Police Procedural

Award winning police reporter Paul Anderson obviously spent a lot of time around the Victorian Armed Robbery Squad during some pivotal investigations in this state as there's much of the plot in THE ROBBERS which rings loud, persistent and very musical bells.

There is therefore a parallel when journalist Ian Malone is assigned as a police reporter, his first involvement with the "the Robbers" as he wants to write a feature about the feared, and not always admired Squad. Malone is along for the ride as "the Robbers" slowly fall from favour with the more controlled, corporate, considered style of policing overtaking the Victorian Service.

There is also the parallels that can be drawn between the villains in this book and many of the "names" from some of the worst of the Melbourne Underworld wars and associated cases, some of which have been the most high-profile crimes in recent Victorian history. These aspects are the most chilling parts of this book taking the opportunity to look behind the headlines and court cases at the sorts of people that many of this criminals could be / maybe actually are.

Along the way Anderson takes the opportunity to cast a light into some very dark corners of all sides of the equation. There's not a lot of aspects that miss out, from the criminals that front-line police have to find a way of dealing with, past policing behaviour including physical violence, and the posturing that goes on at the top.

Given Anderson's background you would be well within your rights to expect that this is well written, and extremely realistic. Warts and all storytelling without the niceties of not offending readership or the individuals so easily recognisable for that matter. This is, after all fiction, even though it's obviously based very firmly in true life events and a part of the great strength of the book is the searing, unapologetic realism of the whole thing.

It's interesting to see the proliferation of books based on true life events recently appearing, although it's probably not so surprising. There was something so over the top, so seemingly fictional about the cases they are casting a light on, in very real examples of truth definitely being stranger than fiction. The great thing about THE ROBBERS is that it's actually making a fictionalised version that's actually publishable.

Some things remain in this nation's psyche for a very long time. The Bodyline series was something my grandfather was still hot under the collar about when I was a girl (gives you a feeling for how the New Zealanders feel when you mention underarm bowling...). THE RICHMOND CONSPIRACY sits within it's timeframe beautifully, giving the reader a real feel for the way that Melbourne and it's inhabitants worked in 1933. The references to Bodyline (and the way that news about the state of the match being played out in a whole different part of the country had to be sought out), the way that returned soldiers were struggling to fit back into a society that didn't quite understand them, the way that some were working and some weren't. The way that loyalties from the days in the trenches continued into civilian life.

At the centre of the story, aside from the search for a murderer, DI James Maclaine is an extremely good new entrant in the police lines of Australian Crime Fiction. A returned serviceman himself, he has a steady job with the police, but an unsteady home life. Caused partially by his long working hours as a policeman, but also because of mistakes at home, and his ongoing nightmares from the war, his homelife is obviously destined for change from the start of the novel. His obvious love for his son shines through, as does his increasing bafflement on the subject of his wife. His loyalty, however, to his sidekick and fellow returned soldier, Devlin is touching and very human.

THE RICHMOND CONSPIRACY is a good balancing act between character development and plot advancement. The death of Victor Radcliffe remains the focus of the book, whilst the reader is given a subtle history and social studies lesson along the way. If you'd have asked me a while ago whether I liked historical crime fiction I'd have said not so much, but with the increasing number of these books set here, I'm finding I'm developing quite a taste for them. Hopefully THE RICHMOND CONSPIRACY is the start of another new series to follow.

If there's one thing I'm a huge fan of it's dialogue that's realistic. Crisp, authentic and realistic. That and plots and the behaviour of characters that are consistent.  

MURDER ON DISPLAY is obviously based sort of loosely (very loosely in some parts) around true events in the not-too-distant past in Adelaide. A number of different elements from a number of different true life cases appear to have sort of been melded together to create the story of an Adelaide cop, DS Dan Brennan.

Therein lies a lot of the problem with MURDER ON DISPLAY as I'm not 100% sure which story was the point of the book in the end. Was it the piles of bodies building up in the Adelaide Hills (? some sort of Truro / Snowtown combination perhaps), something about the homosexual sub-plot (? the Family murders), or the attack on Brennan in a restaurant that killed his wife (by that time I'd given up drawing the lines with real-life crimes)?

Whilst I've got no problem at all with fictionalising facts, especially when it's pretty obvious that's what's going on, the problem is that you've got to tell a solid story along the way. Perhaps avoid some of the overblown crime fiction clichés doing the rounds like the unsupportive boss. But probably what didn't work for me most of all was some of the weird comments made by characters along the way - there seemed to be some sort of dissociative syndrome going on at points that just lost me completely and left me battling to maintain interest. Especially as problems with the dialogue and plot had already given me way too much to struggle with already.

Personally, and not just because the idea of Lycra and clicking around in those weird riding shoes makes me shudder, the idea of being sent to the Siberia of the Mountain Bike Police certainly sounds like a rather extreme punishment. Especially as Tony 'Rocket" Laver is adamant that the bloke he shot fired first. And he was a serial suspect in a series of armed robberies. So you might think that Laver is justified in being more than a bit miffed at the political machinations that are overt in his demotion.

Although he can't really blame just the demotion for his rocky love life, which definitely includes fault on both sides. His girlfriend's not exactly sympathetic to the trials and tribulations of life as a Major Crime / Mountain Bike squad member, and Laver is inclined to forget she exists when he spies something around him that's not quite right.

