Australia

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.

You know how the rule goes, you're not supposed to barrack for the "bad guy", but seriously there's no way I wasn't totally and absolutely on Osgood Sneddon's side from the start. I mean Osgood? No wonder he uses the jokingly dubbed alias of Furt Bent from Aldaheit. Which is just silly, even if you can pronounce Aldaheit and goodness knows I changed my mind a 1000 times about how to.

When I wasn't being thoroughly and completely entertained by FURT BENT FROM ALDAHEIT that is. It's a book that combines good pace and action with a dry and quite dark sense of humour, highlighting a central character, who despite being a delinquent thief and troublemaker, is somebody that you just kind of have to end up liking. A Lot.

Having a little peak around post reading the book I believe some of the action could have been inspired by some true life events in New Zealand, which is rather intriguing, as a lot of the action is quite out there. Sneddon is not your run of the mill kid as he manages to survive in the very dangerous world of crime and prison using a combination of wit, brains and sheer gall. A determined, resourceful and relentless survivor, he's a kid that packs a hell of lot into a very short life. There are other characters built into the story, the obvious one being DI Hubbard, and whilst that supporting cast are believable people, they are inevitably a supporting cast. This book is all about Osgood Sneddon and it does a very good job of that. FURT BENT FROM ALDAHEIT was an unexpected, and very engaging pleasure to read.

(Read as an ebook from Amazon)
 

It's an absolute given that one of the great strengths of crime / thriller fiction is the way that it gets into issues from the time and place in which it is set and WHITE GOLD is no exception. There's an increasing number of these sorts of books, looking at things from an environmental and/or activism role, and WHITE GOLD takes on the idea of terrorism to influence marketforces and fight off an increasing alternative viewpoint with rather frightening realism.

Given that the book has a number of very highly scientific principles at its core the language, and stylings are pure thriller. The technical information is delivered in a very accessible manner, although Amphlett also avoids the dreaded talking down to an audience. I think it's probably the rather matter of fact way in which the scientific elements are delivered, the technical aspects of the bomb and it's making and workings are described that make the details not just digestible, but considerably more chilling in the process.

There are good characterisations, with a bit of romantic attachment chucked in for those that like it, although it's not too overblown, and has some nice friendship / meeting of equals aspects to it which balance that out. There are a few plot points and elements of the action which might mean that readers have to suspend their disbelief a little more highly than they are normally comfortable with, and although there were points where I craved a little heaving lifting equipment, I did manage to hoick the disbelief high enough to get over the bumps. I should image that other readers, particularly fans of thrillers where the unexpected always happens, are not going to have too many problems following me in that.

Whilst it's particularly pleasing to see female writers in Australia taking on the thriller format, it's even more pleasing to see so many good ones coming along. There is, happily it seems, a sequel to WHITE GOLD in the making.
 

BLACKWATER MOON is the second book from Australian author B. Michael Radburn, although this has more of a crime fiction / thriller focus. Atmospheric, emotional, poignant and tightly controlled, both books from Radburn mark him out as an author to be watched.

The story is built around Andy Walker, a young boy, in a small Australian country town who starts out in life with challenges. An alcoholic and abusive father, a mother who eventually throws in the towel and takes up drinking to kill the pain, Walker is lucky enough to meet a man who teaches him to row, who acts as a mentor. Alas, another adult that Andy meets on his journey is another damaged human being, a man all too willing to give in to his own demons.

This is not the first book I've read recently that uses a small town / young boy / war intervention theme, although it is set more recently, and the war involved is the Vietnam conflict. Both these books have, at their core, a strong sense of loss, of struggle, and of the potential outcome of background and circumstance. BLACKWATER MOON also includes that idea of a mentor, of the one person that can step into a young boy's life and make a difference which adds a level of hope, the possibility of a positive in a life which is set reeling by the actions of others. Then there's the character of Andy Walker. A young boy from a difficult background, in danger of being shaped by a dreadful experience, beaten down again and again by events, timing and things outside his control - Walker struggles to build a life. But there's more to the book than that, the story is also looking into the eyes and mind of a damaged man. A man who acted with impunity, seemingly unseen by a small community, a man who has made starkly different choices.

