Bantam

Leah Giarratano, forensic psychologist, crime fiction writer and consummate storyteller has just released her third novel - BLACK ICE.  As with both of the earlier books, Giarratano takes the reader deep into a specific world of crime and criminal behaviour, the theme in BLACK ICE is illegal drugs.

Readers of the two earlier books will know about DS Jill Jackson, a survivor of child sexual abuse, she has fought her way back from despair and continues, ever so gradually, to get control of her life and to deal with the memories of what happened to her.  BLACK ICE adds another dimension to the story with the introduction her sister Cassie - famous model, one half of a glamorous society couple, a cocaine addict.  Her boyfriend Christian, a highly successful lawyer and drug dealer has a past which is about to catch up with him.  Cassie inadvertently steps into an investigation into illegal drugs that Jill is working undercover on, and in even more difficult circumstances, Christian's past, when a young mother, just out of jail is hell-bent on vengeance.

One of the strongest aspect's of Giarratano's books is that she is obviously writing about people and behaviours that she knows all too well.  DARK ICE draws a picture of both sides of drug addiction.  The sheer ruthlessness of the "business" side of drugs - the totally amoral behaviour of the dealers and the people who make obscene amounts of money.  The ease with which that money can buy the cooks, the dealers, the trappings of the lifestyle.  The craziness that takes over when there's turf to protect and supply and demand chains to maintain.  Finally the depths to which the addicts themselves can sink.  Even as part of the so called "beautiful people", addicted people do terrible things.

The introduction of Jill's own sister under threat provides Giarratano with an opportunity to explore the relationship between the sisters.  There's an age difference, and then there's the problem of the affect of abduction and abuse on the siblings of the victim.  The relationship between these two sisters is very fragile, and a lot of the difficulties go back to the way that their family coped with what happened to Jill.  Hopefully this is an area that Giarratano's going to get further into as this was a particularly interesting aspect of the affects of dreadful crimes that isn't overly explored in crime fiction.  Slightly less successful for this reader was the story of Seren - the young mother jailed for drug offences, who is so keen to achieve revenge.  To this reader it seemed the author was seeking to create another character who, despite enormous odds against them, triumphs over circumstances which seemed a little to co-incidental with Jill, despite the specific experiences being very different.  Perhaps it was simply a personality thing - but readers who find a connection with Seren will undoubtedly be able empathise with her strongly.  

As always with Leah Giarratano's books, the reader is going to come away from BLACK ICE thinking just a little bit more about the consequences behind the headlines on the nightly news.  That's a very good thing.

There are never enough new crime fiction writers and/or novels in Australia every year (okay so I'm greedy!), but there are certainly never enough quite as good as STORM PEAK which is John A Flanagan's first crime fiction novel, and I'm certainly cheering for more.

STORM PEAK is set in Colorado in the US, and I hope a reader would be hard-pressed to pick that the setting isn't the author's own, except perhaps for the use of the much beloved u (in spelling).  Setting away from the author's home base can sometimes not work - little inaccuracies in dialect and/or terminology can clang badly, but very little seemed not to fit.  There's a central male character - Jesse Parker, ex-Denver police detective, returned to civilian life in his hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado after a stake-out goes horribly wrong.  Add a central female character - Lee Torrens is the local sheriff, local girl, ex-childhood friend and teenage sweetheart of Jesse.  There's still some ongoing sexual and romantic attachment between them.  Tentative attempts to re-establish a personal relationship after many years, rapidly goes pear-shaped when Jesse's journalist ex-wife appears in town.  His ex-wife is in town because there's a serial killer in Steamboat Springs.  Not exactly a series of elements that would immediately make me like the sound of this book.  So my sheer enjoyment of it came as somewhat of a surprise for a number of reasons.  

