Crime Down Under
Mystery and crime books from Australia. News, views, reviews, releases and author appearances - crime fiction in Australia.
Crime novels, mystery novels, detective stories, police procedural books, thrillers and soft-boiled mysteries
Updated: 12 hours 8 min ago
Crime Down Under
There have been a number of high quality debut Australian book releases in the last couple of months that have come my way. I’m gradually getting to each one and have been impressed by all of them.
A particularly strong novel is A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (Pan Macmillan Australia), a murder mystery set in South Africa in the 1950s. The time and setting are significant because of the Racial Segregation laws that were in place at the time. The story explores these laws throughout the book and the attitudes of characters play a major role in the tone of the book and in the story’s outcome.
A Beautiful Place To Die introduces police detective Emmanuel Cooper who is called to a small town to investigate the murder of the town’s police captain. What he has walked into, though is a dangerously poised tinderbox of emotions as the sons of the dead man deal with their rage and grief by looking for someone to blame. Their attention sits squarely on the black community and Cooper is forced to act as the voice of reason, unsure of the authority he might be able to exert in such a remote town.
Moving in to take over are the police Security Branch, the feared enforcers of the racial laws that rule the land. Their intention is to find the kind of suspect that suits their needs, which leaves it up to Cooper to work surreptitiously to find the true murderer, regardless of the colour of his skin.
The story builds quickly in intensity as pressure is placed on Emmanuel - and not from the direction you would expect it to come. This is obviously a heartfelt subject for the author and it is told with great style.
Another new voice in Australian literature has just been heard with the release of As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry. The book is published by Hachette Australia. This novel combines the pulse-racing thriller story with a country Australia setting that is rarely experienced by city-dwellers.
It is the kind of story that allows you to comfortably fall into, losing yourself in the smooth, flowing story told by a gifted storyteller.
As Darkness Falls is a romantic suspense novel set in the north-west corner of New South Wlaes in the tiny town of Dungirri. The setup is that Isabelle O'Connell is asked to return to her home town a year after she is nearly killed by an angry mob while trying to protect a suspected murderer. The man she was trying to protect was implicated in a child abduction and murder case.
Now, a year later, Isabelle is living alone on a remote property on extended leave from the police force and only a week out from retirement. The call to duty comes from DCI Alex Goddard who has come to tell her that another child has gone missing in Dungirri. She instinctively agrees to help.
There is no let up from the emotional turmoil that surround everyone the moment our attention turns to the small town. Pressure comes from the urgency that is put into finding the small girl. Added pressure comes from attacks on Isabelle herself. And finally, caught up in the midst of all this is the desperate romance hopelessly complicating it all.
This is a fine debut novel from go to whoa, a desperate thriller that also works as a moving love story.
Bronwyn Parry was awarded the 2007 Golden Heart Award by the Romance Writers of America for As Darkness Falls.
Best Crime Fiction
Among the Dead by Robert Gott (Scribe)
Sucked In by Shane Maloney (Text)
El Dorado by Dorothy Porter (Pan Macmillan)
Shatter by Michael Robotham (Hachette Livre)
Best First Crime Novel
The Low Road by Chris Womersley (Scribe)
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (Penguin)
Golden Serpent by Mark Abernethy (Allen & Unwin)
Best Non Fiction
Underbelly: The Gangland War by John Silvester and Andrew Rule (Sly Ink)
Killing Jodie by Janet Fife-Yeomans (Penguin)
Red Centre, Dark Heart by Evan McHugh (Penguin)
As they should be, Scribe is very proud of the fact that two of their publications have been included in the short list - a triumph indeed for the small publisher (is it any wonder they were awarded Small Publisher of the Year).
There are a couple of Australian books in the list that I earmarked as potential NKA winners as I read them this year, and the timing couldn't be better for Mark Abernethy with his latest, the sequel to Golden Serpent, title Second Strike to be published in a matter of days.
Hard Rain by David Rollins (pub. Pan Macmillan) This is the 3rd book in the Vin Cooper series and is set in Istanbul, Turkey. Cooper is a US Air Force OSI Special Agent and he and his partner Anna Masters have been called in to investigate the murder of the Air Force Attache in Turkey. This story fires straight out of the blocks, features all of Vin Cooper’s acerbic wit and is blessed with a consistently high action level. Find out more at David's website.
Bright Air by Barry Maitland (pub. Allen & Unwin) Maitland is most well known as the author of the superb Brock and Kolla police procedural series. Bright Air is a departure from the series, his first stand-alone mystery set in Australia – Sydney and Lord Howe Island. The death of Lucy Corcoran, at first thought to be a tragic rock-climbing accident could be something more sinister. Friends of Lucy, Josh and Anna are compelled by their personal feelings of guilt to seek out the truth. Excellent character-based mystery. Find out more at Barry's website.
Voodoo Doll by Leah Giarratano (pub. Random House) Sydney police detective Jill Jackson is back after the harrowing events of Vodka Doesn’t Freeze. She has been promoted and moved to Liverpool in Sydney’s south-west to be part of a taskforce charged with tracking down a gang of violent home invaders. Jill Jackson would have to be one of the most complex, troubled protagonists I have come across and her personality gives this book even greater interest.
Splinter by Michael MacConnell (pub. Hachette Australia) FBI agent Sarah Reilly is working on a child homicide case. It’s high profile and harrowing but it’s also a case that turns nasty. As with Michael MacConnell’s first thriller, Maelstrom, Sarah is facing a case that is far bigger than it first appears. She also has to face memories of events from her own past which are brought back in the course of the investigation.
