Western Australia

This is a novella that I picked up from Amazon based on some comments I'd seen about the author's writing style, which turned out to be right. This is a great little novella that introduces a murder, an investigator and his sidekick, fleshes out his background and gives me some personality, sets up some potential suspects and solves the murder. All in novella format. Well written with extremely believable dialogue and a very nice sense of pace. Short, but not foreshortened, with a nice little twist at the end that, despite the post-events reveal style used, made a lot of sense and worked well as a solution. My only quibble is stupidity on my part... Cloud... for a bloke. Couldn't get it out of my mind that he'd have been given such a hard time as a kid with a name like that, he should have been a lot more bitter and twisted than he was... I know. I know.

Somewhere in the back of my head, as I've read more and more books set in Australia, there's always been a little question. Which RED DIRT TALKING has answered. Why can't we have more books written from the Aboriginal perspective? And what better way to look at that perspective from the point of view of an incomer to a remote outback community.

Set within community RED DIRT TALKING is having a red hot go at a heap of issues, and because of that, if you're looking for something that's a formulaic, straight-forward mystery, then that's not what's going on here. Although it could be argued that why it's taken so long for something this good, this direct, this clever to emerge... is a whole other sort of mystery.

Up front, I loved this book, so keep that in the back of your mind as you're wading through this review. There was something profoundly real about the way that Annie arrived in town with her agenda, her timeframes, her pressures and her ways. And in the way that her priorities were politely, gently, consistently... ignored. There's something about the way that outback communities work, their timeframes that oh so rang true and clear as a bell. Nothing overt, nothing cruel or vicious, but the message is clear - come to our land, our world then it's our rules, our timeframes, our priorities, and most importantly, our ways of respect and operating which prevail. A subtle reminder, but a reminder nonetheless.

Deliver those reminders and that pitch perfect observation of community and outsiders with some very dry, witty asides, but set it in the gloriously slow languid pace and you've got a perfect view of community life - warts and all. Add to that some excellent characters - from the crashing, frequently annoying Annie to the laconic Mick and the hilarious Maggot the garbo and the community and its inhabitants were so clearly drawn you could see them. There were also laugh out loud moments what with the games played with new arrivals (Toyota anyone), and the been there, done that nature of many encounters. There were also moments of great sadness and the stark reality of life, camp dwelling not being a particularly easy way of life.

The message from the mystery element of a missing little girl is there, buried in the overall story of the book and it's worth looking for. A couple of hundred years past, and still new in town, it strikes me there's a bit of Annie in a lot of us. Perhaps it's time to stop and listen, maybe watch and learn a few things from the old hands.

The second book in the Syd Fielding series, THE ICON MURDERS follows on closely from the opening salvo, MURDER AND REDEMPTION.

Syd Fielding is a WA based cop who, in the first book, got himself into a lot of hot water with a drugs investigation and the death of a childhood friend. Here we're continuing with many of the themes from the debut - a childhood spent in a brutal Catholic boy's home, mateship, the illicit drugs trade, the sometime uncomfortably close ties between law and order and criminals, and love in all the wrong places.

THE ICON MURDERS does, however, go more into child abuse perpetrated by members of various religious orders, as there is a serial killer out there brutally murdering men with suspect backgrounds. And he's framing Fielding along the way. That's either subtle (murders taking place all over the country whilst Fielding happens to have been in the same area), or through actual physical evidence. Needless to say Fielding's enemies within the local force are more than happy to put their backs into a guilty finding, whilst Fielding works against the tide to prove otherwise.

The style of both of these books tends towards the laid-back, laconic, sarcastic. Probably because Fielding is, himself, a bit of a lone wolf, a man accustomed to pissing off everybody around him and someone not given to a heap of empathy or the warm fuzzies. Whilst it does come as a bit of a mild surprise that there are lusting women on his trail, it's not so unlikely when you consider that it's a rather pragmatic pursuit, and really more about alliances. Which is also part of the point of the whole book - the shifting alliances and loyalties that spring up as a result of some very inconvenient, and frequently decidedly stroppy roosters coming home to roost.