And therein lies the biggest crime as far as Laver is concerned. He has rock solid, keen as, spot on cop instincts. He knows the very first time he sees Stig and his mate looming around a coffee shop in Collingwood that they are trouble. He might not know exactly who they are, or what they are up to, but there's definitely something Not Quite Right. With them, with the hippie chick they are hanging around with or the would be hippie in the ridiculous hat and his supermarket manager boss.

It's that sense of something that's just a bit off, and the complications of being in Siberia that send Laver off on a partially unofficial, partially supported by his colleagues, mostly personal wild goose chase not always mounted on a mountain bike.

ROLL WITH IT is a pretty good title for this book. The bike metaphor's the obvious one, but it also is a sort of roll with it story. Mad stuff happens, wisecracks are cracked, bitter asides are muttered, bike's are waxed lyrically over (that's not a euphemism) and every now and then a spot of cops pursuing crooks breaks out. There is a plot here that is nicely twisty, even though it's not the most complicated or complex story, much of which is telegraphed fairly early on.

But, and just because occasionally it's fun to beat a metaphor to death, ROLL WITH IT is more your Sunday ride - all about the journey, not just the destination. Even if arrival means you can finally get off the bike seat. Highly recommend ROLL WITH IT if you're looking for a bit of madcap action, with local flavour and humour.

The Hanne Wilhelmsen series from Norwegian author Anne Holt is another one of those Scandinavian series that have been translated completely out of order. For reasons which, as usual, escape me completely. So <insert standard whinge about how profoundly annoying that is>, and onto BLIND GODDESS which is the book that started the whole thing off.

It would be bad enough to discover a battered body when jogging in the morning, but you'd doubt lawyer Karen Borg would also have been expecting to be called in as defence counsel for the Dutchman who is found wandering, dazed, covered in the victim's blood. Not only is Borg a witness, she's never heard of her new client, and she's not a criminal lawyer. For some reason the suspect will talk to nobody else.

What connection there is between a seeming drug deal gone wrong and the shooting death of a shady lawyer a few days later is equally unclear. Just to complicate the issue even more the Police Attorney assigned to the case is an old friend, would-be suitor of Karen Borg's who has partnered with Hanne Wilhelmsen to solve the crime. Wilhelmsen's motivation as always is to be a good cop, his is slightly less clear.

Needless to say this is a complex, enthralling plot which has all the elements you want for high intrigue. There's mysterious numeric codes, there's questions to be answered in both the legal and policing hierarchy, and there's the complications of personal connection weaving around all of the characters.

Even though this is a very good plot, the bit that really grabbed my attention is the building of the characters. If you've been suckered into reading the two books out of order, this is a very different Wilhelmsen from that in 1222. She's an interesting person, a dedicated and serious policewoman who will turn rule breaker when rules need to be broken. Likewise the Police Attorney, Hakon Sand plays an important part in the story, and the way he tries to balance his attraction for Borg with the responsibilities of the investigation is actually quite touching.

I was one of the people that liked the first translated book (actually the eighth in the series) 1222, although I will admit there's a thread within that book, leading to one of the more ridiculous conclusions I've ever come across (I just ignored all of that completely!). But I always did wonder about Wilhelmsen's background. No is the short answer, so if you had reservations about 1222 I'd suggest you come back to the start as well. See if you can get a connection with this series from where it's all supposed to kick off.

Look, let's just admit that I'm a huge fan of this series and get it over and done with. Love DI Steel, love her glorious over the topness, love McRae's constant sooking and all being put upon. Love the madness of the world in which they have to try to operate as functioning police members, love the supporting cast, love the gallows humour. Love the whole damn thing. Even love those that don't quite live up to the other books in the series (and let's face it - we're talking bees d's worth of not living up to that which came before).

I'll therefore plead to some lacking in objectivity.

CLOSE TO THE BONE has the requisite things going pear-shaped left right and centre - with cases piling up at the door refusing to maintain an orderly line. Including McRae balancing a personal life that almost, in the last book, accidentally veered towards normal, committed and stable. Meanwhile Steele is behaving like everyone's worst nightmare caricature. Even more-so in this book as she's dragged kicking, screaming, bitching and moaning into "Management". I even, for a very brief period in my life, found myself interested in the outcome of a wildly popular paranormal novel, but only because it looks like some nutcase is basing a series of murders on scenarios from that book.

But, more importantly, underneath the lunacy and the caricature there are little ripples in the reality. Sure Steel is considerably more over the top in the book than she's been in others. Maybe because the idea of Management scares her more than babies, shared parenthood and responsibility. Okay so McRae seems to be playing a slightly straighter bat on the one hand, and yet, maybe this settling down thing has some complications that he's not being completely up front about.

With MacBride there's often been that thing in the undercurrent, that hint of the reality underneath the gallows humour and that glimpse behind the mask that's intriguing. That and the over the top nature of the characters as a coping mechanism for what they must deal with on a day to day basis. Sure in this book some of those elements are stretched out to the point where you can actually see through the elastic. Don't care. Loved it.
 

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.

This title was reviewed for the Newtown Review of Books

This novel of murder and military intelligence in wartime Melbourne is inspired by history.

While The Holiday Murders isn’t, sadly, a new William Powell book, Robert Gott has delivered another masterful crime novel steeped in Australia’s past.

For the full review: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/02/26/crime-scene-robert-gott-the-holiday-murders-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/

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/