with a difference. A group of friends, who obviously haven't seen each other for a long time, come together to be lead through the wilderness on a one off adventure by one of their number, long resident in the area.

Even before the group heads into the bush there's a few odd things happening, but not enough, it seems to have caused too many alarms to go off, even though many of them obviously aren't fit, prepared, or seemingly capable of the journey they are about to undertake. Readers will probably be ringing those alarm bells though, and the idea that many of the misgivings are parked behind the desire to resolve mixed personal feelings, felt instantly worrying / odd.

Seeing most things through the eyes of television journalist Callie Brown, there's an interesting scenario building, with the potential of a switched on, observant narrator into the bargain. The idea that old friends, unsure of each other after all these years, in the wilderness and outside their comfort zones, relying on each other to get through is a chance to look at human nature in extreme circumstances. Unfortunately, there are some inconsistencies between that scenario and the actuality of their experience. The snippets of action and outcome are quickly subsumed by massive amounts of explanatory dialogue that take great care to spell out everything, regardless of how much should have been left to the reader's observation. There's tension between the characters that's nearly always resolved with some mea culpa statements, and yet more explanation and there's too much overtly convenient partnerships / pairings off which quickly seem to telegraph potential twists. Then there are the things that some characters see which others “miss” and the way that the “good guys” step into each other's orbit too quickly to be believable or trusted.

Meanwhile the sense of extremity and threat is there with the setting, in particular, providing a much heightened sense of risk and danger than any of the human components. Whilst there was a certain sense of inevitability about some of the early twists, once they arrived and the focus turned to how to survive against the landscape and the weather as well as the expected human threat, POISON BAY did become considerably more engaging. This was helped by the focus being switched from the group lost and in trouble, to those back at the small town they set out from, being forced by relatives to start the search. The confusion about how a group of friends under the guidance of an experienced and seemingly prepared guide could have gone missing, and how the possible truth is revealed was compelling and one of the highlights of the story.

First thriller novels are often filled with the highest of highs and some elements that just simply don't hit the mark. The idea behind POISON BAY is in interesting one, and the use of the landscape as part of the overall threat beautifully done. Missing was a lack of a subtle touch, allowing the reader to observe, conclude and engage with the characters, without the need for hammered extrapolation, explanation and reiteration.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-poison-bay-belinda-pollard-0

As the blurb puts it - could a rock-star's first big hit have predicted his death? First in what looks like it's going to be a series DEAD MAN SINGING introduces Detective Joni Johns and private investigator Frankie Buchanan who find themselves investigating the death of rock star Jim Munro. Johns because it's her job and Buchanan when he's hired by the members of Munro's band - We Own the Night. Only problem is that Johns is the person responsible for ending Buchanan's police career, so needless to say there's a bit of tension there.

Given the reference to the first big hit, this is a story about the past coming back to bite big time, and there's a dark secret at the centre of all of this - something that Munro's kept from the band for many years. That idea of past catching up is always an interesting one, and the setting here is particularly intriguing - you have to wonder how somebody with idol status can keep a secret, and the stakes if the truth gets out. Definitely a clever idea for a plot, although the execution of the story does need a little tightening up, and maybe work on the style - there's something overtly mannered / regency styled about the tone here that didn't quite jell with the high octane, high stakes, high drama of rock and roll that this reader has in her mind.

A strong investigative pairing, it will be interesting to see if this does expand into a series and how it matures as it goes.

THE SEDUCTION OF POWER is Melbourne based author Sergio Scasioli's first book. According to an article in his local newspaper, it was inspired by a passion to write, spurred on by a chance meeting with an inspirational character.

The book is the first in a planned trilogy, described as an “epic tale of the Calabrian Mafia in Australia”. Given that it is a debut book, and the first in this trilogy it became important to keep that in mind when reading this opening instalment.

THE SEDUCTION OF POWER is best described as the story of one man - Paolo Valente - who we follow from a difficult childhood in the small Italian Village of Montebello through to his immigration to Australia, and ultimately, his insinuation into the Calabrian Mafia already ensconsed firmly in Melbourne's society.

