Latest Book Reviews

It's been quite a wait for the latest WYATT novel - The Fallout was published in 1997.  I for one was rather excited to hear the news that there was a book on the way last year and I've been somewhat impatiently waiting for it to appear since then.  As with all these greatly anticipated books, there's always that nasty little voice at the back of your head wondering if the anticipation might be building an unreasonable expectation.

But this is a Garry Disher novel, and it's a WYATT novel and it's almost impossible to contemplate the idea of disappointment.  Partly because these books are so incredibly well written; partly because Wyatt is such a tremendous character; and partly because there is absolutely nothing like a change of style.  The Wyatt novels are theft / heist based novels.  Not to say that people don't die in these books, but Wyatt doesn't set out to murder - he's all about the perfect plan.  Intensive and careful preparation; a level of planning that makes this ex-Project Manager's heart beat all that bit faster; extreme care in the conduct of the operation; extreme care in the execution of a get out of trouble fallback.  Wyatt's a cool, hard, ruthless man who will take steps if backed into a corner.  And he's very very very dangerous when crossed.

Wyatt always prefers to work alone, but he also needs money to fund his life, so when Eddie Oberin comes to him with a lead via his ex-wife, the operation is risky but reasonably attractive.  Large amounts of jewellery isn't Wyatt's preferred haul, but maybe if a handy overseas fence is in the equation - one with a track record for offloading large overseas hauls in Australia - it might be worth the bother.

Things go well.  And then they go badly.  And then things look up a little, and then there's a lot of tidying up to be done, and not a small amount of retribution.  Cool, calm, reasoned, Wyatt style retribution, but retribution nonetheless.  One of the great things about WYATT is that you get a little more, up close glimpses into the man himself.  And you get a tremendous story, a real rollercoaster ride of thief against thief; crook against crook, mastermind up against mastermind.  The heist stylings of the earlier books - the cool operator with all the bases covered is there, as is the opportunist Wyatt - the man who can think on his feet and make the most of what's handed to him.  A ruthless, cool, calm, contained man, with just the smallest glimmer of humanity.  Wyatt is what Wyatt does, and let's hope it's not too long before he does it all again. 

The blurb of this book really really intrigued me - and it's true there are stories that I've heard of, some I knew a lot about, some simply rang a bit of a bell.  There were others that I knew absolutely nothing about.  As the blurb goes on to say, they range across our past and our present: the heartbreaking story of the fire at Luna Park; the unstoppable opportunist who snatched innocent men and women from Palm Island to be part of P.T. Barnum's 'Greatest Show on Earth'; a world-class boxer who lost his battle with alcohol and ended up in an unmarked American grave; Steve Irwin, who was written off as a joke by the media, only to be hailed as a hero by the same media on his sudden death; and a man who heroically survived a war to find himself crushed and defeated by events much closer to home.

Sounds intriguing doesn't it.  A real page turner.  And most of the stories are intriguing, or enlightening, and there were some moments of real analysis and taut observation (such as the Steve Irwin story), but mostly, I found the book hard going.  I think, in the end, the over-melodramatic storytelling style dragged the whole thing out.  It made the reading of most of the stories overly difficult and the style took away too much from the content.  Which is a pity.  There's some history in this book that should have stood out more.

A debut novel, THE SURROGATE could be quite confrontational reading for many people.  The image of unborn babies torn from their dead mother's bodies - dead themselves, or more shockingly possibly still alive is going to shock.  Undoubtedly.

DI Phil Brennan, a loveless and abused child, risen to a policeman driven by a sense of responsibility, shocked himself at the nature of the crime that he is investigating is undoubtedly going to engender sympathy in readers.

The idea that there could be a woman behind these crimes, well again more shock.

And that's possibly what my major problem with this book is - everything seems to be designed to shock, the overt violence, a basic premise designed to discomfort readers, a policeman crafted to draw sympathy, a villain of such extreme villany that you have to be scared, hate, react somehow.

I will confess to being very very adverse to overt violence coupled with extreme planning and plotting, committed by a madder than mad on a day out from mad town lunatic though.  That sort of scenario doesn't work for me, and instantly switches on a groan reflex that I find nearly impossible to prevent.

Whilst this is a competently written book, I found the whole scenario way too over the top, the attempts to manipulate reactions too overt and the characterisations too predictable for my taste.

Less of a fully fledged review, more of a musing on the latest Discworld Novel from Terry Pratchett UNSEEN ACADEMICALS.

