Harper Collins

A DISSECTION OF MURDER is the first in a series of books from Western Australian author Felicity Young.  Set in London at the turn of the twentieth Century, featuring Dr Dody McCleland, the first female autopsy surgeon, the action in this book takes place in the midst of the Suffragette struggle, with the crime being investigated the death of a prominent suffragette during a rally that turned particularly violent.

More historical crime fiction, in other words.  Not so long ago I'd have been dodging this particular sub-genre.  Particularly when it comes with a hefty mixing of fictional and non-fictional events and characters.  It's worth reading Young's author note at the end of the book to get your head around who and what are the fictional aspects of the book, just to keep reality straight in your head, because A DISSECTION OF MURDER really has a most authentic, realistic feel about it.  Needless to say, I've been converted recently, mostly because of some excellent local authors.

Readers will have to stick with the early part of book as it does take a while for things to get moving.  To be fair, it is the start of a new series, and there's a fair bit of background explanation, the whys and wheres of Dody McCleland becoming the first female autopsy surgeon, and a significant amount of scene setting going on.  Once all of that is worked through, the book quickly becomes extremely compelling.  Part of this is due to the characters - Dody and her sister Florence seem like very real people, the world that they live in is very vividly drawn.  There's a fullish cast of characters surrounding them, and whilst many of them are, by necessity, very much bit players, there's also some starring roles - not the least of which being the Morgue attendant.  In what seems like quite a deliberate styling, the two sisters are poles apart - Dody is considered, cautious, almost withdrawn; Florence more vivacious, outgoing, impulsive.  Obviously these two character traits are going to dictate the parts that both women play in the unravelling of the plot, but that set-up didn't come across as overly manipulative.  Perhaps because the relationship between the two sisters, whilst sometimes volatile, seemed right, supportive and understanding.  Undoubtedly accepting who and what they are is helped by their bohemian family background, as clichéd as that may sound, somehow it gives the girls licence to be willing to push the boundaries.

The main police character in the book - Pike - is a man very much of his time.  Jilted widower, father of a young daughter, he supports the concept of the women's vote, but not the methods being used to achieve it.  He carries an injury from his time as a serving soldier, which constantly weighs on both his mind, and his career prospects, making him vulnerable to the whims of the upper-hierarchy of the Force.  He is a nice combination of stickler for the proprieties and bender of rules when justified by the circumstances, his life has not been as privileged as the McCleland sisters, but he is an interesting combination of acceptance, contentment and longing.

The plot of the book is reasonably strong, although there is the occasional point at which the death of the suffragette disappears a little into the difficulties of the struggle in general, the violence of the police and their motivations, and the involvement of Irish Nationalists.  There's also just the slightest hint of possible romantic leanings for the two main characters, which will undoubtedly appeal to many readers.  Given it's the opening in a series which is obviously setting up a world for Dr Dody McCleland to function in; particularly as many of the difficulties she experiences as a female doctor, let alone autopsy surgeon, are very far removed from our own current day female experience; I was more than a bit surprised about how happy I felt going with the scene setting.  It's a sure sign that A DISSECTION OF MURDER is the opening book in a series I'll be looking forward to seeing more of.

Publication Date: 1st March, 2012.

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.

Not being one for speculative fiction, this isn't a book that I would have sought out, even with its cross-genre aspects.  However, THE COURIER'S NEW BICYCLE was being talked about a lot by my fellow Sisters in Crime and, I'm not completely opposed to the occasional foray outside my comfort zone, so all in all the recommendations seemed like a good enough reason to try it out.

It did take a little while to work out the style of the book.  Westwood has developed a laid back, ironic, almost gentle sort of a style which initially doesn't quite seem to gel with many aspects of the story.  It actually took a little while to grasp how important many of the sub-texts of this story are because of the style.  Particularly, as this is not a book that has a happy outlook for our futures.  It's profoundly disturbing to think about the lengths that people will go to in their pursuit of personal gratification - in this case post a pandemic that has rendered a large proportion of the population sterile making fertility treatment the new "must have".  That "must have" is pursued ethically and unethically, despite the mindless dogma of the religious zealots in charge of government; despite the breathtaking cruelty to other species.