Less of a story about the Mafia as a whole, although there are cameo appearances of wider La Famiglia components, this story builds a lot of the background of Paolo (or Paul as the Anglicised version of his name becomes). Paul has an unusual childhood to say the least - neglected and very poor, the book gets into his sexual exploits very early on. And they continue right through the story. Constantly. At one point it seemed less about the Seduction of Power and more about the Seduction of everyone Paul came into contact with! Set mostly in Melbourne Australia, although the start of the book is in Italy, there is much that will seem familiar, particularly for a Melbourne based reader - there are references to many locally known landmarks in the Italian community areas throughout the suburbs. There is even some action that seems faintly familiar - perhaps based loosely on real life events, perhaps it is just that there was a feeling of reality about those descriptions. There are some illuminating little glimpses into the mindset of the Italian immigrants, from the insider point of view. Their attitudes and relationships with, in particular, those communities and people already here, was quite an interesting twist.

In terms of the actions of the Mafia themselves, this aspect of the book was perhaps a little lighter on than I was expecting. There are certainly aspects of the activities of the Mafia within the book, but they are very much seen from the aspect of Paul's positioning in that society. This also makes reading this book an interesting challenge - Paul's somebody that is basically amoral. To read this book, you're following his story, and he's not a “hero” or one of the good guys, or even somebody for whom there seems to be much hope of change.

The book does show some promise for the rest of the trilogy but I do confess I would have liked less of Paul's sexual antics, which all got very predictable, and a lot more of the Mafia aspects - the actual goings on in La Famiglia. Hopefully that's where the rest of the trilogy is heading, as I'll keep an eye out for the second book.

Before we get started here, a bit of housekeeping. Because the covers on the versions of the 4 books in the Madeleine Brooks series I received caused a bit of confusion on my part, the order is:

DEATH IN COLD WATERS
DEATH AT CHERRY TREE MANOR
DEATH AT VALLEY VIEW COTTAGE
DEATH IN LACHMORE WOOD

Reading this series in order, Madeleine Brooks goes from being a married Senior Probation Officer with a pain in the rear boss, a teenage daughter, and an ungrateful husband who turns out to be a philandering bastard into the bargain; to a real-estate agent in rural England, with a fresh beginning and an uncanny ability to discover mysteries at every new listing.

In the first book - DEATH IN COLD WATERS - there is a lot of build up to the ultimate change in career that's the main focus in the other three (this is most definitely a series that needs to be read in order). The case at the heart of this book is that of a long-term probationer who has been returned to prison on suspicion of murdering a child. Despite there being a lot of similarities between the new accusations, and the crime that sent him to prison in the first place, Maddie's not convinced, and a work suspension by a revengeful and idiot boss, means that she's got the time and energy she needs to find out what happened in the earlier case, and why her client's been accused again. Heaps of set up here for the ongoing series, lots of personal as well as professional angst but definitely one for fans of the mildly annoyed, very put upon, style of female amateur investigator (although to be honest why she tolerated as much as she did without going postal on at least the ex-husband's derriere I'll never understand).

Getting into the second book in the series, DEATH AT CHERRY TREE MANOR, you get a real feel for the character Madeleine Brooks, who is one of those very chatty, middle-aged-woman-whose-husband-has-turned-out-to-be-a-bastard types, with the styling being on the cosy side. In this outing, Maddie has left the aforementioned husband, and her job, and started up as a real estate agent in the English country side. An interesting idea here, with a grand old house intended for sale, only the owner is an elderly woman who just vanished one night. The seller is also the believed inheritor of the property, which means not just prepping and selling, but establishing the heir's right to sell - which leads to investigating his great-aunt's disappearance. Along with the trials of establishing yourself as a newly separated woman (with a drain on resources ex-husband) there's a LOT of real-estate chat in this one. Perhaps a bit too much because I kept struggling to keep track of the alleged victim, and where we were all heading. Having said that, it's very much in the cosy style as already mentioned, and could very well be just the ticket for fans of that sub-genre.