THE ICON MURDERS, is not, however, without problems. The more I think about it, the more I suspect you're going to have to read the first book. There's a lot of backtracking, a lot of past connections, and a lot of interactions between characters that may not make sense without it. Having said that, even though I had read it, I really struggled sometimes to get everything straight - there's been a lot of books between then and now. Unfortunately it did contribute to a feeling of possible points being missed, which rapidly led to a tendency to lose the plot. And whilst the basic premise of the book isn't overly complex, the number of characters with history with Fielding did mean that it all got a tad muddled at times.

Given that it's "yet another serial killer book" and the circumstances of the killings are clearly telegraphing another nutter on the prowl, the connections backwards are really spotlights strafing the night sky. It's not that hard to take an educated guess at the why's of the killings, and from there narrow the suspect list down to a very neat little group which is fed by clues and details along the way. But these books don't always have to be about who. The why is often as important, and despite the problems, if it casts a bit of light into some very dark corners of our recent history, then that's not a bad thing.

REFLECTION OF EVIL by Bridgette Powell is a book flagged as Forensic Science united with Spirituality in a spine chilling murder mystery novel. So right up front I should just say I wasn't particularly convinced. I'm not a fan of this type of cross-over, not being a welded-on fan of the supernatural or metaphysical. Having said that, because I'm a reader and can therefore be a somewhat tricky prospect, I number amongst my favourite books a few that fall exactly into this category. So, long story short, I'll now have a go at this sort of thing, whereas once upon a time I would have been stepping away at a rapid pace.

The book starts out with the prologue, the opening paragraph of which is:

"With a gentle tug, the silk scarf covering her eyes fell away.  Her beaming smile froze clown like as she took in his malevolent expression.  Then she heard the humming emanating from the box at his feet. Innate fear paralysed her senses as she watched him reach down and unhinge the catch, releasing the myriad of frenzied and buzzing insects from captivity. The swarming mass burst forth in a dense, pulsating cloud."

The story centres around a number of characters that the reader meets very quickly. A psychotic killer with a low boredom threshold, Forensic pathologist Tahilia Baxter who has psychic visions, and Detective Brodie Halligan who, along with stopping a killer, is also trying to deal with a growing attraction to Baxter.

Despite my concerns, the supernatural element of the story is actually pretty well handled. Presented in a matter of fact, low-key manner it isn't too much of a stretch for a reader to accept. There's nothing overtly fantastical going on, and as the story unfolds, many of the visions that Baxter experiences become increasingly disturbing as they become increasingly obscure. Surprisingly the potential clash of Science and Spirituality wasn't quite as glaring as you'd think it could be. This is assisted by some good characters who are approachable and believable.

This is, however, another psychotic serial killer story, and whilst, in itself, not a bad plot it is yet another psychotic serial killer story and the supernatural element is about the only twist in what is, nowadays, a particularly heavily trodden path. There was also the rather odd inclusion of acronyms (or explanations of acronyms) which is probably something that other readers simply won't notice - but for some reason it clanged and yanked me firmly out of the story every time I came across one. I honestly don't remember another novel in which, for example, Sudden Infant Death (SIDS) and Personal Assistant (PA) was quite styled that way. But a more serious problem is that at 433 pages this is a hefty tome and whilst there is no denying the author has a way with words, there were passages that got bogged down. There seemed to be enough opportunities throughout to pare down and tighten up both the storytelling and the descriptive elements, contributing to both the tension build, and the readability as at points it did feel a little padded / overblown.

To be fair though, debut novels often suffer from "more is not enough" syndrome, and my overdosing on mad, bad serial killers should have nothing to do with whether or not this is a novel that readers with a liking for a touch of the supernatural should take a look at. Set in Perth and surrounds, REFLECTION OF EVIL might be just the thing for readers looking for something a little bit different, or those who really enjoy genre cross-over like this.

