Peter Klein

SILK CHASER is the third novel set within the Australian Racing Industry by ex-strapper, trainer and punter Peter Klein. These books, unsurprisingly, have a fantastic sense of place and reality within that setting, covering the difficulties and vagaries of the Sport of Kings from exactly those viewpoints - strapper, trainers and punters as well as bookmakers, stewards, security and other people who work in and around the tracks and horses, through to the occasional racetrack visitors - the full range of hangers-on.

In SILK CHASER there are all these sorts of characters, and a serial killer.  Targeting young, female strappers somebody is killing them brutally.  The affect of this gets particularly close to Klein's central character - John Punter - when a strapper from his father and brother's stables is one of the victims.  Punter is not the only person worried about this killer though, but then he's also worried about the relationship he's developing with new girlfriend Maxine.

The settings of these books, and the characters who populate those settings are just terrific.  Granted my experience of the racing industry is pretty limited, and from a long-time ago, but everyone just rings so very true.  And that's consistent for all the characters - from the socialite girlfriend to Punter's pickpocket mate.  The settings are spot on as well - Punter moves around from track to track, and off track to home, his Pizza restaurant, and through a set of social events all over Melbourne with great aplomb, and with a wonderful laid back, laconic sense of Australian humour and wry observation.

Unfortunately, what doesn't work so well in SILK CHASER is the serial killer element.  Now I will admit to a profound boredom about the whole being in the head of the serial killer thing - let's face it, it has been done to death.  Having said that, it can still work provided the reader does feel like they are truly in the killer's head, or gets the feeling that the killer is one very scary individual.  Unfortunately in this book I never really felt like I was hearing an authentic voice, and because of that the killer wasn't a particularly foreboding presence, despite the high body count.  It isn't just a feeling of been there, done that, there was something not quite convincing about the serial killer viewpoints, the language, the tone that simply didn't work for me.

Which is a pity, as I do like the setting of these books, and I really like the character of John Punter.  Perhaps this is a book for readers who don't seem to have had to spend quite as much time in the heads of serial killers as a more frequent (okay, well fanatical) reader of crime fiction.  It may be that the voice will work if you're less (sadly) finely attuned to the mad, bad and most clinical of serial killer voices.

Peter Klein has spent a lifetime in the horse racing industry, working for some of Australia's top trainers such as TJ Smith and Bart Cummings.  He was once a strapper of champion galloper Kingston Town.  It's therefore not all that surprising that he has set PUNTER'S TURF firmly in the horse racing world, with a good balance between the horse racing and mystery elements.  There is enough atmosphere to give the events a real sense of place, there's enough sprinkling of horse racing terminology to provide a sense of reality, but it's not overplayed or impossible for the average reader to follow.  A reader with absolutely no interest in betting and horse racing in general isn't going to be bored witless by the details.

John Punter comes from a horse racing dynasty in his own right, but he has left his father's stables and set up as a professional punter - somebody who makes their living betting on horse races.  So he knows a lot about the people and the workings of the industry - he spends most of his days studying horse form - and therefore the stables, the trainers and the people who work in the industry.  He knows a lot of the personalities around the tracks - the bookies, track detectives, petty criminals, other punters, the Salvos.  It's a perfect cover for somebody who needs to poke around in an industry that is the connection for the kidnappings and the murders. 

It is a kidnapping that first gets Punter involved in this case.  Luckily the second victim is returned to her family alive, but the case seems to just keep getting more and more complicated as a trainer starts to have an inexplicable run of bad luck and a young jockey is killed by a horse.

Quintessentially Australian, John Punter lives in a world that revolves around horse racing, whilst also delving into some of the finer points of Melbourne life - the food and the social life.  He's a nicely balanced character - somewhat rumpled, unlucky in love but still in there batting below average, he's pretty content with his lot.  He's surrounded by some larger than life characters including bookmakers, trainers and jockeys who are exactly what you'd hope to find at a racecourse.  Obligatory warning - there is animal cruelty which in one case provides an impetus for Punter to continue his involvement at one point, in another is part of the nature of the people that he's dealing with.  Neither instance is particularly pleasant - but then neither are the people that Punter's searching for.  Both instances however are not going to be pleasant for readers who really object to the use of that in their crime fiction, even though there does appear to be a reason (and consequences) for it.  There are also some convenient happenings designed to keep the hero in the game (so to speak).  These could have been slightly annoying events, but Punter's the sort of bloke that seems perfectly capable of the occasional brain freeze that can lead to some very messy consequences.

PUNTER'S TURF really is a very enjoyable read overall.  It's part thriller and part amateur investigation, set in a world that's vaguely familiar, whilst sufficiently different from the normal humdrum to generate interest in its own right.  John Punter's a good character - not foolhardy, but not timid, he seems like your normal average sort of a bloke.  He will help a mate if called upon, he'll even risk life and limb, he'll have a go at doing the right thing and thinking through the consequences but when push comes to shove - he's not above the occasional daft moment.