Sydney

This title was reviewed for the Newtown Review of Books

"The lives of paramedics entwine with a police investigation to remind us just how good Australian crime writing can be.

Web of Deceit, the sixth book by ex-paramedic Katherine Howell featuring Detective Ella Marconi, continues to build a solid, clever police-procedural series with an ongoing paramedic viewpoint, an element that seems even stronger in this book."

For the full review: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/02/07/crime-scene-katherine-howell-web-of-deceit-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/

I really think that whenever I feel like a bit of a whinge about the way life is these days, I should read a book like EUGENIA. Eugenia Falleni was a woman born into a large Italian Family, who grew up in New Zealand, and spent most of her all too short life in Australia, living most of it as a man.

Mark Tedeschi QC looks at what happened to Eugenia in her early life, a rape and subsequent birth of a daughter which complicated her life even more, how she functioned in day-to-day life, her first marriage and the death of her wife for which she was charged with murder, along with a second marriage and life post trial and time in jail.

Whilst the book is written by a lawyer, and looks closely at the rights, wrong and inadequacies of the trial and sentencing that she endured, it's not just about the legal. Tedeschi considers many of the elements that made up Falleni's difficult and tragic life, considering the question of her gender dysmorphia, and how she kept it a secret, particularly, it seems in the case of two marriages to women. Although her first wife, Annie Birkett, had finally discovered the truth, her second wife Lizzie Crawford refused to acknowledge that her husband, was in fact, a woman, even after police and had arrested Falleni, and doctors had examined her and declared the obvious.

It's impossible to read EUGENIA and not have sympathy for a woman who, may or may not have committed murder, although the book's conclusion is that her defence could have argued accidental / manslaughter. It's impossible not to consider how incredibly difficult, confronting and complicated her life must have been with such an obvious case of gender dysmorphia. Despite even the worst of idiocy about such issues in current day society, at the very least you'd hope there would be some support, understanding, and friendship somewhere. Alas for Falleni she was the target of ridicule and disrespect from everywhere. She was subjected to the worst sexual violence, attacked by the press, treated like a freak by the public and let down badly by her defence. Although there was finally kindness in jail, it was a bit of a kick in the teeth to find out that even her death was an absolute, flat out, utter and complete tragedy.

I'd never heard of Eugenia Falleni before I read a short story in a true crime collection a while ago, so I'm really grateful that Tedeschi took the time to delve, consider and write this book. Eugenia Falleni deserves it.

After a four year hiatus fans of Gabrielle Lord's Gemma Lincoln will be very pleased to see DEATH BY BEAUTY hit the shelves. Set about 18 months after the last in the series - SHATTERED - DEATH BY BEAUTY sees Private Investigator Gemma Lincoln easing herself back into work after the birth of her son. Her personal life has gotten complicated as she lives with Mike, who isn't Rafi's father, whilst ex-lover and Rafi's biological father Steve has initially slipped from view.

Gemma's first case back sees her looking into the suspect behaviour of the husband of a very wealthy woman who believes he may be planning her murder. At the same time Gemma's asked by best friend, DS Angie McDonald to look into the story of a woman who claims she was drugged and bitten / attacked by a vampire. An excited telephone call from an exclusive day spa, increasingly famous for its controversial cutting edge cosmetic surgery procedures, leads to friend and journalist Janet Chancy, disappear twixt spa and spilling the news to Gemma. Very quickly all roads lead to Sapphire Springs. Very well lit, airport runway standard lit roads just in case the reader had any doubts.

DEATH BY BEAUTY does concentrate a lot on Gemma's personal life - her love for her young son, her relationship with Mike, her past with Steve. There's a hefty amount of the complications of children and working, which comes dangerously close to overwhelming the plot at points. A plot which is already relying on a lot of convenient factors. Whilst it's normally a given that some if not all of the threads of a complicated plot are going to veer somewhere in the same direction, in DEATH BY BEAUTY not only is it telegraphed pretty obviously, it's all supported by an all too convenient conspiracy. Whilst there definitely does appear to be some solid scientific research and information behind some elements, there is a lot of action and interaction that is a little too unbelievable. There's also the problem of why a private investigator, struggling with a work / life balance, is suddenly working a police case. It may be that there was a reason for that, but to be frank, it didn't stick in my head.

I'd guess that this is going to be a book in which reader's who empathise with Gemma are going to get a lot more enjoyment from it. Whilst she's always been a bit impulsive in DEATH BY BEAUTY, there's so much of Gemma's investigation that was again, unbelievable, so many clues delivered and yet ignored, so much motivation that just didn't seem to make a lot of sense, that the personal elements really started to get in the road. Either way, I never quite bought a possible emotional turmoil excuse as it seemed to me that the answer to the obvious question being asked - solid, supportive, kind, good bloke Mike or wild, dangerous, bad bloke Steve - was heading into pretty predictable territory

Ultimately this is another book that I'm going to fully expect fans of the series to love, not just because four years is a long time to wait for an outing with a favourite set of characters. It's certainly a page turner, and whilst the action's not always believable it's certainly well-paced and tautly delivered.