The third book, DEATH AT VALLEY VIEW COTTAGE, sees Maddie more established as a successful real-estate agent, officially an ex-wife, although her latest listing comes via a recommendation from her ex-husband. There's something very suspicious about the owner of this recently renovated cottage though, and Maddie's left wondering what exactly her ex is up to as well as the owner. Nothing compared to what happens when a body is found in a shallow grave at the cottage. Still hefty amounts of real-estate chatter, but you can see very clearly now where this series is heading, and how Maddie is growing into her new life.

The fourth book is DEATH IN LACHMORE WOOD. In this outing things have gotten very messy, with three deaths, and a childhood friend in shock and struggling. Peggy Fox has just lost her daughter and son-in-law in a car accident, leaving her with custody of her four-year-old grandson, sole survivor of the crash. Days later her ex-husband dies of a drug overdose, whilst her grandson's paternal grandfather, a very wealthy, abrupt almost rude sort of a man, offers to buy a house with garden for Peggy to raise young Leo in. When the police decide that Peggy's ex-husband was actually murdered, things get even more complicated, and Maddie goes from real-estate agent, and friend, to investigator. This outing had a really interesting plot idea at the core of it, complicated without being overly complex, tangled and very believable. Perhaps because there was much to be considered in the plot, the real-estate info dump took a backseat, and the balance of this novel seemed to work a lot better than the middle two.


Madeleine Brooks is a character that's going to appeal to fans of cosy mysteries with a bit of bite, and a leaning towards older women back out there, re-establishing their lives after a marriage breakdown. There is now a fifth book in the series as well - DEATH AT THE OLDE WOODLEY GRANGE, so if you like this series, you've got quite a few books to be getting on with.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/death-cold-waters-death-cherry-tree-manor-death-valley-view-cottage-death-lachmore-wood

SECOND STRIKE is the second thriller starring Alan (Mac) McQueen, although this particular book brings the actual action a lot closer to home than the first - GOLDEN SERPENT. Readers who find books set in recent events uncomfortable, may struggle a little as SECOND STRIKE starts off in Bali - in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Kuta that killed over 200 people in 2002. Mac is called in to help the investigation teams, joining the elite unit of spies and soldiers tasked with hunting down the terrorists implicated. Despite a hot pursuit, the terrorist ringleaders avoid capture.

Five years later, Mac is back in Indonesia, still involved in espionage but this time in something a little less physical, when bullets start to fly and it seems the old foes have returned. Mac finds himself compelled once again into the role of lone hand as he struggles to stop whatever the ringleaders are up to this time, and deal with the complacency and traitors in his own ranks.

SECOND STRIKE is every bit as action packed as GOLDEN SERPENT. In fact the action rarely lets up, although there are some “quieter” times thoughout the book mostly with brief interludes into Mac's happy, almost idyllic personal life. Of course this is a thriller though, so there's an ever present sense of menace even in the personal life as Mac's wife continues her own job which produces its own threats, over and above anything that Mac might drop the family into.

As confrontational as the starting point of the Bali bombings may be to some, they, and the very Australian stylings of the main characters in this book provide an interesting local sensibility for SECOND STRIKE. Right down to the ultimate threat at the end of this book, there's no doubt that the central characters in this book are local, that the threat is to Australia and the region in which we all exist and the reaction is also rather Australian. Sure it's a bit over the top, Mac is one of the original energiser bunny types with seemingly unending energy, the ability to continue no matter how much physical damage he suffers during the battle, and possessed of an almost super-natural ability to see the plot when all about him are oblivious.

For a long time now, military, spy, intelligence thriller readers in these parts have had to feed their addiction with a hefty dose of English and American writers. Abernethy has written two books now that take that concept and dress it nicely with a great Australian sense of dry wit and irreverence.

Perhaps it's just my somewhat shaky understanding of things technical, but there are a few occurrences which didn't quite make sense (how can they block radio and mobile signals and still have working police radios?). There is a tad too much of the idyllic personal towards the climax of the book which might have been designed to increase the sense of what could be lost, but all it did for me was destroy a lot of the pace. Particularly frustrating as what was about to come wasn't that hard to pick and I just wanted to get back “into it!”. Minor quibbles in what is, for the most part, one of those great escapist, fantastic thriller rides where the baddies are particularly dreadful and the goodies slightly flawed and the world is saved from the unthinkable ... just.

