Australia

On the lighter than air side of the cozy spectrum this is a series that will appeal to readers who like a bit of self-aware silly in their crime fiction.

Third book in the Agatha Christie Book Club series, EVIL UNDER THE STARS, continues the adventures of a group of friends, linked by their shared love of the novels of Agatha Christie. When I reviewed the first novel it was littered with references and clues to Agatha Christie plots that were surprisingly missed by many of the club members, which at the time seemed a bit odd, but that's definitely been tightened up a lot here. It will help if you read the series in order though, as this is really more about the characters in some way - and there's a lot of them - and the connections are a bit complicated, so it would be better if you know them, and their backgrounds as you go through.

With servings of humour, love and longing, and a plot that's more than a bit of a hat-tip to the structures that Christie herself was fond of, EVIL UNDER THE STARS is told in a slightly arch manner which fits with the style of the series, the characters and the intent. Cute series, designed for and meeting the requirements of fans who like their crime on the very cozy side.

COLOMBIANO is one of those huge (689 pages huge) sweeping saga styled novels that has enough story to fill those pages, although this is raw, gut-wrenching, frequently shocking stuff. Especially if you know there are aspects of somebody's true story built into a fictional telling.

Not for the light-hearted, or weak of arm if you're going to be reading a paperback / hardback copy COLOMBIANO starts out with an author prologue which is well worth reading as it tells the background to the story, then moves into Part One - Little Pedro commencing with the line:

They came on a Wednesday to execute my father.

They did indeed execute Pedro's father, after a few chapters that describe the lead up to the execution, the reasons, and then into the aftermath. Switching rapidly backwards and forwards between events and timelines, Pedro's father's death is sadly just another pointless execution in a long line of guerrilla warfare - rebels versus government / right versus wrong (hard to decide which is which) and violence. Loss, violence, deprivation, cruelty, sadness, inter-generational hatred, revenge, bitterness, dark humour... it's all here in spades.

Whilst the book itself is a thumping big undertaking COLOMBIANO is told in a series of short, sharp chapters, switching the focus and timelines around all the time, keeping the reader from having to concentrate too hard on just the worst aspects, sprinkling in a little bit of coming-of-age story, trying to balance the descent into madness with love as an uplifting counter-point.

Hard going, with an authentic voice that makes it emotionally challenging and confronting, COLOMBIANO is well worth pursuing - even if the size is off-putting. This reads, feels and is telegraphed in the prologue as something this author was passionately driven to produce. 

In the author notes to THE WAY BACK, Kylie Ladd says she became interested in the idea behind the novel when US teenager Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family months after she was abducted. Whilst the media focused on the story of her captivity and release, what intrigued Ladd was how Elizabeth could/would recover. As more long-lost girls, kidnapped and treated brutally started to be found, Ladd's interest peaked.

As both a psychologist and a writer, what fascinated me wasn't so much how these girls endured what they did, but how (and if) they were able to pick up the pieces of their old lives and start again. The lost child is a popular trope in Australian arts and literature, but I was interested in exploring this from a slightly different angle: not focusing on the loss per se, but what happens next, when what is lost is found.

After reading THE WAY BACK, I read this note and it set me to thinking hard about the novel that had preceded. The obvious question is does it explore this question adequately - "what happens next"? Can't help but think it nailed much of that aspect. Even being unaware of the premise whilst starting THE WAY BACK, there's something confronting, emotional and involving about this novel. It is a different focus. The reader will react with it in a very different way. The pain and after-effects of what Charlie Johnson experienced in four months of captivity complicate everything, and you can clearly see the life-long affect that something like this must have on a young girl. You see it from her point of view, from her families and from her friends and community.

