Review: SANCTUARY, Garry Disher

• 
  this edition published by Text Publishing 2024
• ISBN 9781922790620
  
• 363 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

Grace is a talented thief ready for a normal life. Lying low after a run-in with an old associate, Grace walks into Erin Mandel’s rural antiques shop and sees a chance for something different. A weekday job. A place to call home.

But someone is looking for Erin. And someone’s looking for Grace, too. And they are both, in their own ways, very dangerous men.

My Take

The Canberra Times calls Garry Disher "Arguably Australia's greatest living crime fiction writer." and they are not wrong.

For me what was so entrancing about this story is that it is set mainly locally, in the Adelaide Hills, in places that I know well. And yet the themes are fresh and new. 

In the character of Grace, Disher is looking at life from the "other side", harking back to the days when his central character was Wyatt, a small time thief. He looks carefully at the factors that go into the making of a small time criminal, and Grace Latimer comes alive for us, and we find that she is not alone, in fact she is constantly in danger.

Well worth reading. Will we meet Grace again?

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

4.7, WYATT
4.8, WHISPERING DEATH
4.7, BLOOD MOON
4.2, THE HEAT
4.5, SIGNAL LOSS
4.7, HER
4.9, UNDER THE COLD BRIGHT LIGHTS
4.7, KILL SHOT
5.0, BITTER WASH ROAD - Hirsch #1 - aka HELL TO PAY
5.0, PEACE- Hirsch #2
5.0, CONSOLATION - Hirsch #3
4.7, DAY'S END, Garry Disher- Hirsch #4
4.8, THE WAY IT IS NOW

About the author

Garry Disher has published sixty titles across multiple genres. With a growing international reputation for his best-selling crime novels, he has won four German and three Australian awards for best crime novel of the year, and been longlisted twice for a British CWA Dagger award. In 2018 he received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award.

Review: SIGNAL LOSS, Garry Disher

• This edition from Text Publishing, 2016
• #7 in the Peninsula Crimes series
• ISBN 9-781925-355260
• 320 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Text Publishing)

A small bushfire, but nasty enough for ice cooks to abandon their lab. Fatal, too. But when the bodies in the burnt-out Mercedes prove to be a pair of Sydney hitmen, Inspector Hal Challis’s inquiries into a local ice epidemic take a darker turn. Meanwhile, Ellen Destry, head of the new sex crimes unit, finds herself not only juggling the personalities of her team but hunting a serial rapist who leaves no evidence behind.

The seventh instalment in Garry Disher’s celebrated Peninsula Crimes series sets up new challenges, both professional and personal, for Challis and Destry. And Disher delivers with all the suspense and human complexity for which readers love him.

Garry Disher has published almost fifty titles—fiction, children’s books, anthologies, textbooks, the Wyatt thrillers and the Peninsula Crimes series. He has won numerous awards, including the German Crime Prize (twice) and two Ned Kelly Best Crime novel awards, for Chain of Evidence (2007) and Wyatt (2010). Garry lives on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

My Take

An impressive police procedural in an Australian rural setting, the Mornington Peninsula, depicting Victoria Police facing modern issues that are facing police the world over: the impact of ice on local communities, sex crimes, theft, and gangs. The plot strands are woven together with human interest stories, and keep the reader connected to the very end.

Within, the Victoria Police faces other issues too: an aging police force, the importance of technology, the use of DNA, competition between various police departments for the "final kill",  and the possibility of burn out when the job takes on a 24/7 aspect. Disher presents well the aspects of modern life that confront ordinary civilians.

A recommended read.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.7, WYATT
4.8, WHISPERING DEATH
4.7, BLOOD MOON
4.2, THE HEAT

Adelaide Writers' Week, Final Day, Day #4 for me

Other things have intervened in the last 2 days, so there are things I've missed. People tell me there was a stunning session with Germain Greer yesterday, and then on Wednesday I missed sessions with Ian McEwan and Geraldine Brooks.

Adelaide is in the grip of what looks set to be one of our longest hot spells ever. Even the white plastic chairs feel warm to the seat, and there were many less people in attendance today. Hand fans were briskly being waved and even water spray bottles were in use.

So much going on in Adelaide just now: the Festival of Arts (of which AWW is a part), the Fringe Festival, and tonight WOMAdelaide kicks off. Tomorrow night the Crows host a home final in the AFL pre-season cup. To cap it all, a state public holiday on Monday for Adelaide Cup ( a horse race).

My purchase today: RENDEZVOUS AT KAMAKURA INN by Marshall Browne.

A real treat for crime fiction addicts this afternoon. Elsewhere I have grumbled about programming Gabrille Lord and Garry Disher in rival Meet the Author sessions.
Here are some snippets from the sessions I attended.

Session 1: Meet the author: Marshall Browne

In 2000 he won Best First Crime Novel in the Ned Kelly Awards for THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS.

Browne began writing in the 1970s as a "Sunday morning" writer, when living in Hong Kong. Marshall Browne seems an unlikely author, coming over more like the banker that he's been most of his life.

He was very candid about how his novels develop, how his ideas often begin as images, seen early in the morning, sometimes when he is half asleep. Incidents and details often emerge from his own life. The book gradually emerges from his sub-conscious, which he is in thrall to. He doesn't plot the book prior to writing and researches as he needs to. He often mixes real characters with fictional.

He is really one of Australia's lesser known crime writers, but there is plenty in the 12 already published novels, some out of print. Indeed at AWW he warranted a larger audience.
He is currently working on 3 books: the sequel to EYE OF THE ABYSS will be published later this year, the 4th Inspector Anders is in draft, and next year will work on his 4th book in the "Melbourne" series. His bio says he works 40 hour week.

Session 2: Meet the Author: Gabrielle Lord

Gabrielle Lord appears a number of times elsewhere in my blog, and her latest book SHATTERED shares top spot in my best reads for 2008.

She has collected 2 awards: The Ned Kelly Award for best novel in 2002 for DEATH DELIGHTS, and a Davitt Award in 2003 for the best Australian crime novel by an Australian woman in the previous year for BABY DID A BAD, BAD THING.

Gabrielle began by describing what led to the writing of her first published novel FORTRESS in 3 weeks. She says that for any book, writing is only 5% of it. getting to the writing stage, for her is the hard part and accounts for 95% of the effort. She plans and researches all her books meticulously. The depth of research is what results in the meticulous details. She interviews experts and finds that most enjoy talking about what they do, especially if they recognise that you have made some effort to get your head around the topic,a nd can ask focussed questions. Gabrielle has done work experience in surveillance, attended victims of homicide meetings, done courses in anatomy, stood on the streets with prostitutes, toured morgues.

