Penguin Australia

Romantic caper, with just a smidgen of edge, ROUGH DIAMOND is the first book in a new Melbourne based series built around a typically untypical pair - Erica Jewell and Jack Jones.

Erica Jewell - recently separated from a husband who left her bank balance and her life in tatters. Working in PR for a major corporation her life is now pretty much devoted to avoiding the ex, paying off his debts, keeping a roof over her head, and deflecting her best friend's attempts at getting her out and about again.

Jack Jones - man of mystery and danger, gorgeous, and seemingly perfect, despite the bullet wound in his shoulder when Erica falls over him in her front garden one rainy Melbourne night. You'd think that in most people's lives getting shot would be a fairly major thing, but Jones seems to have other things on his mind. And a seemingly never ending supply of cash, fancy cars, minders and a very big beautiful house.

They soon find themselves on the same side, in a secret and private organisation set up by a not very mysterious benefactor to fight the threat of big plot terrorism. Which, in this case, involves the theft of a truckload of fertiliser, the Bolte Bridge and the Melbourne Cup.

Styled very much in the way of most romantic comedy caper novel these days, there's a good dose of what readers might expect. He's gorgeous, she's a bit clumsy, he's clever and richer than Croesus, she's more attractive than she thinks she is. She's also brave, up for a challenge, and he's cautious and extremely resourceful. She's a bit slow on the uptake on some things, and quick as a whip on others. Is there a romantic attraction between these two or is it just the pressure of everyone else trying to kill them? And, of course, there is the madcap pet, in this case Axle the kitten who goes from dead sleep to whirlwind in the length of a cat's whisker. In ROUGH DIAMOND, it all does seem to work. Which I must admit was a bit of a surprise. Perhaps it's because it is light-hearted and funny and you can't help but wonder just a little about a tongue placed firmly in cheek. It doesn't hurt that the threat, as you'd expect, is big and faceless, and the power behind the plot to save the world (well Melbourne anyway) is mysterious and much closer to home than even Jewell could have guessed. It also doesn't hurt that there are points at which I was laughing a lot.

Of course, there may have to be some filing away of disbelief, but who cares when you're having fun and frankly the pace rips along very well, keeping the reader engaged even though it does get dangerously close to a tiny bit mad more than once.

For this reader there is also a lot about the ending that appealed enormously, although I suspect I can hear the sound of some reader's teeth grinding, particularly if you're the type that likes everything wrapped up neat and tidy. It seems this is the first book in an ongoing series, and really why not. It's fun, it's local and it's entertaining.

At the end of MIDNIGHT IN PEKING, French writes "I first read of Pamela Werner in a biography of the American journalist Edgar Snow, whose best selling Red Star Over China introduced the world to Mao Tse-tung in the late 1930s. A footnote made reference to Edgar's wife Helen feeling nervous after Pamela's mutilated body was found not far from the Snows' house in Peking....". I'm guessing it's not everyone who would turn such a footnote into an indepth investigation and analysis of a case, although this is a particularly fascinating case.

MIDNIGHT IN PEKING is a combination of what happened, analysis of the police investigation, and guide to 1937 Peking. The book takes the reader into the intricacies of the foreign Legation Quarter, and the lives that the areas inhabitants lived, surrounded by the poorer areas of Peking, on the verge of the Japanese invasion of China.

Whilst the investigation into the death of Werner was never officially resolved, her case garnered a very high profile - her father was a long-time resident and former British Consul in China, an interesting, complex man. Local police were assigned to the case, as well as a representative of the British Law Enforcement authorities, although everything was complicated by the us and them nature of the society within and external to the special Legation Quarter - the walled city if you like - where foreign nationals lived a privileged, materially spoilt, but rather confined lifestyle.

Long past the official investigation being abandoned, Pamela's father, E.T.C. Werner, continued his own efforts to bring her killer to justice, and it is partially his writings on the subject that the author uses in discussing the various aspects of the case, as well as the likely killer and their motivations. Based on those writings, correspondence, police reports and newspaper articles, this book carefully pieces together the life and death of one woman, and the society and circumstances in which it occurred.