Firstly, the setting, the tone and the characters seemed to fit like a hand in a tailor-made glove.  Secondly, despite the on-again / off-again / will she / won't he relationship between Jesse and Lee, there's also a feeling of reality about the difficulties of somebody going home, and everyone trying to pick up the pieces after many years.  The balance of the relationship versus police work and the killer's activities was good - the personal certainly didn't cloud or overshadow the main thread of the book, and it added some pace and texture at points.  The serial killer element worked despite a reasonably predictable motivation, mostly because of the nature of the killings - random targets, often in public places, there's a level of bravado that makes this killer less sick and creepy, more dangerous and edgy.

Jesse's rapidly drafted in as a Deputy Sheriff to help investigate the killings, and there's obviously going to be pressure from on high, with the town relying on tourist traffic, and tourist hang-outs being amongst the killer's preferred stalking locations.  The tension at the end of the book is ramped up quickly with a dangerous battle to save the girl, a nice little twist and a follow-up hefty dose of a happy ending. By that stage that didn't make me want to cringe, and overall, this book was extremely entertaining.  I hope the publisher's entering STORM PEAK in the Best First Crime Novel category of the Ned Kelly awards this year, it would be very interesting to see how it goes.  

THE CALLING is one of those books.  One of those books that I found sometimes utterly compelling; was bored witless in some passages; laughed out loud in others; found myself heartily confused about some of the procedural elements; and was slightly repelled by some parts.

It is a serial killer book, and I will admit that I'm getting to the point where I'm over the whole serial killer thing.  I'm particularly over the barking mad, out there motive serial killer thing.  And there's certainly a barking mad impetus behind the killer in THE CALLING.  Luckily, the plot is a little intriguing and how on earth he's managed to select and convince his victims to co-operate (up to a point) did mitigate the predictable elements somewhat.

DI Hazel Micallef is a great character - fiesty, compassionate, very realistic.  The fallout from her divorce wasn't over-blown and she's certainly somebody that you can "get a handle on", empathise with.  At points she was flat out funny.  The relationship with her mother is hugely enjoyable.

There is a great sense of small town Canada throughout the book - albeit not the main point of the plots or the book as a whole, but there were nice little glimpses into life in Port Dundas, and the relationship between the small towns and the larger metropolitan areas.

The violence implicit in the killings was well handled - most of the very worst off camera, enough of the icky to the forefront to enhance our killer's extremely creepy persona.  (Mind you, once in a while a serial killer that wasn't just weird would probably be a lot more chilling.)

The oddity that kept wrong-footing me at points though was a procedural element (and it's probably my fault) but I couldn't quite believe that a multi-location serial killer, ranging across the entire of a country like Canada would remain a small-town extremely local investigation with Hazel directing activities in far-flung locations.  It might well happen that way - THE CALLING didn't quite convince me of the authenticity of this approach.

But as serial killer books goes, THE CALLING was okay - it's not the best crime book I've read in a long while, but it's certainly not the worst, and I'd recommend anyone looking for a strong female character, who can handle a bit of creepy and a bit of gore to try it out.

POSTSCRIPT:  Inger Ash Wolfe is flagged as a pseudonym for a prominent North American literary novelist.  I don't know why people play these games, but knowing / not knowing who the author is doesn't affect how the book reads, and besides, I didn't think the book was so bad that the author needs to hide their identity.

Leah Giarratano is a trauma psychologist based in Sydney. Among her clients have been victims of sexual abuse and men serving sentences for child abuse.   VODKA DOESN’T FREEZE is her first novel.  I had the good fortune to hear Giarratano speak last year.  She talked about the book being cathartic for her. She regarded it as an exercise to purge herself of bottled up emotions. She never expected a publisher to accept it. 

VODKA DOESN’T FREEZE isn’t an easy book.  It is a very dark subject Giarratano writes about.  A subject that is difficult to explore.  However, the reader who can make it through is rewarded.  It offers some insights in ways perhaps not expected by the author or the reader.  Yes, it does demonstrate how different people deal with being sexually abused, but what I found was that perhaps inadvertently the author has shown something of the emotional toll taken on professionals who deal with sex offenders in their working life. 

VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE is a nomination for the 2008 Ned Kelly Awards for Best First Fiction and a well deserved one.