She believes most central characters will be flawed - that is what makes them so interesting. "Angels" are generally not very interesting, and she constantly looks for very human stories. She is always looking for stories to engage the reader.

Gabrielle says writing a book is a lot like knitting. Complexity emerges to keep the author intrigued. She sets herself problems and challenges. At the same time her setting is Australia because she tries to focus on what she knows.

She talked briefly about her 12 part thriller for YA, designed to be a continuous story, in 12 parts. Each will be self contained but all 12 will add up to a whole. They will come out on a monthly basis and be named January, February, etc.

Gabrielle feels very strongly about issues such as women's rights, e.g. in Islamic communities both here and abroad.

Session 3: Friday Crime
A panel with Marshall Browne, Garry Disher, Gabrielle Lord, Denise Mina.
Garry Disher won the Ned Kelly Award for best crime novel in 2007 for CHAIN OF EVIDENCE. In April, oz_mystery_readers are discussing this book.

The panel at first individually attempted to explain why crime fiction is becoming so popular.

Garry Disher:

• it has always been popular, the real question is why it has become so acceptable
• enormous diversity in the genre
• some approaches "literature"
• fed by the popularity of true crime books, and TV shows
• strongly narrative, lots of acvtion
• social barometer, tells us about the "real" world
• gives us vicarious pleasure, often darkly humorous
• at one level can be very re-assuring as justice is often restored
• main characters are often just like us
• "who dunnits" have been replaced by "what makes people tick"
• the reader is the investigator
• an exploration of our darker side

Gabrielle Lord

• dramatic shift from cozies - those days have gone
• sees herself as a relationship writer rather than a crime writer. Crime is the vehicle to draw the story along - the hook
• how do people connect?
• how do people tell the truth in fiction?
• creation of tension

Marshall Browne

• basically only 2 genres: books you like & those you don't
• novels are places where you can explore the exotic and bizarre
• the main thrust is the developing story
• character driven fiction
• determined to conquer the writing of shorter novels

Denise Mina

• thought about writing under an alias - how about MissDMina?
• fan of literary fiction
• crime fiction often seen as trash
• literary fiction should aspire to having the readership of crime fiction
• move for crime fiction to be taken seriously
• crime writers are expected to write about 1 book a year, and they often make a pretty good living (if they are successful)
• crime writing lays the author's politics bare
• social & political issues become part of the novel's underlying fabric.
  

So that is Adelaide Writers' Week for another 2 years.
Today's events ended at about 5 with drinks and nibbles - very civilised.

Review: THE WAY IT IS NOW, Garry Disher

• 
  This edition provided by my local library as an e-book on Libby
  
• Published by Text Publishing 2 August 2022
• ISBN 9781922458704
• 416pp  

Synopsis

Twenty years ago Charlie Deravin’s mother went missing near the family beach shack—believed murdered; body never found. His father has lived under a cloud of suspicion ever since.

Now Charlie’s back living in the shack in Menlo Beach, on disciplinary leave from his job with the police sex-crimes unit, and permanent leave from his marriage. After two decades worrying away at the mystery of his mother’s disappearance, he’s run out of leads.

Then the skeletal remains of two people are found in the excavation of a new building site—and the past comes crashing in on Charlie.

The Way It Is Now is the enthralling new novel from Garry Disher, one of Australia’s most loved and celebrated crime writers.

My Take

Set near on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, in 2020, just as Covid 19 is making itself felt in Australia and on Australians travelling overseas.

Twenty years ago Charlie's mother had disappeared on the same day that Charlie, a police constable, had been in a search party looking for a young boy who had run away from a school camp. Neither of them had been found.  Now, Charlie, still in the police force, has been suspended from assaulting a senior officer. He has nothing to do but to take good look at his mother's disappearance. He thinks the investigation wasn't very thorough, more focussed on acquitting his father who had been a senior police officer at the time. Charlie's older brother believes their father was to blame and he and Charlie do not see each other much. His father has re-married and is now retired and he and his wife are off on an overseas cruise. Charlie decides to contact people from the community who were around 20 years ago, and he begins to find things that just don't add up.

 You will notice that I am re-reading this novel as I am talking about Garry Disher's contribution to Australia crime fiction with my U3A Award Winning Crime Fiction reading group.

This is a typical Disher stand-alone with sub-plots to keep the mind alert, and a range of interesting characters, including Charlie Deravin himself. The setting of a coastal surfing town is strong and gives the novel a substantial Australian flavour.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

4.7, WYATT

4.8, WHISPERING DEATH

4.7, BLOOD MOON

4.2, THE HEAT

4.5, SIGNAL LOSS

4.7, HER

4.9, UNDER THE COLD BRIGHT LIGHTS

4.7, KILL SHOT

5.0, BITTER WASH ROAD - Hirsch #1 - aka HELL TO PAY

5.0, PEACE- Hirsch #2

5.0, CONSOLATION - Hirsch #3

4.7, DAY'S END- Hirsch #4

4.8, THE WAY IT IS NOW

4.8, SANCTUARY

Review: WYATT, Garry Disher

Text Publishing 2010
ISBN 978-1-921656-02-6
274 pages
Source: my local library

Publisher's blurb

Wyatt’s been away. Now he’s back.
Garry Disher’s cool, enigmatic anti-hero has been, uncharacteristically, out of action for a while. Now there’s a new Wyatt—and his legion of fans will not be disappointed.
The job’s a jewel heist. The kind Wyatt likes. Nothing extravagant, nothing greedy. Stake out the international courier, one Alain Le Page, hold up the goods in transit and get away fast.
Wyatt prefers to work alone, but this is Eddie Oberin’s job. Eddie’s very smart ex-wife Lydia has the inside information. Add Wyatt’s planning genius and meticulous preparation, and what could possibly go wrong?
Plenty. And when you wrong Wyatt, you don’t get to just walk away.

My take:

I came to WYATT not having read any of the earlier novels in the series, not surprising really as the last one was published a decade ago:
1. Kickback (1991)
2. Paydirt (1992)
3. Deathdeal (1993)
4. Crosskill (1994)
5. Port Vila Blues (1996)
6. The Fallout (1997)
7. Wyatt (2010)

As a result I had little idea about what I would find.
What I did know was that WYATT won the 2010 Ned Kelly award for Best Fiction.

Disher brings to his writing a polished style that is gritty, bare, and yet flowing. It suits the character of Wyatt who is also gritty, clever, prepared, focussed. He doesn't hesitate to kill if he has to, and there are times when he does, seemingly without compunction.

The novel feels firmly embedded in its Australian environment, Victoria in particular. I don't think non-Australian readers will need a glossary or translation service though.
One aspect that some readers may not like is that we are seeing crime from the criminal's point of view.
In many ways Wyatt is evil, and he wins! Some would say, a very suitable Ned Kelly winner.