The tension in BLACKWATER MOON is multi-level - an external threat, the "Game" and its perpetrator, the internal threat of what life has done to Andy Walker. There's some fascinating observations of what it must be to be a victim, to succumb to the terror, or find a way to deal with it, go on, live a life.

Needless to say, BLACKWATER MOON is clever. It's sad, uplifting, poignant, worrying, touching and provides more than a little insight into life, love and the whole damn thing. Sure the ending is a bit sentimental, but by that stage the characters and the reader have been in the wars. A bit of schmaltz is exactly what a lot of readers are going to need by then.

Not sure if I've developed a bit more tolerance for the issue based style of this series, or whether or not it's balanced out a bit better in this book than it was in TOO RICH.

What it could actually be is a bit more of a plot, which helps immensely with the shouty / tell don't show problems of the first book. The issues are all still here, and this time they are not muddied by the silliness of the surrounding plot points, with the focus being on a rather convoluted series of deaths, that you know are obviously going to be connected up at some point.

There's still the inexplicable cop / determined independent Feminist detective pairing, which simply doesn't make any sense whatsoever. On any level, and I think that's probably contributing to the biggest problem of this book - somebody's bumping off high profile blokes left right and centre and the investigation is down to an amateur with family connections to one of the victims and a few token police efforts?

Leaving aside my whinging, the one thing I'm really finding interesting about these books is how far Australian crime fiction (female or male writers / issues based or not) has come since the early 1990s.

A young English backpacker gets into a car with an older Australian man somewhere in the Australian outback, and the violence, threatening, rape, pillage, murder and general mayhem commences. Somehow young, innocent, a bit wet Mick the backpacker stays. Despite the drugging and rape of a couple of under-age girls by Dan, despite the weird behaviour, despite the somewhat over the top sense of menace and madness, and especially despite Mick's somewhat wishy washy assertions that "he" didn't rape those girls... but.

And that's possibly the big problem with BABYLON. There are "but's", "why's", "what the's", and "oh you have to be joking's" littered from one end of the book to the other. I don't have a problem with the idea that somehow a young man can get himself caught up in events and actions (to be fair one of my all time favourite books takes an innocent young man on a crime spree across America with an absolute lunatic and true nature reveals), but what's missing in BABYLON is why and frankly much consistency in the true nature. Why does Mick seem almost comfortable in his role of "observer", why does he join in on the killing in one place, and protect another possible victim, only to be convinced of her worthlessness immediately after? Why does he follow Dan's lead so blindly? The idea that somehow Dan was a manipulator, a man able to influence another so comprehensively, that somehow he's giving Mick the out that he needs to satisfy his own base nature... nope. Not in a pink fit. As for the "what the's" - well they were so thick on the ground I was surprised the rolling of my eyes didn't make me dizzy.

It wasn't just that there seemed to be a revelling in the violence, there was something sneakingly gleeful which was really discomforting. It wasn't just the predictable misogyny and the appalling dialogue. It was also the plot device of the mad, bad lunatic lurking out in the Australian bush, just waiting for the innocent idiot (English backpacker / city girl in heels). Seen it all recently and sorry, but unless it's rock solid believable, it reeks of convenience. In BABYLON, however, what was most disappointing were the wasted opportunities. A couple of cops doing the chasing were conveniently bumbling idiots who couldn't read a map, but were full of tedious observations about the nature of evil and police corruption. Why they had no hope of finding these guys, even though they seemed to know who they were just simply did not make sense. But what was probably most disappointing is that even though the set up was ridiculous, there is a point where BABYLON actually got involving. Not for long though as it crashed and burned to a motivation that was stretched so thin, Mick's fate wasn't veiled by it nearly enough.