DEATH BEYOND THE LIMIT is the third novel in the Fiji Island Mysteries series featuring superstar ex-Rugby player, now Police Inspector, Joe Horseman. This is one of those series that will work really well if you're reading it in order, but luckily won't matter too much if you don't.

Having really enjoyed the first two novels in this series, one of the aspects I was particularly intrigued about was the balancing act between what's increasingly becoming the two central police investigators - Horseman, with his Fijian background, culture and sensibility and his sidekick DS Susie Singh, with her Fijian Indian background and the slight variances in culture and tradition. These aspects are both particularly well executed and in DEATH BEYOND THE LIMIT, Singh's personal life takes centre stage, playing out a story of potential suitors, and the complications of maintaining a professional life in the face of traditional expectations.

The balance here, as in the earlier novels, is well maintained, with the central investigation of the gruesome find of a severed head, and then hand, all that's ultimately discovered of a victim's body, making identification, and what could have killed him complex and very vexing. As you'd expect in a smaller community though, connections start to emerge and it's partially those that lead to the identification, then to a potential crime scene, and ultimately to politics and the challenges of international fishing fleets and territorial waters.

On the gentler side of crime fiction, without necessarily falling into cosy classification, this is a lovely series of novels, entertaining and engaging, educational without tipping into lecturing, with a strong sense of place and the culture in which they are set. It also doesn't hurt that they are built around a couple of central characters with life scenarios dripping with potential. If you're looking for a series that's a bit different from the gory, dark, run of the mill sort of police investigation style, the Fiji Island Mysteries could be just the thing.


https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/death-beyond-limit-bm-allsopp

There are never enough new crime fiction writers and/or novels in Australia every year (okay so I'm greedy!), but there are certainly never enough quite as good as STORM PEAK which is John A Flanagan's first crime fiction novel, and I'm certainly cheering for more.

STORM PEAK is set in Colorado in the US, and I hope a reader would be hard-pressed to pick that the setting isn't the author's own, except perhaps for the use of the much beloved u (in spelling). Setting away from the author's home base can sometimes not work - little inaccuracies in dialect and/or terminology can clang badly, but very little seemed not to fit. There's a central male character - Jesse Parker, ex-Denver police detective, returned to civilian life in his hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado after a stake-out goes horribly wrong. Add a central female character - Lee Torrens is the local sheriff, local girl, ex-childhood friend and teenage sweetheart of Jesse. There's still some ongoing sexual and romantic attachment between them. Tentative attempts to re-establish a personal relationship after many years, rapidly goes pear-shaped when Jesse's journalist ex-wife appears in town. His ex-wife is in town because there's a serial killer in Steamboat Springs. Not exactly a series of elements that would immediately make me like the sound of this book. So my sheer enjoyment of it came as somewhat of a surprise for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the setting, the tone and the characters seemed to fit like a hand in a tailor-made glove. Secondly, despite the on-again / off-again / will she / won't he relationship between Jesse and Lee, there's also a feeling of reality about the difficulties of somebody going home, and everyone trying to pick up the pieces after many years. The balance of the relationship versus police work and the killer's activities was good - the personal certainly didn't cloud or overshadow the main thread of the book, and it added some pace and texture at points. The serial killer element worked despite a reasonably predictable motivation, mostly because of the nature of the killings - random targets, often in public places, there's a level of bravado that makes this killer less sick and creepy, more dangerous and edgy.

Jesse's rapidly drafted in as a Deputy Sheriff to help investigate the killings, and there's obviously going to be pressure from on high, with the town relying on tourist traffic, and tourist hang-outs being amongst the killer's preferred stalking locations. The tension at the end of the book is ramped up quickly with a dangerous battle to save the girl, a nice little twist and a follow-up hefty dose of a happy ending. By that stage that didn't make me want to cringe, and overall, this book was extremely entertaining. I hope the publisher's entering STORM PEAK in the Best First Crime Novel category of the Ned Kelly awards this year, it would be very interesting to see how it goes.