My rating: 4.7

Garry Disher's page on Text Publishing.

Review: WHISPERING DEATH, Garry Disher

• Publisher, Text Publishing Melbourne 2011
• ISBN 978-1-921758-59-1
• 330 pages
• Source: borrowed from a friend

Publisher's Blurb

Hal Challis is in trouble at home and abroad: carpeted by the boss for speaking out about police budget cuts; missing his lover, Ellen Destry, who is overseas on a study tour.

But there's plenty to keep his mind off his problems. A rapist in a police uniform stalks Challis's Peninsula beat, there is a serial armed robber headed in his direction and a home invasion that's a little too close to home. Not to mention a very clever, very mysterious female cat burglar who may or may not be planning something on Challis's patch.

Meanwhile, at the Waterloo Police Station, Challis finds his offsiders have their own issues. Scobie Sutton, still struggling with his wife's depression, seems to be headed for a career crisis; and something very interesting is going on between Constable Pam Murphy and Jeanne Schiff, the feisty young sergeant on secondment from the Sex Crimes Unit.

In his sixth Peninsula murder mystery, Garry Disher keeps the tension and intrigue ramped up exquisitely on multiple fronts, while he takes his regular characters in compelling new directions. Disher is a grand master of the police procedural, operating at the peak of his craft.

Read the first chapter on the author's website.

My take

WHISPERING DEATH affirms that Garry Disher is a master storyteller, a tight and consummate plotter, a writer who could sit on any international podium along with richer and more famous crime fiction writers - and thank goodness he is going to be at Adelaide Writers' Week in March 2012.

There are some interesting pictures of Australian lifestyles

... this morning Grace was in Hobart, strolling through a well-heeled corner of Sandy Bay... a land of two-car households, two adults working nine to five in well paid jobs. No shift workers here.

and then later

Today she had a clear run on the toll road between Melbourne airport and the city, and again when she headed over the West Gate Bridge, high winds buffeting the little car, and down into Williamstown, where the mean grind of old Melbourne co-existed with bright young mortgages. Factories and workshops sat next to pastelly little townhouses with cute, candy-coloured cars in the driveways. Grace wound down her window. The air, dense and still, was faintly salted from the Bay. The trees, branches barely moving, seemed dazed from years-long drought.

Several elements of Hal Challis' life seem to come to an end in WHISPERING DEATH. He decides to sell his restored 1930s Dragon Rapide that he has worked on for the last 10 years. He sees this as representing a phase of his life that has come to an end. He decides also to sell his elderly Triumph TR4, this time because it needs a lot of work done on it, and he no longer has the time or motivation.

And then he voices criticisms of the resourcing problems Peninsula policing is experiencing, to local reporter, and it seems that his time on the Peninsula may be coming to an end too. He seals his fate when he rushes out of an interview with his boss and a couple of other big-wigs to answer his mobile phone.

His mobile phone sounded in his pocket. He checked the screen, saw McQarrie's name on the screen and knew he couldn't keep avoiding the man. 

He answered and McQarrie said, 'What possessed you, Inspector, walking out on - '

  Challis overrode him. 'A home invasion and then a murder, that's what possessed me.' 

Silence, and he found himself adding, 'Doing my job, in fact,' guessing he was driving another nail into the lid of his coffin.'

So, if you are looking for some quality Australian crime fiction, here is another title, another author to add to your list. You won't be disappointed.
All the titles in the series are available on Amazon for your Kindle too.

My rating: 4.8

Read another review on Fair Dinkum Crime

The Challis & Destry novels
The Dragon Man (1999)
Kittyhawk Down (2003)
Snapshot (2005)
Chain of Evidence (2007)
Blood Moon (2009)
Whispering Death (2011)

Somehow I have missed reading BLOOD MOON but here is my database record of CHAIN OF EVIDENCE:
#4 in the Hal Challis and Ellen Destry series. Hal Challis has returned to South Australia – his father is dying- leaving D. S. Ellen Destry in charge of both his house and Mornington Peninsular East’s Crime Investigation Unit. And suddenly now in Waterloo a 10 year old girl is missing, feared abducted. Katie Blasko went missing after school but her parents did not realize it until the next morning. Filling Challis’ shoes is not going to be easy – Destry’s colleagues expect her to fail. But Ellen is in constant contact with Hal, both her friend and her mentor. At Mawson’s Bluff in South Australia, Challis is not only helping to look after his father, but trying to find out what has happened to his missing brother-in-law. A satisfying read.

Crime Fiction offerings at Adelaide Writers Week 2012

To say that I'm disappointed in the crime fiction offerings at this year's Adelaide Writers Week, March 3 -8, is an understatement.

There are just 3 crime fiction writers coming:
one Australian (Garry Disher), one American (Megan Abbott), one Norwegian (Jo Nesbo).
My disappointment is no reflection on the quality of these writers, but on the paucity of sessions available to crime fiction readers, given the strength of the genre in Australia. With what I perceive as the incredible popularity of the genre, crime fiction readers have been properly put into their place.
In the past we have seen a number of crime fiction sessions, including a good number of Australian writers.

In addition, this year it appears that organisers have decided not to publish online a pdf copy of the programme. Rather they encourage the public to purchase a printed programme from their favourite newsagent for just $10. For me that would work out to approximately $1.50 for each (free) session that I am interests me.

So, in case your interests coincide with mine, here are the sessions on offer. For full programmes of each of the days go here.

Day One, Saturday March 3 2012

West  Stage:
12pm - On and Off the Page: Megan Abbott, Paul Callaghan and Robert Shearman

East Stage
5.30pm - Norwegian Evil: Jo Nesbø

Day Two, Sunday 4 March 2012

East Stage:
1.15pm - Hard Boiled: Megan Abbott and Jo Nesbø

Day Four, Tuesday 6 March 2012

East Stage
12pm Dark Heart: Megan Abbott
1.15pm Staying in Character: Neil Cross, Garry Disher and Frank Moorhouse

Day Five, Wednesday 7 March

East Stage:
9.30am - Paydirt: Garry Disher

My previous post on Adelaide Writers Week last year looked forward to AWW with great anticipation.

Forgotten Book: THE MAN WHO PLAYED SPOONS, Garry Disher

This week's contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books comes from my records of 1990

These days Garry Disher is a well known Australian crime fiction author.
CHAIN OF EVIDENCE for example was the winner, Best Crime Fiction, Ned Kelly Awards, 2007

But THE MAN WHO PLAYED SPOONS (1987) was an anthology of short stories and reflects a period of Disher's writing life when he wrote stories and also wrote for younger readers.