The Build Up by Phillip Gwynne - (Pan Macmillan Australia) - I am reading this book at the moment and am enjoying it immensely, both for the setting and the engaging style in which it is written. Set in Darwin with occasional trips into the desert The Build Up is as much a biting commentary on the cultural viewpoint of a Northern Territorian as it is a murder mystery. A prostitute is murdered in a camp of disaffected Vietnam Veterans but her body does a disappearing act causing Detective Dusty Buchanon no end of problems. Most people already know that Territorians live by different rules to the rest of the country and Phillip Gwynne drives this point home in emphatic fashion in this classy mystery.
Second Strike by Mark Abernethy - (Allen & Unwin) - This is the second Alan McQueen thriller with the first, Golden Serpent recently short-listed for a Ned Kelly Award. This book fits directly into the post-911 terrorist fiction sub-genre with this threat coming out of Indonesia. Alan McQueen is an Australian spy, an ASIS agent with all the toughness and resourcefulness that makes these kinds of action/thrillers a wild ride from start to finish.
Ghostlines by Nick Gadd - (Scribe Publications) - For the third book to be published in August you're going to have to wait until the end of the month, August 30 in fact. Ghostlines won the 2007 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. According to the media release the story is about a washed up former investigative journalist who stumbles onto a story that grows from tragic accident into a major political intrigue and murder. They don't give literary awards to just anyone so you can be sure that this debut novel will be special.
As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry (pub. Hachette Australia) The manuscript titled “Falling Into Darkness” was awarded the 2007 Golden Heart Award by the Romance Writers of America as well as the Romance Writers of Australia Single and Loving It! (STALI) Contest in 2005. This is a romance / thriller of undoubted quality set in outback New South Wales.You can find out more about her by visiting the official website of Bronwyn Parry.
Paying For It by Tony Black (pub. Preface Publishing) This is a Scottish Noir thriller set in Edinburgh featuring Gus Dury, an alcoholic former journalist who is cajoled into investigating the death of his boss’ son. This is tough, dingy, well-written and admirably paced novel that skates the edges of despair as Gus goes head to head with one of the city’s most formidable mobsters. Tony Black has already made his presence felt with a short story that has been published here at The Outpost titled Crate-Load of Grief.
Crooked by Camilla Nelson (pub. Random House) This book looks as though it’s a real hell-raiser with the publisher blurb promising corruption, crooked politicians and honest crims. It also mentions that some of Sydney’s most notorious gangland identities have been used as the backdrop to the story. It looks tough and it looks mean and this has got me intrigued.
Stray Dog Winter by David Francis (pub. Allen & Unwin) Speaking of intrigued, Stray Dog Winter came with a media release that bills it as a Soviet noir “sexpionage” novel set in 1980s Moscow reveals dangerous secrets between siblings. I have this one sitting waiting to be read and if the praise of Debra Adelaide is to be heeded we can expect the story to be: “Permeated with a brooding unease, powerfully matched by the palpable cold of winter in Moscow…sinister, suspenseful and beautifully written.”
A tragic accident at a local railway crossing sees him simply going through the motions, more intent on getting home and drinking himself to sleep to the strains of Coltrane’s saxophone. Somewhere between asking people how they felt about the accident and filing the story his usual numbness to the people affected begins to wear off and he finds that there may be more to the story than a simple level-crossing accident.
A Melbourne art group from the 1950s, the work of a noted local artist and the haunting image of a woman captured in a portrait found in the house of a lonely old man are the catalysts to a most intriguing mystery. Phillip Trudeau is the troubled protagonist in the story, a man who has had his share of hardships, paying for crossing the wrong powerful people in the past. He’s the down but not out type of underdog whom you hope will succeed, but it could go either way.
Ghostlines is a worthy winner of the 2007 VPLA, it’s a powerful novel that is not without its surprises. Definitely one to look out for and a strong contender for future awards down the track. Put Nick Gadd down as an author to follow for the future.
I have written a full review for Ghostlines by Nick Gadd and it can be found by clicking on the link.
Best Crime Fiction
Shatter by Michael Robotham
Best First Crime Novel
The Low Road by Chris Womersley
Best Non-Fiction
Red Centre, Dead Heart by Evan McHugh
This is Michael Robotham's second Ned Kelly Award after taking out the 2005 Ned with his second novel LOST and a very deserved winner.
I'm also very pleased to see that Chris Womersley picked up the Ned - lovely to see such a noir work get recognised. It's a win that I picked up while reading the book, the proof is in my review of The Low Road..."If ever there were a book that screams Ned Kelly Award contender then this is it" - a pat on the back for Damien.
Hidden amid the easy, knockabout tone of the book lies a nicely crafted murder mystery. The story is based around the discovery of a body...which then goes missing, closely followed by Dusty's position as a homicide detective. Somehow, Dusty has to convince her colleagues that there was a body in the first place, but there's a reason it has disappeared.
The strength of The Build Up lies in the colourful characters dotted throughout, from Dusty herself to Senior Sergeant Dave Kirk who still prefers to call Dusty a frontbum and on to former Australian Rules football star Rob 'Trigger' Tregenza (and his use of a certain Hawthorn footy jumper). Each and every Northern Territorian is given an easy, relaxed attitude that seems to epitomise the land itself.
Gwynne's Darwin is an isolated city that is stolidly casual in attitude with a laid back style that is underlined by every broken rule and politically incorrect comment that is embraced with glee throughout the book. Brothels, Long Grassers, an oppressive heat, an ocean you can't swim in because of the box jellyfish and an endless forbidding landscape in every direction. It's a setting that is different from just about every murder mystery I have ever read and I loved every page of it.
This is a story that works on many levels. From the first page to the last it is engaging with injections of humour softening you up for the serious business of solving a murder and dealing with some shady, extremely dangerous characters.
From what I've heard there is another Dusty Buchanon novel in the works which is great news because one book is simply not enough.
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