In this world Salisbury Forth, gender transgressive, courier of contraband hormones, is a protagonist with issues unique to this particular time and setting.  An activist working to free animals from the cruelty hormone factory farms, Sal is also trying to find love, stay alive in a dangerous place, avoid the worst excesses of the religious oppression of the "other", and keep hearth and home safe.  It's almost like Sal has set out to become the ultimate target - flying in the face of the rules and norms of gender, the keeping of certain pet animals, owning a bicycle, working as a courier of contraband hormones (the ethical kind), fighting the source of the unethical kind.

It was also rather surprising to find a bicycle almost a character in the book.  In Westwood's future Melbourne a bicycle is a highly sought after article.  Sal's love for, and reliance on that bicycle was a palpable and meaningful part of who Sal is.  

There is a lot going on in THE COURIER'S NEW BICYCLE, and perhaps it was the slightly laid-back style, but in the early parts of the book I did struggle quite a lot to engage, and to keep up with the unexpectedness, the other-worldliness of the entire world that Westwood is building.  As I got a handle on the style, and the breadth of the issues being covered revealed themselves, everything started to work a lot better.  For readers who prefer crime / mystery fiction, there is a traditional mystery element to this book, but really, the main point is the view of future Melbourne, the building of an entire world in which human activities happen - life, love, partnership, hate, killing - the whole gamut.  Twisted to suit the time and the place and particular circumstances.  All of which built people and a place that were often fascinating, not always particularly likeable.

If absolutely nothing else was achieved by reading THE COURIER'S NEW BICYCLE (and that's not accurate), it's a book that certainly made me glad to be on the old woman side of life.  As this book describes a future world that I'd want absolutely no part of, I was profoundly relieved to realise I'd be unlikely to live long enough to have to.  Which says a lot about the experience of the book. 

There's increasing signs of "write what you know" in Australian crime fiction, so it's probably not at all surprising that well known QC, and media commentator Stuart Littlemore has followed exactly that path.  Although, to be honest, I'm not sure I agree 100% with labelling HARRY CURRY: COUNSEL OF CHOICE as crime fiction.  Whilst the idea is definitely that our hero, Harry Curry, is a criminal defence lawyer, this book is less about the crimes and a lot more about the exploits of Curry in getting all and sundry off, each and every charge thrown at them.

HARRY CURRY etc is a series of 5 short stories, during which the reader learns that Curry is one of the sharpest legal minds ever to grace the NSW bar.  He's also ugly, irascible and irresistibly attractive to a young female barrister.  He's exactly what you would expect from a swashbuckling, devil-may-care, legal warrior - irreverent, intolerant, touchy, absolutely and utterly assured of his own invincibility.  A brilliant tactician, at loggerheads with legal seniority, Curry is no friend of the judiciary.  The book opens with Curry defending himself against allegations that he's sworn at a learned judge during a case and moves onto him fostering the young, beautiful Arabella Engineer, English barrister, Indian beauty, she of the hopeless infatuation with Curry, whilst he awaits the return of his practising certificate.  Acting on his own behalf, or as the tactician behind Engineer's scenes, Harry Curry is unbeatable in the court, and resistant to everything Arabella can throw at him... at least for a while.

Needless to say - we're talking, one hopes, just a little bit tongue in cheek here.  Although there was a time when I wasn't sure whether that was the case - there are points where, even when you know the lawyer is always going to win the case in this book, you just wouldn't mind a little something to go slightly wrong .... just to make Curry hover down here a little closer to the heads of we mere mortals.  Perhaps that's the only minor quibble - Harry Curry - scion of the establishment, class traitor - starts out with some real potential for a bit of stereotype smashing.  A little dancing on the lower side if you will.  But for all his supposed fall from grace, even allowing for the old Jag he's driving unknown to it's owner, banged up as he is in jail, somehow Curry doesn't really seem to have sunk that low.  Maybe his home location doesn't quite telegraph a dramatic step away from the privileged background for those from other States.  

Curry is undoubtedly no Rumpole, and it's unlikely that the case of The Live Dead Man will ever quite scale the heights of infamy of the Penge Bungalow Murders, but for what it is - a series of legal tall tales, HARRY CURRY: COUNSEL OF CHOICE is a gently amusing little wander around in the far end of crime process.  I think I heard that a second book is in the pipeline - it will be interesting to see where Littlemore heads Harry Curry.