He began crime fiction seriously in 1991 with his Wyatt series.

Wyatt Series
Kickback 1991
Paydirt 1992
Deathdeal 1993
Crosskill 1994
Port Vila Blues 1996
The Fallout 1997

Detective Inspector Hal Challis Series
The Dragon Man 1999
Kitty Hawk Down 2003
Snapshot 2005
Chain of Evidence 2007

I haven't managed to find a cover image for THE MAN WHO PLAYED WITH SPOONS but have found this information (written by Disher himself). It was essentially an anthology of community writing:

After years of teaching, I was aware that there is a lot of vital, interesting writing going on in the community that no-one ever sees. I knew for example that in prisons, in rural areas, amongst women's groups, amongst ethnic groups, the TAFE Colleges and Adult Education classes, a lot of very good writing is being produced. Often it's the kind of material that the newspapers or little magazines don't want to publish. But I convinced Penguin it was a good idea. I advertised for writing groups all around Australia to send me manuscripts - I wasn't interested in so-called professional writers at all, but in new writers, members of writing groups and so on. I got 1,400 manuscripts from all over Australia, although in fact about 60% of them came from Western Australia. I chose forty out of the 1,400.
It's a book I'm proud of. I think it reveals that a lot of people write, that a lot of people write good material and have interesting stories to tell. A lot of those pieces were parts of memoirs, for instance of the migrant experience, the Aboriginal experience of growing up in the bush, memoirs of parent's cross-cultural experiences - as well as fiction.

My mini-review of CHAIN OF EVIDENCE (2007) which I gave 4.7 to
#4 in the Hal Challis and Ellen Destry series. Hal Challis has returned to South Australia – his father is dying- leaving D. S. Ellen Destry in charge of both his house and Mornington Peninsular East’s Crime Investigation Unit. And suddenly now in Waterloo a 10 year old girl is missing, feared abducted. Katie Blasko went missing after school but her parents did not realize it until the next morning. Filling Challis’ shoes is not going to be easy – Destry’s colleagues expect her to fail. But Ellen is in constant contact with Hal, both her friend and her mentor. At Mawson’s Bluff in South Australia, Challis is not only helping to look after his father, but trying to find out what has happened to his missing brother-in-law. A satisfying read.

You may be interested in looking for BLOOD MOON (2009), the sequel to CHAIN OF EVIDENCE

A chaplain at an exclusive private school is attacked and left for dead during Schoolies Week on the Mornington Peninsula, at a time when police resources are stretched to the limit. Hal Challis and Ellen Destry dig into his life and find links to a white-supremacist group and an egomaniacal politician on an upward trajectory.
But are these really the reasons he was targeted? As investigations continue, a resourceful and vengeful local woman plots an attack on the young man who raped her the previous summer and an obsessive architect stalks his council-worker wife. The ways in which these seemingly unconnected events intertwine are the basis for this sterling police drama from one of Australia’s most acclaimed authors.

Review: DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER, Craig Sisterson (edit)

• 
  This edition is available on Kindle
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B6CQCCJD
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clan Destine Press (July 1, 2022)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 349 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

A vibrant southern constellation of crime writers.

Dark Deeds Down Under features the very best of modern Australian and New Zealand crime and mystery writing.

Spend time with some of your favourite Aussie and Kiwi cops, sleuths and accidental heroes, and meet some edgy new investigators.

A crew of beloved series characters - Corinna Chapman, Hirsch, Sam Shephard, Rowly Sinclair, Nick Chester, Murray Whelan - will lead you down dark alleys to meet our newer heroes - the Nancys, Penny Yee and Matiu, Alex Clayton, Kate Miles - and the stars of some cracking standalone tales.

Travel the criminal trails of two countries. From the dusty Outback to South Island glaciers, from ocean-carved coastlines and craggy mountains to sultry rainforests or Middle Earth valleys, and via sleepy towns to the seething underbellies of our cosmopolitan cities.

The 19 dark deeds herein are perpetrated by:

Alan Carter - Nikki Crutchley - Aoife Clifford - Garry Disher - Helen Vivienne Fletcher - Lisa Fuller - Sulari Gentill - Kerry Greenwood - Narrelle M. Harris - Katherine Kovacic - Shane Maloney - R.W.R. McDonald - Dinuka McKenzie - Dan Rabarts & Lee Murray - Renee - Stephen Ross - Fiona Sussman - Vanda Symon - David Whish-Wilson

My Take

I love short stories but short story collections are always difficult to to review. I try not to say which I've enjoyed most. Ranking them is always too hard. But here is a collection you can pop on your Kindle for the occasional dabble. They are all good representatives of the genre, some of them grittier than others.

So I've decided to list below the authors that I have 'met' before and to list the books that I have read.

The collection has also pointed out to me some authors I should really look for, particularly those  "across the ditch". In reality I've only met the work of  9 of the 19 before, so Craig has done me a service.

But, I've got to say it... the one that will stick with me for a while is Mr Pig by NZ author Stephen Ross.

My rating: 4.6 

I have 'met' the following authors through their books recorded in this blog

Carter, Alan:

• 4.7, PRIME CUT - Cato Kwong #1
• 4.7, GETTING WARMER - Cato Kwong #2
• 4.6, MARLBOROUGH MAN
• 4.5, DOOM CREEK 
• 4.6, CROCODILE TEARS - Cato Kwong #5 

Disher, Garry:

• 4.7, WYATT
• 4.8, WHISPERING DEATH
• 4.7, BLOOD MOON
• 4.2, THE HEAT
• 4.5, SIGNAL LOSS
• 4.7, HER
• 4.9, UNDER THE COLD BRIGHT LIGHTS
• 4.7, KILL SHOT
• 5.0, BITTER WASH ROAD - Hirsch #1 - aka HELL TO PAY
• 5.0, PEACE- Hirsch #2
• 5.0, CONSOLATION - Hirsch #3
• 4.7, DAY'S END, Garry Disher- Hirsch #4
• 4.8, THE WAY IT IS NOW

Gentill, Sulari:

• 5.0, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN
• 4.8, A DECLINE IN PROPHETS
• 4.8, MILES OFF COURSE
• 4.7, PAVING THE NEW ROAD
• 4.5, THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY

Greenwood, Kerry:

• MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT - #17
• TRICK OR TREAT
• FORBIDDEN FRUIT
• 4.3, DEAD MAN'S CHEST -#18
• 4.4, COOKING THE BOOKS
• 4.3, TAMAM SHUD
• 4.8, UNNATURAL HABITS - #19
• 4.3, MURDER AND MENDELSSOHN - #20
• 4.5, MURDER IN WILLIAMSTOWN - #22  
• 4.5, A QUESTION OF DEATH - anthology of short stories set in 1928

Kovacic, Katherine:

• 4.5, THE PORTRAIT OF MOLLY DEAN - #1
• 4.6, PAINTING IN THE SHADOWS - 2 
• 4.5, THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE - #3   

Maloney, Shane: SUCKED IN

McDonald, R.W.R

• 4.2, THE NANCYS

Symon, Vanda:

• OVERKILL
• THE RINGMASTER
• CONTAINMENT
• 4.8, BOUND

and lastly, but by far not least
Sisterson, Craig: 5.0, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME

Crime at MWF

A newsletter arrived today from Melbourne Writer's Festival with the following summary:

Crime

We've attracted the world's most interesting crime writers to Melbourne this year.