VANISHING POINT by Pat Flower was originally published in 1975, and re-released by Wakefield Press as part of their Crime Classics series in 1993. It is the first of three important thrillers written by this author before her suicide in 1978.

The Wakefield edition has an afterword written by editors Michael J. Tolley and Peter Moss which is well worth reading for some background to the author herself, as well as their take on the book. It includes this quotation from the author:

“People sometimes ask as they edge away, Why Murder? I'm absorbed in characters, not in murder. In ordinary people a bit round the bend. I like to follow the effects on my characters of heredity, environment and circumstance, and reveal in action, reaction and interaction the instability which might in real life go unnoticed but in my books is fatal. For my crackpots, murder is the only way out. Instead of moving to another town, or trying sweet reason, they resort to the “final solution”. And find, of course, that it isn't.”

VANISHING POINT is most definitely a book about character. A character who, it becomes obvious, is more than just a bit around the bend. This central character - Geraldine - is completely, utterly and ruthlessly obsessed. Whilst her main obsession will always be with herself - the way that she sees the world and the way that she believes others see her; she imposes that obsession on her husband Noel, who would never quite live up to her expectations.

The portrayal of Geraldine is the core genius of this book. The book is told in her own voice surely making her a sympathetic character - “spinning” the story in her own favour. Geraldine is convinced of the truth of her life, her perceptions and her behaviour. She believes fully in herself. She has some awareness that other's find her a difficult character but that is obviously as a result of their short-comings. Her opinions are absolutely sacrosanct, her behaviour exemplary. Everything that happens in Geraldine's life is commentated on, observed by, understood and rationalised by Geraldine, yet she cannot engender sympathy in the reader. Her force of belief in herself makes her a disconcertingly creepy and sinister figure - myopic and self-involved, unwilling to entertain any contrary opinions (most likely totally and absolutely unaware of contrary opinions), Geraldine can't entertain the idea that she can possibly be at fault. That her behaviour might be questioned by others. There are no adverse reactions that cannot be dismissed. But the reader is watching Geraldine misreading situations, misunderstanding people's reactions and wilfully refusing to recognise what is happening around her by simply ignoring any inconvenient facts. It's a masterly writing effort - it's fascinating whilst also being ever so slightly repellant.

The book is also a story about murder - but understanding Geraldine makes it conceivable that murder is a boring inconvenience. Geraldine must retain total control over her life and if removing a few tediums along the way is no more taxing than any other boring little daily task - then so be it. Geraldine isn't so much a woman without a conscience as a woman completely without conscious.

There are some sparse hints of Geraldine's background - there is possibly a reason why she is like she is. But the background, or the causes for Geraldine's personality are not the point of this book. This isn't a why or even much of a how story. It's a stunning reminder of how unaware people can be about their affect on others. It reminds the reader of the nature of obsession and the way that it can override all logic. All reasoned perception, all mitigating behaviours are gone as Geraldine encourages obsession to rule.

Unfortunately Pat Flower doesn't seem to be very well known in Australia which is pity. Whilst some of her earlier books are less interesting, more by way of mainstream entertaining crime fiction (not that there is anything wrong with that!), her final three thrillers have often been remarked upon as fascinating examples of their type. It's a pity that they aren't more widely read. I remember reading her final three books when they were first released, but I suspect I wasn't quite old enough at that stage to understand the full impact of them. I certainly remember finding Geraldine a discomforting but somewhat illuminating character. Reading it again 30 something years on - the full impact of how Geraldine has created and reinforced and fought for her own reality is sobering.

THE ART THIEF is crime fiction where the crime is not murder or mayhem. The author of this book is (from his blurb) considered the world's leading expert on the history and study of art crime, so the point of this book seems to be to explore the nature and motivation for high profile art thefts and forgery.