This doesn't mean that the book reads like an historical overhaul of the facts, the story is beautifully put together, bringing not just Peking from that period to life, but many of the people who populated the place and time. MIDNIGHT IN PEKING is really a very fascinating book - whilst it's definitely a book about a crime that happened, it's also a glimpse into a period of history and a place that's so very different from the way it is now. It's also a story about a series of people who tried to do the right thing, and a few that obviously weren't quite as genuine as they may have seemed.

I still remember the profound sense of disquiet that WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? left me with, and Wendy James has done it again with THE MISTAKE.

There's something about Jodie Garrow that I suspect is going to trigger differing responses in readers. Personally I couldn't get past a very obvious sense of Stepford Wife syndrome. She's a socialite, immaculately made-up, coiffured, dressed to the part of the wealthy wife of a high profile husband. There's the perfect family - a boy, a girl, a modern house. She's a big fish in a very small pond - a metaphor that extends as the plot of the book expands and, in Jodie's eyes, she's increasingly surrounded by the sharks - media, friends, mother-in-law. Even the supportive, but ultimately unfaithful husband. There's obviously a lot wrong in Jodie's life and it seems that the revelation of the illegal adoption all those years ago has suddenly bought all that's bad to the surface.

It's also distinctly possible that Jodie is everything that's wrong in Jodie's life, and this author has done a particularly good job at confusing that possibility. Is Jodie the ultimate unreliable narrator, or is the media frenzy, the trial by public opinion, more what's going very very wrong in this woman's life? Why has she stepped back, wrapped herself in what seems oddly passive acceptance, why doesn't that quite stack up against the revelations of Jodie's background and her determination in other areas of her life? Add a philandering husband who does seems to be stepping up to help, a rebellious teenage daughter, and there are cracks in this perfect life that widen with every page.

The point of view moves around between Jodie, her husband Angus and sixteen-year-old daughter Hannah. The timeframe also changes between the present and 1986 when the missing baby was born. The main voice however is always Jodie. As everybody else reacts and deals with the circumstances, Jodie alone knows the full story of what happened to baby Else Mary. Yet somehow her story doesn't quite ring true - whether or not that's because the media hype is winning, or whether or not there is something wrong in what Jodie is saying is not all that easy to decide.  

It was hard not to be struck by the coincidence of finishing THE MISTAKE just as a Northern Territory coroner declared that a dingo did indeed take baby Azaria Chamberlain. Hard not to think of the hysterical media and public speculation that went on around that case, hard not to consider the mindless obsession with looks, clothes, demeanour.  

In THE MISTAKE, once again, James takes the reader into some very interesting territory. The book is definitely almost pitch perfect psychological thriller, and it's going to be very discomforting reading for some people. It's sneakily challenging, disconcerting, compelling, car crash fascinating, and probably one of the best fictional reminders I've had in a while that public and media opinion should never be mistaken for the justice system, regardless of the ultimate outcome.

"Day after day my life was consumed by killings, distress and gruesome sites, each one adding another piece to an ever-growing mosaic that seemed to be made up of bloodied disposable gloves, plastic bags and human waste. . ."

I don't think there's any way that Esther McKay could describe her life as a forensic crime investigator in terms that would make it comfortable reading for anybody.  Which means it's no surprise whatsoever that this book is confrontational, difficult and frequently disturbing, just as the job must have been.

McKay has a way of telling the stories that gives the reader more than enough of a feeling for the more gruesome aspects of the crime scenes that she experienced, giving you just enough of the facts to make it obvious how horrendous that work must be, drawing out the personal affect of dealing with not just the nature of the job, but the ridiculous amounts of stress, overtime and pressure involved.

Not an easy read, and I couldn't help but hope that family members of the people caught up in the cases discussed were avoiding this book like the plague, but for the rest of us, this is a real job that somebody does.  You have to hope that education and training levels have improved, you've also got to hope that support and staffing is considerably better than it was when McKay worked in the job, but regardless it's still a dreadful job for anybody to have to do.