Don't miss Robert Wilson who, in The Ignorance of Blood is bringing to a close his acclaimed series of psychological thrillers featuring Javier Falcon, the tortured detective from The Hidden Assassins and The Blind Man of Seville.
Also from Spain we have Catalan crime writer Teresa Solana.

Tom Rob Smith, shortlisted for the Booker Prize with Child 44, brings us another glacial Russian thriller, The Secret Speech.

Marshall Browne this year published The Iron Heart, another in his stunning Franz Schmidt series. Herr Schmidt, a bank auditor, is the most unlikely hero in these absolutely gripping novels set in Nazi Germany during WWII.

Our two Lisas from the US - Lisa Unger whose latest thriller, Die for You looks like it will follow Beautiful Lies onto the NY Times bestseller list and Lisa Lutz with Revenge of the Spellmans. If you haven't been introduced to the offbeat Spellmans yet - drop everything and head to Readings.

Philip McLaren's Murder in Utopia is crime with an indigenous twist.

PD Martin in Killing Hands has FBI profiler Sophie Anderson on the trail of a serial killer.

Garry Disher's Chain of Evidence is the fourth Challis & Destry novel and 'puts Disher up on the world stage' (The Age).

And in Murder on a Midsummer Night Kerry Greenwood has given us another elegant Phryne Fisher mystery set in Melbourne in 1929 where Phryne deals with a group of thoroughly unpleasant Bright Young Things.

There's even a Crime Lovers package!

Look for PD Martin and Katherine Howell this Friday 21 Aug at the Davitt Awards.
You can find out more at http://www.home.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz/

Look for PD Martin, Kerry Greenwood, and Lisa Lutz on Friday 21 Aug on session 2135 Who Knew Crime was Sassy? And PD Martin, Garry Disher, and Philip McLaren in X-rated on Saturday 22 Aug,

Fair Dinkum Crime at Left Coast Crime

Tomorrow is the day at Left Coast Crime when our little panel swings into action, item 67, 9-9.45 am on Thursday morning, 12 March to be precise.

I thought participants might appreciate the handout being on line, and those of you unable to be there, would appreciate also being able to see what we are talking about.

I hope I will be able to post later a photo of our accumulated loot for the panel, which includes our own version of "tasting Australia". In true Australian tradition of beer and chook raffles, participants will be given a raffle ticket as they come in the door, so hopefully each will have something apart from a sheet of paper to take away with them.

Recommendations from oz_mystery_readers taken from top books 2007 and 2008:
Adrian Hyland, DIAMOND DOVE
Peter Temple, THE BROKEN SHORE
Barry Maitland, NO TRACE
Chris Nyst, CROOK AS ROOKWOOD
Garry Disher, CHAIN OF EVIDENCE
Michael Robotham: SHATTER, BOMBPROOF
P.D. Martin: BODY COUNT, FAN MAIL, THE MURDERER'S CLUB
Leah Giarratano: VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE, VOODOO DOLL
Katherine Howell: FRANTIC, THE DARKEST HOUR
Leigh Redhead: CHERRY PIE, RUBDOWN
Felicity Young: A CERTAIN MALICE, AN EASEFUL DEATH
Adrian McKinty: DEAD I WELL MAY BE, THE DEAD YARD

Ned Kelly Winners

Best Novel
2008: SHATTER, Michael Robotham
2007: CHAIN OF EVIDENCE, Gary Disher
2006: CROOK AS ROOKWOOD, Chris Nyst & THE BROKEN SHORE, Peter Temple
2005: LOST, Michael Robotham
2004: DEGREES OF CONNECTION, Jon Cleary
2003: WHITE DOG, Peter Temple
2002: DEATH DELIGHTS, Gabrielle Lord
2001: DEAD POINT, Peter Temple & THE SECOND COMING, Andrew Masterson
2000: SHOOTING STAR, Peter Temple
1999: AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS, Peter Doyle
1997: THE BRUSH OFF, Shane Maloney
1996: THE MALCONTENTA, Barry Maitland & INSIDE DOPE, Dope Paul Thomas

Best First Novel
2008: THE LOW ROAD, Chris Womersley
2007: DIAMOND DOVE, Adrian Hyland
2006: OUT OF THE SILENCE, Wendy James
2005: A PRIVATE MAN, Malcolm Knox
2004: THE WALKER, Jane R Goodall & JUNKIE PILGRIM, Wayne Grogan
2003: BLOOD REDEMPTION, Alex Palmer
2002: APARTMENT 255, Bunty Avieson & WHO KILLED ANGELIQUE?, Emma Darcy
2001: LAST DRINKS, Andrew McGahan
2000: THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS, Marshall Browne
1999: THE LAST DAYS, Andrew Masterson
1997: BAD DEBTS, Peter Temple & GET RICH QUICK, Peter Doyle
1996: DARK ANGEL, John Dale

Authors (or their publishers) who gave us books:

Michael Robotham
Felicity Young
P. D. Martin
Brian Kavanagh
Adrian Hyland
Katherine Howell
Chris Womersley
Lenny Bartulin
Tony Berry
Jane R. Goodall

Blogs and sites
MYSTERIES IN PARADISE (Kerrie): http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com/
IT’S CRIMINAL (Helen): http://its-criminal.blogspot.com/
SUNNIE’S BOOK BLOG: http://sunniesbookblog.blogspot.com/
REACTIONS TO READING (Bernadette): http://reactionstoreading.wordpress.com/
BOOKS & MUSINGS FROM DOWNUNDER (Sally): http://sally906.blogspot.com
AUST CRIME FICTION (KarenC): http://www.austcrimefiction.org/
NED KELLY AWARDS: http://nedkellyawards.com/

Audio Books (checked by Kathy)
SKIN AND BONE, by Kathryn Fox, and VOODOO DOLL, by Leah Giarratano, and THE CORONER’S LUNCH, by Colin Cotterill are available in audible from amazon.co.uk. I can’t find them in the U.S.