There is a rather complicated plotline going on here. Firstly an altarpiece disappears in Rome. A valuable, renowned abstract painting is stolen in Paris from the vaults of the society charged with protecting the legacy of the painter Malevich. Then a new Malevich acquisition is stolen in London, after a lot of chicanery with the computerised alarm systems of the gallery. Now where things get really complicated is whether or not the painting stolen in Paris is the same painting that was purchased in London, and if it was - which one is the forgery? Or are both of them forgeries? It's possibly a little hard to tell as the paintings are all famous examples of White on White.

Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot is leading the investigation in Paris, helped by the curator of the Malevich Society, Genevieve Delacloche, whilst Inspector Harry Wickenden is in London, assisted by National Gallery chief Elizabeth van der Mier. There is also art expert and former Carabinieri officer Gabriel Coffin who is attempting to track down the missing altarpiece from Rome. All of this occurs in a welter of anonymous phone calls, obscure biblical quotes and other clues, fake Malevichs, hugely self-indulgent gourmet feasts (Paris of course), and tea and austere living (London of course). Confused?

Lurking deep within this book there were some highlights. Obviously the author knows a lot about art theft, and some of the aspects of that knowledge were interesting. The problem really is that the plot gets convoluted and there were times when I felt I needed a mindmap to keep track of the who, what, where, when and whys. There was definitely some humour in some of the characterisations but there was also caricature - the French gourmand was frequently too gross, the English tea drinking Inspector too ascetic.

THE ART THIEF definitely provides an interesting glimpse into the world of Art Theft, and for those looking for a crime fiction book that provides some education about that, then this will definitely be the book for you. It could also appeal to somebody looking for a yarn, with a zero body count.

This is an earlier book from J.R. Carroll (although later books are thin on the ground now as well), set in Melbourne, where the discovery of eight bodies in the scrub at Kinglake is only part of what is happening. This book revolves around the man in charge of that investigation - Kerry Byrne. It's about him and his mates in the squad. It's about the problems that police have in staying uninvolved when what they deal with is indescribably horrible, and it's about the difficulties they have with their personal lives.

Sometimes the private life problems are self-inflicted though and Kerry is in serious hot water when he helps a mate - one of the squad - cover up the truth about a domestic incident. He's also in trouble in his own home - but that's less self-inflicted, although his work schedule doesn't help. In the meantime there are two possible options for the serial killer of all those women - although the truth behind who is killing them becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly for the reader.

As with all J.R. Carroll books - the pace of the story is rapid fire, the circumstances pretty horrendous, and the events complicated. There's also a lot of sex in STINGRAY and whereas in some other books I can refer to it as slightly entertaining, in this one, it's frequently overtly violent and quite nasty - and could well put some readers off. The resolution of the case was well down - with an element that was fairly telegraphed, but still somewhat surprising, and a great flawed, conflicted, difficult, prickly hard man character in Byrne.

This is one of those little books that I've been keeping an eye out for over the last few years, finally tracking down a copy recently. At 141 pages it was just the right size for dropping into the suitcase that we're dragging backwards and forwards between houses at the moment.

Mind you, I didn't really know what to expect with the book, the blurb mentions private investigation and consulting firms, but it doesn't really give much else away. It turns out that Sam has been called in to investigage possible financial irregularities. One of the partners thinks that somebody is ripping off his earnings. Mind you, none of the partners seem to get on all that well, but having said that, they are sort of bit players anyway. Mostly the book is about Sam - Sam's life, the way he thinks, the way he sort of wanders around the investigation and his sexual and romantic conquests.

In novella form, the book is really all about Sam - Sam is a bit of a devil may care, lone wolf, with a heart of gold and a complicated personal life (so no real surprises there!). It was quite an amusing little book though, although I will confess I spent most of it a bit confused about what the supposed crime was supposed to be and whether Sam would ever stop drinking coffee and chasing the receptionist for long enough to concentrate.

Okay, so the twist is very obvious and the investigation prefunctory to say the least, LOVE IS IN THE AIR-CONDITIONING is more of an amusement than an enlightenment (if you know what I mean). But it did work as a diversion for a little while.