The problem I had with an earlier book of Honey Brown's was that whilst the thriller aspects of the book really worked, I was less convinced by the post-apocalyptic scenario and the happy ever after ending. AFTER THE DARKNESS solved those personal prejudices, and presented me with a thriller that worked on just about every level.  

I just love thrillers that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, that present a scenario that's unexpected, quietly disconcerting and extremely worrying. Particularly where the tension ramps up, the outcome's not immediately apparent, and the resolution ambiguous. AFTER THE DARKNESS takes a pretty normal married couple, successful in their business, happy in their family life and their love and relationship together, and in one seemingly innocent outing, rips that into little tiny itty bitty shreds. It then takes these two traumatised individuals, Bruce and Trudy Harrison, and makes everything a whole lot worse.

Whilst the ramp up is nicely paced, what really works in AFTER THE DARKNESS is the realness of the whole thing. Of course a holidaying couple would take a short bypass to an art gallery on the road back home. Of course they would fail to recognise the menace until it was too late (not everyone goes around expecting the worst after all!). Of course they would do whatever it took to save each other. Of course they would struggle to talk about the shocking situation they found themselves in afterwards. Of course they would react when the threat continues, and of course they would do what ever it takes when the threat gets too close to home.

All of which adds up to one of those much touted, and often not achieved, "unputdownable book". But AFTER THE DARKNESS truly was very difficult to put down. The writing is taut and subtle, the tension is built within the reader's head, as it builds in the characters lives. There are clever differences in the plot which give Brown options to explore the couple's individual and combined reactions and relationships giving the book a refreshingly different outlook. The characterisations aren't stereotypical - Bruce and Trudy may be a married couple, but their roles and reactions aren't limited by their gender and standard expectation. There's cross-over and ambiguity in their reactions, actions, and responsibilities. It's that realness thing again - they seem like very real people, in a very real scenario that's spiralling rapidly.

It's actually not that often that I find myself immersed in a book that I truly can't put down. Not only was AFTER THE DARKNESS one of the best thrillers of it's kind I've read in a long time, it gave me a chance to work long and hard on some good "can't sorry... reading" excuses.

If, like me, you grew up on a diet of Len Deighton, Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre novels, there is a chance you're a bit of a fan of fast paced, military, espionage style novels.  DEFENDER OF THE FAITH is a recent entry in the what is rapidly becoming a large pool of choice for Australian readers.  

Set within our geographical and political sphere, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH introduces readers to Alex Morgan, special forces operative, good bloke, and all round bit of a hero.  The action in this book is really very realistic, and it's not difficult to believe highly informed by the author's own background.  There are some good, albeit somewhat expected characterisations, right down to the beautiful blonde love interest, the strong jawed, very Australian main character, and a series of nicely evil villains lead by a mysterious, excellent at disguises archetypal baddy type, all glowering evil genius and callous malevolence.

As this is a thriller there are some givens that readers must expect.  A bit of energiser bunniness in the main character, winged frequently but never downed.  There was a love story between the two main characters, and of course there was a level of physical attractiveness about them both, although I'm happy to report there were no signs of hair flicking and very little gratuitous comment on beautiful eyes and glorious legs...  

What makes a thriller work, or not work, is how these clichés are delivered.  In the case of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, mostly everything worked, the plot was believable without the need to park your disbelief around the back and hide the keys; the love story wasn't too thickly applied, and whilst there was a bit of inexplicable jeopardy for all players, it did all gel.  Maybe there are points where the plot got a little vague, but the action elements held up, and the pace certainly didn't let go.

Definitely something on the entertaining side, the only thing that was missing when I read DEFENDER OF THE FAITH was the box of chocolates and deck chair that you'd normally drag out at Christmas to sit down and be thoroughly and comprehensively entertained by a good espionage thriller.

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH is available in various formats - check out the website for details:  http://defenderofthefaith.com.au/