All the remaining books are available through audible.com here in the U.S.:
Gary Disher: CHAIN OF EVIDENCE
Peter Temple: THE BROKEN SHORE, DEAD POINT
Peter Carey: THE TRUE STORY OF THE NED KELLY GANG, HIS ILLEGAL SELF, THEFT: A LOVE STORY, JACK MAGGS, MY LIFE AS A FAKE
Katherine Howell: FRANTIC
Michael Robotham: SUSPECT, LOST, THE NIGHT FERRY, and, in March of 2009 SHATTER
Steve Toltz: A FRACTION OF THE WHOLE,
Kerry Greenwood: MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT, MURDER IN MONTPARNASSE, AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, THE CASTLEMAINE MURDERS: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, DEVIL’S FOOD, MURDER IN THE DARK: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, TRICK OR TREAT, DEATH BY WATER: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY, RUDDY GORE: A PHRYNE FISHER MYSTERY
Sydney Bauer: UNDERTOW
Adrian McKinty: THE BLOOMSDAY DEAD, THE DEAD YARD, HIDDEN RIVER,
DEAD I WELL MAY BE
Sara Douglass: HADES' DAUGHTER: THE TROY GAME, BOOK I (UNABRIDGED)
Emma Darcy: WHO KILLED ANGELIQUE, WHO KILLED BIANCA, WHO KILLED CAMILLA
Geoffrey McGeachin: D-E-D DEAD!
Tara Moss: COVET, FETISH, HIT
Michael MacConnell MALESTROM
Kerry McGinnis THE WADI TREE
Gabrielle Lord WHIPPING BOY
Sonya Hartnett OF A BOY
Jane R. Goodall: THE WALKER; THE VISITOR.

Australian authors available in Canada (Ann’s research)

Bauer, Sydney
Corris, Peter
Darcy Emma
Disher, Garry
Douglass Sara
Fox, Kathryn
Gott, Robert
Greenwood Kerry
Howell, Katherine
Hyland, Adrian
Lord, Gabrielle
Maitland, Barry
Maloney, Shane
Martin, P.D.
McGeachan, Geoffrey
McKinty Adrian
Moss, Tara
Peter Carey
Redhead, Leigh
Robotham Michael
Rowe, Jennifer
Temple, Peter
Toltz Steve
Upfield, Arthur

What I read in February 2017

Some good reads this month including the latest by Australian author Garry Disher.

1. 4.5, SIGNAL LOSS, Garry Disher
2. 4.4, THE MOVING FINGER, Agatha Christie 
3. 4.4, THE UNFORTUNATE VICTIM, Greg Pyers
4. 4.8, IMPERIUM, Robert Harris - audio book 
5. 4.5, WHAT REMAINS BEHIND, Dorothy Fowler 
6. 4.3, THE PALLAMPUR PREDICAMENT, Brian Stoddart
7. 4.7, THE SILENCE BETWEEN BREATHS, Cath Staincliffe
8. 4.7, HELLFIRE, Karin Fossum
9. 4.7. THE NEW MRS CLIFTON, Elizabeth Buchan  

My pick of the month though is THE SILENCE BETWEEN BREATHS, Cath Staincliffe

Passengers boarding the 10.35 train from Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston have no idea that their journey is about to be brutally curtailed.

Holly has just landed her dream job, and Jeff is heading for an interview after months of unemployment. They end up sitting next to each other. Onboard customer service assistant Naz dreams of better things. And among the others travelling are Nick with his young family; pensioner Meg and her partner, setting off on a walking holiday; Caroline, run ragged by the competing demands of her stroppy teenage children and her demented mother; and Rhona, desperate to get home to her daughter.

And in the middle of the carriage sits Saheel, carrying a deadly rucksack....

See what others have chosen for their pick of the month.

Review: THE HEAT, Garry Disher

• this edition Text Publishing 2015
  
• ISBN 9-781925-240412
• 246 pages
• #8 in the Wyatt series
• Read the first chapter
• Longlisted, General Fiction Book of the Year, Australian Book Industry Awards, 2016
  award
• Shortlisted, Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction, 2016
• Garry Disher's website

Synopsis  (Text Publishing)

Wyatt needs a job.

A bank job would be nice, or a security van hold-up. As long as he doesn’t have to work with cocky idiots and strung-out meth-heads like the Pepper brothers. That’s the sort of miscalculation that buys you the wrong kind of time.

So he contacts a man who in the past put him on the right kind of heist. And finds himself in Noosa, stealing a painting for Hannah Sten.

He knows how it’s done: case the premises, set up escape routes and failsafes, get in and get out with the goods unrecognised. Make a good plan; back it up with another. And be very, very careful.

But who is his client? Who else wants that painting?

Sometimes, being very careful is not enough.

My Take

Six of the Wyatt series were published in the 1990s, the seventh, Wyatt, in 2010 (crime novel of the year in Australia), and the latest is The Heat

In Australian crime fiction a tale told from the point of view of the perpetrator of the crime rather than from the side of the law is unusual. But then Wyatt is not your usual thief. And he is not greedy. He just wants to make enough out of each job to keep his head above water and his name away from detection.

Right from the beginning he is cautious about the deal that Lois Quarrell is offering. He doesn't really trust her and he certainly doesn't want her to be the one that pulls the strings. The one thing about Wyatt is that he values his independence. And so he takes extra steps to ensure that he wrong foots Lois Quarrell, and, as it turns out, he is right.

My rating: 4.2

I've also read
4.7, WYATT
4.8, WHISPERING DEATH
4.7, BLOOD MOON    

My Best Reads in 2020

Well, I made it to 118 books for the year.

The target was 120, so I'm quite happy, particularly as I rated so many books quite highly.

The best for the year were

• 5.0, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, Craig Sisterson
• 5.0, PEACE, Garry Disher
• 5.0, CONSOLATION, Garry Disher
  
• 5.0, THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT, Hilary Mantel - audio book 
• 5.0, THE OTHER PASSENGER, Louise Candlish 
• 5.0, THE REMORSEFUL DAY, Colin Dexter  - audio book
  
• 4.9, A BETTER MAN, Louise Penny  

Over half my books, both hard copies and e-books, came through my local library.
Just under 50% of my reads were e-books either on Libby or my Kindle.
A third of my reading came from Australian authors, 49/118 from British authors, and roughly a third are "new-to-me" authors, many of which I have followed up with a second title.
There are some areas where I haven't done so well: translated books, New Zealand authors.