THE DEVIL'S GARDEN was a book I picked up because the case it covers - The Claremont Serial Killings - is unfortunately still unsolved, and because I've been reading a little about a number of cases in WA recently.  It made me want to find out more about the nature of the investigation into the murders of two young women, and the disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997.

What I discovered from this book is an inkling into the tunnel vision of the police force which appears to be consistent with the attitude displayed in another case in the same state of Australia.

I also managed to discover a little about the girls who died, the impact their deaths had on the families, and in particular the devastation felt by one family, whose daughter's has never been found - assumed dead at the hands of the same killer.

True Crime for me works best when it either lays out the facts of a case allowing the reader to come to a better understanding of the events or when, in the case of miscarriages of justice or unsolved cases, it investigates, analyses the evidence and builds a possible scenario with supporting details.

What doesn't work for me is something that I'm increasingly noticing from books from this author - gratuitous intrusion of the author into the story.  Fair enough if the author is interviewing witnesses, drawing out aspects of the case, working on an investigation on behalf of a wrongly convicted person, then observations / commentary are expected.  What's not expected, and seemed increasingly discomforting are the author's "feelings" on driving around in cars in Perth, the way that the scene where one of the poor girls was found "felt", and enough other off-pitch elements that left me with an increasing impression of grandstanding.  

Which is unfortunate, as this is a case that seems to deserve a considered, factual telling.

2011 was an interesting year in Australian Crime fiction with quite a few excellent debut books appearing.  In 2012 we've started off with the release of MURDER AND REDEMPTION by Noel Mealey, another debut, another book set in outback Western Australia, and another book aiming for a quintessentially Australian voice and viewpoint.

Blurbed as "moody and atmospheric" and "following in the traditions of both Peter Temple and Carl Hiaasen", somebody is setting the bar for MURDER AND REDEMPTION rather on the high side.

As you'd expect from those comparisons the central character - Syd Fielding - is a flawed, complex and damaged individual.  A childhood spent in a notorious WA orphanage, a tour of duty during the Vietnam War, a recovering alcoholic with a broken marriage and a distant relationship with his only son, Fielding manages to maintain some close relationships with a few selected mates - from his time in Vietnam, from the orphanage, these men are all, in their own way, damaged and coping using different methods.  When one of Fielding's life time friends, Ivan, appears to be mixed up in something violent and nasty, Fielding finds his role as policeman complicated.

Fielding is a classic outsider, a complex and damaged man, dealing with his demons - not a particularly unusual characterisation in crime fiction these days and as a result there are a lot of expected tensions with hierarchy, tricky relationships with colleagues and a fair bit of personal angst and self-analysis.  There is definitely a terseness to the style, and dialogue that is reminiscent of Temple's patterns of writing, although it's understandably not as assured, as clean or as pared down.  Whilst Syd is controlled, clipped, frequently sparing of details; there are hints, and glimpses into some parts of the life of Fielding and his mates.  There are also some parts that are drawn out, concentrated on, more voluminous, giving the book a slightly unbalanced feel.  

The central plot in MURDER AND REDEMPTION was particularly interesting, especially after reading the author notes which outline some of the true events that were used.  Even without knowing that up front, the way that story built around the "technicalities" of illicit drug trafficking was cleverly done - the advantages of the vast, mostly uninhabited areas of the coast and mining towns of WA intriguing.  The book definitely had a strong sense of place drawing the isolation and distances into the story very effectively.

As with most debut books, there's a fair amount of heavy lifting going on - getting a character established, explaining some background, whilst developing a storyline along the way.  Even allowing for slight quibbles with the balance, and making a huge allowance for the thing that I absolutely adore about Temple's writing is more about what he doesn't say, than what he does, Noel Mealey's MURDER AND REDEMPTION is an interesting book.  Let's just hope that this, and some of the other excellent debut books recently, are the start of some new, solid, Australian series.