It's odd, the things that can occur to you when you're reading books.  In the case of SILENT FEAR I just could not stop thinking how glad I was to be a reader and not a writer.  Honestly, how do these people come up with such consistently good characters and excellent plots?  Howell makes her life that little bit more difficult by always bringing in a Paramedic thread, mostly with new characters each book, weaving what happens to them on the job into the plot of an excellent crime fiction / police procedural book.  Even allowing for a background as a paramedic, I've no idea how she consistently builds these plots, creates these characters and writes these tremendous books!

In SILENT FEAR the connection between paramedic Holly and the police investigation into the shooting death of Paul Fowler is multi-faceted.  She's one of the crew called when he collapses in a park, only to discover a bullet wound.  Another connection is her estranged brother Seth, best friend of Paul, on the scene in the park when the shooting occurred.  Things get even more complicated once her background starts to reveal, and her fiancé gets involved.

In Holly, Howell has again created a very interesting, fleshed out and realistic character.  Her story is cleverly woven into the ongoing police investigation, ensuring that the reader gets a real chance to connect with her, whilst never feeling that the book is wandering off the point.  Readers have had the earlier books in the series to really get to know Detective Ella Marconi, the lead voice in the detective group investigating Fowler's death.  Marconi does seem to be getting an easier time in SILENT FEAR than she has in the earlier books.  Aside from a bit of grief from a slimy new colleague, which she's handling, and her partner's worry and lack of communication, her ongoing relationship with her parents is considerably simpler (in this book they are cruising around New Zealand making lots of ship to shore calls to keep in touch), so everything's pretty smooth on the Marconi front.  There is, however, a great cast of supporting police - male and female - with a good, solid combination of angst and normality in the entire group, leading to more than a sneaking hope that there could be an ensemble building.

One of the things that Howell does particularly well is to balance the personal and the professional, the paramedic and the cop lines.  At no point do you feel the action wandering, or stalling, or wading around in uninteresting waters.  There's no misdirection or padding in any of these books, and markedly so in SILENT FEAR.  The story clipped along at a good pace, the author's not been afraid to cause her characters some serious angst, and it's possible for a reader to get a strong feeling of connection.  The only downside, and a very very minor one at that, seemed to be the drawing together of a couple of plot lines that didn't quite work - perhaps because it seemed to be unnecessary?  

But seriously, the only real downside to SILENT FEAR is that you're going to have to be prepared before you start.  It's flagged as "A Book You Can't Put Down", and they mean that.  Emphatically.

Before everything comes across just a bit gushy, there was a point somewhere in the middle of the Cliff Hardy series where I seriously lost interest.  Whilst there are some elements of the books that are always going to be the same, somehow the sameness became very obvious, there was something slightly flat about the storylines and, to this reader at least, nothing much engaged my interest.  I never totally gave up reading the series, but most definitely didn't shove things aside as each new book arrived.

And then, a few years ago, things changed.  Around the time that Cliff started to really get in trouble, to lose his licence for real, as his health took a downward turn, somewhere in there, the series got it's fire back.  Sure there's still the same basic elements making up the stories, yet somehow or other there's something very engaging happening again.  Maybe it's got something to do with some of the aspects of Cliff's life catching up a bit with current day activities - a mobile phone and even a computer have even made a showing in Cliff's life.  Maybe it's also that somehow Cliff is now starting to show just the slightest glimpse of aging, that's making the series somehow progress, change, move on just a little.

True fans, however, do not need to worry that Cliff is suddenly going to act his age, get himself a nice little runaround, and leap too heavily into the technology age - a mobile phone and office computer do not, a Private Detective, change that much.  The point of COMEBACK is that Cliff is back, he's got his licence back, he's back working as a PI (albeit more because he needs the money and less because of any overt great desire to return to his old life), and he's out and about, old Ford and all, working the mean streets, getting roughed up just a bit and solving the puzzle.  

COMEBACK is the story of Cliff's investigation into the death of actor Bobby Forrest.  The only love interest in sight is Bobby's girlfriend, and the mystery is why Bobby died and how you're going to work out where one white Commodore came from in a sea of white Commodores.

The plot of this book is actually really good, and whilst there's still a bit of the beaten and still functioning PI stuff going on, all in all, Cliff's investigation style seems to have gotten a bit cunning with age (less prodding of the bear and more teasing it from a distance if you like). 

I particularly enjoyed Hardy's "observation" about modern day crime fiction "padded, as a lot of novels are now.  I don't know why."  One thing you can never accuse a Cliff Hardy novel of is padding!  They are sparse, entertaining, tight little capsules of Cliff the Private Detective working the mean streets of Sydney, and have always been thus.

Whilst I'd normally confess to having very little interest in following traditions, the over Christmas read of the latest Cliff Hardy instalment has become... let's call it a rather addictive habit.  COMEBACK is really continuing the fantastic resurgence in this Australian crime fiction stalwart.