I participated in a number of challenges, notably

• 2020 Good Reads Reading Challenge. I have set my challenge at 120. Currently: 118
• Good Reads A-Z of titles: Currently: 21
• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Completed in 2014, titles read in 2020: 3
• USA Fiction Challenge So far 29/51, this year: 15
• 2020 Aussie Author Reading Challenge: aiming for 20: currently 39
• 2020 Australian Women Writers Challenge: aiming for 20. Currently 29
• Read Around the World 2020: currently: 118
• British Books Challenge 2020 currently 49
• 2020 Ebook Reading Challenge currently 57
• New to me authors - a personal challenge currently  40
• Not crime fiction - a personal challenge currently 8
  
• Nordic reading challenge - a personal challenge, currently 6
• New Zealand reading challenge -again a personal challenge. currently 2
• Translated crime fiction - a personal challenge that will overlap with many of the other reading challenges that I have undertaken. currently 9
• Snagged through the Library currently: 68
• Audio books: currently: 10
• 2020 Historical Reading Challenge. Currently: 13

Blogger put up a new platform this year which I avoided swapping to for as long as I could, but eventually had to. It has made some of my record keeping more difficult and probably next year I will cut down on the number of pages that i maintain.

This blog turns 13 on January 2. According to Blogger there have been 2,642,874 page views, there are 3,945 posts, with nearly 10,000 comments. The blog gives me great pleasure.

Happy New Year! 

Weekly Geeks: 2009-18, Home Town tour

This week's Weekly Geek Challenge is to take a home town literary tour.

Paradise is a suburb of Adelaide, the home of , so let me begin there.
AWW happens every second year, and the next one is in 2010, 28 Feb - 5 March. Most of the sessions in Writers' Week, which is held outside in 2 large marquees, are free.
AWW usually caters very well for crime fiction readers too.

Last year I attended sessions by the following writers: and Peter Corris.

I've blogged before about what a good place Adelaide is to live, home of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide Fringe Festival, and even the Tour Down Under.

Adelaide has had a crop of crime writers too, some well known, others not.
Adelaide's Wakefield Press has printed a series called Wakefield Crime Classics which reprinted the work of authors such Patricia Carlon (The Whispering Wall), A.E. Martin, and Charlotte Jay.

Other writers to look for

• Garry Disher was South Australian born and bred although he is now a Victorian (sadly). South Australia gets an occasional reference in the Challis and Destry books. There's a good list of his books and a bit of biography here. Recently Lesa Holstene recommended his most recent Hal Challis book BLOOD MOON.
• Kirsty Brooks is a successful young writer. Her website is a bit out of date. Her first book was published in 1995. She has a blog but not much reference to her books there. Aust Crime Fiction lists 4 books in the Cassidy Blair series. They are just a bit too chick-lit for me.
• Nobel prize winner John Coetzee now lives in Adelaide.
• Nicholas Jose, author of ORIGINAL FACE, is a lecturer at Adelaide University. That seems to be his one journey into crime fiction, although he has written 7 books and been listed for a number of awards.
• most recently Fiona McIntosh, known internationally for her fantasy novels, ventured into crime fiction with BYE BYE BABY (written under the pseudonym of Lauren Crow) and now I believe a new crime fiction title will be published later this year.
• and of course Adelaide has had it's fair share of true crime with the unsolved case of the Beaumont Children, and the "bodies in the barrels" case just to name a couple. In recent years we have become a bit notorious too with child abduction cases, serial murders, including recently the "body in the barrels" case. I reviewed Debbie Marshall's book KILLING FOR PLEASURE.
  In KILLING FOR PLEASURE Australian journalist Debi Marshall tells the stories behind the grisly Snowtown "bodies-in-the barrels" serial killings, carried out over seven years in South Australia by three killers and their accomplices. KILLING FOR PLEASURE took Marshall five years to write, synthesising thousands of hours of interviews with the families of the victims, with neighbours, and with close members of the families of the murderers. What she describes pushes the boundaries of credibility, both in relation to the nature of the murders, and in the slowness of the South Australian police system to begin investigations.
  
  Alan J Whiticker wrote in IN SEARCH OF THE BEAUMONT CHILDREN, about our most notorious child abduction/disappearance case, one which successful Australian author Kathryn Fox says has a big impact on her upbringing.
  

Need some more reasons to visit Adelaide?
Well, there's the Christmas Pageant, various Christmas lights, the Schutzenfest, The Barossa Band Festival, the Old Gum Tree, and the O'Bahn, just to name a few attractions.
And of course you could meet me or Bernadette!

What I read in November 2013

It is very unlikely that I will finish another book today so here is my November 2013 summary post.

This month I've made a lot of use of my Kindle as you can see in the list below.
I've read a couple of classics in THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler,   PIETR THE LATVIAN by Georges Simenon,  three books translated from French, and some other excellent offerings.

My pick of the month is  BITTER WASH ROAD by Garry Disher but ALEX by Pierre Lemaitre and THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith came very close.

1. 5.0, BITTER WASH ROAD, Garry Disher - Kindle, Australian author
2. 4.2, MRS POLLIFAX AND THE LION KILLER, Dorothy Gilman  - audio book, USA Reading Challenge
3. 4.2, THE BIG SLEEP, Raymond Chandler  - kindle
4. 4.3, IN A WORD: MURDER, Margot Kinberg (edit) - kindle, short stories
5. 4.3, PIETR THE LATVIAN, Georges Simenon  - kindle, translated
6. 4.5, NO MAN'S NIGHTINGALE, Ruth Rendell  - library book
7. 4.2, A COLD DAY FOR MURDER, Dana Stabenow - audio book, USA Reading Challenge
8. 5.0, ALEX, Pierre Lemaitre  - translated, Kindle
9. 5.0, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING, J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith -audio book
10. 4.6, THE STONE BOY, Sophie Loubiere  - Kindle, translated
11. 4.5, REFUSAL, Felix Francis  - library book

Check my review

See what others have chosen for their Pick of the Month 

review: DAY'S END, Garry Disher

• 
  This edition published by Text Publishing 2022
• ISBN 978192245887
• 383 pages
  
• #4 in the Paul Hirschhausen series

Synopsis (publisher) 

Hirsch’s rural beat is wide. Daybreak to day’s end, dirt roads and dust. Every problem that besets small towns and isolated properties, from unlicensed driving to arson. In the time of the virus, Hirsch is seeing stresses heightened and social divisions cracking wide open. His own tolerance under strain; people getting close to the edge.

Today he’s driving an international visitor around: Janne Van Sant, whose backpacker son went missing while the borders were closed. They’re checking out his last photo site, his last employer. A feeling that the stories don’t quite add up.

Then a call comes in: a roadside fire. Nothing much—a suitcase soaked in diesel and set alight. But two noteworthy facts emerge. Janne knows more than Hirsch about forensic evidence. And the body in the suitcase is not her son’s.