Charlie's voice is well presented, she's a believable, horse obsessed 13 year old girl, damaged by the ordeal she experiences. As a counter point her abductor is portrayed as a damaged individual as well, presenting the reader with the possibility of nuance on the face of evil. The downside in this context is that it splits the focus, calls for overwhelming compassion and understanding on the part of the reader, and it's a lot to comprehend. Somehow the idea that the abductor is equally damaged and vulnerable seems to unfortunately downplay the ordeal that Charlie experienced. It may be a perfectly valid viewpoint but it weakened the message here, along with the use of overtly convenient "close calls" and coincidences that again muddied the central message too much. 

When Ladd is exploring that central idea -  "what happens when what is lost is found" - THE WAY BACK is indeed powerful. Moving, confronting, and very powerful.

There were so many reasons I wanted to love GET POOR SLOW. The concept of the most hated book reviewer in Australia being the only suspect in a murder, right down to the belly full of bourbon and the curdled dreams of literary greatness sounds like great fun. And I did so like the opening lines:

I'm starting to doubt this thing will end soon. Last night one of them came up to the house. I was inside, doing what I do these days when it gets dark. No lights on, no book, no TV, no sounds, just a glass in my fist with not much left in it.

There is so much portent in the opening chapters of this novel, it drips with potential, until it doesn't. Which comes surprisingly quickly given the excellent commencement. 

The writing is wonderful, it's slightly ironic, tongue in cheek with the story told from Ray's own point of view, almost a riff on the private investigator's of old. Ray's asides are as eloquent and nasty as his reviews, he's sarcastic and unflinching, and yet, not too far in, I was bored witless. Perhaps it's the coyness of the plot, which doesn't really have a lot to be coy about. Perhaps it was the general thinning of the whole reason for the tale - it's hard to spin bittered and twisted done wrong bloke for too long before it all gets a bit ho hum. Perhaps it was the sneaking suspicion that Ray Saint ain't no Rake no matter how hard he tried to be. There just wasn't quite enough bite to the humour, quite enough rakishness overall, certainly never quite the twinkle in the eye that you suspect a Rake like character needs to be forgiven over and over again. Maybe it was because at one point Saint started to feel like his favourite thing was him - it all got very self-indulgent and at that point the thinness of the overall plot really struggled for relevance in the light of the somewhat lukewarm personal character assassination.

Whatever the reasons, about half the way into GET POOR SLOW, I suddenly found myself easily distracted by the dishes, or the dusting, or anything really. Which is never a good sign.

The second novel in the Monsarrat series, THE UNMOURNED is set in Sydney, based around the Parramatta Female Factory - the epitome of appalling institutions in a line up that you'd think would be hard to lead.

The investigator in this series is ticket-of-leave recipient, gentleman convict, Hugh Monsarrat who has come from Port Macquarie to Parramatta in Sydney with his every-loyal housekeeper Mrs Mulrooney. Having, as yet, not had the pleasure of reading the first book in the series THE SOLDIER'S CURSE or now the third, THE POWER GAME, this is something that I really need to rectify (I realise that's starting to become my never-ending mantra), but this combination of history with a touch of mystery, great characters, good settings, and interesting storylines is worth pursuing.

On the slightly mannered side of historical tellings, this second novel plays very fair with new readers, giving you more than enough background on Monsarrat and Mulrooney to be able to sort out the relationship, and a fair bit of their pasts without having to work too hard, whilst keeping the focus on the current storyline. The Parramatta Female Factory is one of those areas of Australian history that this reader knew a bit about, but obviously nowhere near enough, and the historical details behind the factory, it's purpose, and the way it was used and abused were informative. It's told in great style with verve and a real sense of being able to be part of it - instead of reading a somewhat dull, accurate and passionless historical account. 

The murder of the superintendent Robert Church, is intriguing, but in many ways it's the history in this novel that matters a tad more than the mystery. When delivered as well as THE UNMOURNED does it, it's of no matter that the mystery is somewhat easy to resolve pretty early on. There's still plenty of intrigue in the lives of Monsarrat, Mulrooney and everybody associated with the Parramatta Female Factory to keep the interest of readers, to say nothing of how excellent it is to have novels that finally cast some light into one of the very dark corners of early white society institutions.