My Take

Set in Tiverton, a small outback town in wheat and sheep country in South Australia, and set during the ongoing Covid pandemic, the story presents the seamy undercurrent of rural life. Hirsch's work is never done. One thing leads to another and from small fragments big issues grow.

But Hirsch plugs on, following threads with almost unbelievable consequences. Hirsch represents what rural policing is all about.

An excellent read.

My rating: 4.7

About the author
Garry Disher has published over fifty titles across multiple genres. With a growing international reputation for his best-selling crime novels, he has won four German and three Australian awards for best crime novel of the year, and been longlisted twice for a British CWA Dagger award. In 2018 he received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award. 

I've also read
4.7, WYATT
4.8, WHISPERING DEATH
4.7, BLOOD MOON
4.2, THE HEAT
4.5, SIGNAL LOSS
4.7, HER
4.9, UNDER THE COLD BRIGHT LIGHTS
4.7, KILL SHOT
5.0, BITTER WASH ROAD - Hirsch #1 - aka HELL TO PAY
5.0, PEACE- Hirsch #2
5.0, CONSOLATION - Hirsch #3

Review: BITTER WASH ROAD, Garry Disher

My Take

BITTER WASH ROAD is set smack bang in the present day; more than that, in a South Australia I recognise: fragile economic climate, police corruption and whistleblowing, small rural communities struggling to survive, reduced resources, drought - you name the issue, it's there.

Until I did a bit of research I thought Tiverton, South Australia, the wheat belt town near the Barrier Highway where Paul Hirschhausen is posted, was fictitious. But it exists all right. Garry Disher seems to me to have played a little with the geography, but the flavour of the setting rings true.

This is Australian crime fiction at its best. A body is discovered but Hirsch is frustrated when his local boss Sergeant Kropp seems determined to keep him away from any real action. Hirsch faces real issues of getting himself established in the small town. The cops in nearby Redruth where Kropp is have a reputation for being bullies, mates with every one and turning a blind eye to what their mates get up to, perhaps even participating in crime themselves.

I absolutely loved this book.

Read an extract on Amazon.

My rating: 5.0

I've also reviewed
4.7, WYATT
4.8, WHISPERING DEATH
4.7, BLOOD MOON

Review: BLOOD MOON, Garry Disher

• published by Text Publishing 2009
• ISBN 978-1-921351-87-7
• 314 pages
• Source: my local library
• #5 in the Challis & Destry series

Synopsis (Amazon)

When hordes of eighteen-year-olds descend on the Peninsula to celebrate the end of exams, the overstretched police of Waterloo know they can expect party drugs and public drunkenness.

What they don't count on is a brutal bashing that turns political. The victim is connected. And for Detective Inspector Hal Challis, newly embarked on a relationship with his sergeant, Ellen Destry, this is not the best time to have the brass on his back. Especially when a bludgeoned corpse is found outside town and it becomes clear something much darker than adolescent craziness is going down.

My take

When I recently read WHISPERING DEATH (#6 in the Challis & Destry series) I realised that I had somehow missed reading #5, BLOOD MOON.

The setting of BLOOD MOON is Schoolies Week, a week at the end of the school year when those finishing their schooling cut loose in various resorts all over Australia. There is an unbelievable level of tension as local residents hold their breath, waiting to see what damage the teenagers cause, how many of them are charged with drug abuse or drunkenness, how many clashes there are with the authorities. The events in BLOOD MOON align well with what the public "knows" can happen in Schoolies Week.

BLOOD MOON is a very authentic feeling police procedural with a number of concurrent investigations balanced against the personal relationships of the members of Hal Challis' team, including his own with Ellen Destry. The investigation into the bashing of a school chaplain moves into the background with the murder of a female worker in the Planning Office whom we already know quite a bit about: that she is constantly stalked and watched by her husband, that she has been a leading participant in an attempt to preserve an old beach front house against demolition.The reader already feels well equipped to leap into this new investigation.

Domestic happenings and small town politics in an Australian setting make for an excellent crime fiction outing.

My rating: 4.7

Other reviews to check:

• Readings
• Aussie Reviews
• Spinetingler Magazine
• Murder by Type
• AustCrimeFiction

Other reviews of Garry Disher titles on MiP
4.7, WYATT
4.8, WHISPERING DEATH

The Challis & Destry novels
The Dragon Man (1999)
Kittyhawk Down (2003)
Snapshot (2005)
Chain of Evidence (2007)
Blood Moon (2009)
Whispering Death (2011)

Review: MISCHANCE CREEK, Garry Disher

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0F495RSCY
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Text Publishing, Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 30, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 372 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1923059535
• Book 5 of 5: The Paul Hirsch mysteries

Synopsis  (Amazon)

Hirsch is checking firearms. The regular police audit: all weapons secured, ammo stored separately, no unauthorised person with keys to the gun safe. He’s checking people, too. The drought is hitting hard in the mid-north, and Hirsch is responsible for the welfare of his scattered flock of battlers, bluebloods, loners and miscreants.

He isn’t usually called on for emergency roadside assistance. But with all the other services fully stretched, it’s Hirsch who has to grind his way out beyond the Mischance Creek ruins to where some clueless tourist has run into a ditch.

As it turns out, though, Annika Nordrum isn’t exactly a tourist. She’s searching for the body of her mother, who went missing seven years ago. And the only sense in which she’s clueless is the lack of information unearthed by the cops who phoned in the original investigation.

Hirsch owes it to Annika to help, doesn’t he? Not to mention that tackling a cold case beats the hell out of gun audits and admin…

My Take

Another lovely treat from Garry Disher. The Hirsch series is set in South Australia just north of the Barossa Valley. Years ago Paul Hirschausen blotted his copy book, was stripped of his rank, and became a lone police constable at Tiverton. He does all the usual things a solitary cop would do but occasionally other things a bit more adventurous. 

In this series we've seen him develop in the role, and show himself not just competent  but conscientious and thoughtful, with a few detective skills thrown in. There is a strong Australian flavour not just to the characterisation but also to the settings and plot lines. Local concerns and issues are to the fore too.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

4.7, WYATT

4.8, WHISPERING DEATH

4.7, BLOOD MOON

4.2, THE HEAT

4.5, SIGNAL LOSS

4.7, HER

4.9, UNDER THE COLD BRIGHT LIGHTS

4.7, KILL SHOT

5.0, BITTER WASH ROAD - Hirsch #1 - aka HELL TO PAY

5.0, PEACE- Hirsch #2

5.0, CONSOLATION - Hirsch #3

4.7, DAY'S END- Hirsch #4

4.8, THE WAY IT IS NOW

4.8, SANCTUARY

4.7, THE WAY IT IS NOW