The quote on the back sort of says it all "The thing about football - the IMPORTANT thing about football - is that it is not just about football".  Now I will admit I'm not a football (in any incarnation) fan.  Can't stand the hype.  Can't stand the carry-on.  Can't stand the games themselves.  So I was a little intrigued by this book - how would a Terry Pratchett treatment of the dreaded awfulness work?  I was certainly intrigued enough to put aside my up until now tendency to purchase immediately and horde for the future any Discworld novels (what can I say - I'm a bit weird - I'm doing it with a few of my all time favourite authors).  

Needless to say, football does get a lot of the Pratchett / Discworld treatment and there are some wonderful digs, jabs and observations about football, football fans and the way that this sort of game is regarded.  There are some great characterisations, and some cameo performances by many of the Wizards of the Unseen University and thankfully some fantastic politics in their ranks.

Perhaps there is a little less focus, sharpness, snappiness in the story telling.  Maybe this is because of the known health problems of Mr Pratchett, maybe it's just that every now and then a book gets a little more reflective, a little less paced and fast and furious.  Who knows, and frankly, who cares.  UNSEEN ACADEMICALS is another entrant in the Discworld series, and even if it's not the best ever book in a series of best ever books - it's a Discworld novel. 

Did it make me laugh enough to wake up the long suffering husband (who keeps saying that a Discworld book on the nightstand should immediately instigate a move to the spare bed)?  It did indeed.  Did it make me care about football?  Miracles don't happen in these parts.  But I do think the next time somebody asks me who I barrack for, I'll be nominating the Unseen University.

Part personal story, part historical overview, part warning about how easy going wrong can sometimes be, CONFESSIONS OF A CROOKED COP is the story of NSW Policeman Trevor Haken as told to author Sean Padraic.

This book is flagged in the media release as "The corrupt cop from UNDERBELLY 3 tells his side of the story" so it's not going to come as a lot of surprise to see this book out and the timing in which it was released.  I haven't seen a lot of the publicity for UNDERBELLY 3 but I'd take a wild guess that this book tells the personal story of one of the main figures of the upcoming series.  It is the personal story of one of the most important police informants testifying before the Wood Royal Commission into corruption in the New South Wales Police Service.

Given that it is a personal story, and despite it being told by a third party author, there is a single viewpoint slant to the book with little external analysis or review of the story being told.  There also doesn't appear to be overly strenuous attempts to paper over the corrupt activities that Haken was involved in, although the details are somewhat sketchy and there is an unavoidable feeling of things that the teller of the tale simply did not want to talk about / expand on.  There's definitely a sense of careful explanation going on.  This is possibly one of the most interesting aspects of the book - that slightly reticent feeling.  Perhaps a dance with the truth because it sits more comfortably, or is it as a result of the voiced concern for Haken's welfare (he's in Witness Protection still)?

Either way, in something that strikes me as particularly telling, I doubt the revelations in this book are as explosive or startling as they may have been at the time of the Royal Commission itself.  What was undoubtedly disturbing is the extent to which exposure of the corrupt and illegal activities within the New South Wales police system ultimately relied on the testimony of personnel within the ranks.  The risks that Haken (and others like him) took to bring the truth to light obviously takes courage and nerve.  The way in which he was treated after the event, and how he now must live his life is the real exposé of the book.

Tom Bale, it seems, is a pseudonym for David Harrison who wrote SINS OF THE FATHER in 2006, which goes some way to explaining the deftness of touch in this crime fiction thriller.  It may also go some way to explaining how the author has managed to install an almost cinematic feel to the action.

In an opening series of scenes that, frankly, were so chilling that they disturbed this reader, everything starts out very quietly one very cold January morning in the sleepy English village of Chilton.  Julia Trent's in town to continue clearing out the house of her recently deceased parents - a dreadful accident with a malfunctioning boiler, they both died in their sleep.  A glance to the left that cold morning, and Julia is involved.  Closely pursued by a deranged young man, who has already shot everyone in his path on that quiet January morning, she's running away from a man who is taunting her, enjoying her terror.  Saved once when Phillip Walker, already wounded, sacrifices himself, she thinks she might be saved again when a lone figure in a motorcycle helmet and leathers approaches the man on the village green.  She quickly finds out she was very very wrong.

Julia - not a spoiler - she's one of the central characters in the novel after all, survives, albeit after being badly injured.  But her story of the second man is dismissed as the panic, the fright, delusion on her part.  Nobody else in Chilton, (because there were other people who survived in hiding, traumatised themselves), reported seeing the second man.  The only person who believes her is Craig, Phillip Walker's son.  Craig has had his own problems in recent life with a marriage that is strained to breaking point already by his wife's infidelity, so the pointless, tragic death of his father, in an act of selfless bravery saving Julia, is a turning point for him.  Both Julia and Craig have to find this second man, because they know he was there, and because they know he wants Julia, in particular, to stay silent.

This is a book that says quite a bit about manipulation, control and influence.  The terror that Julia experiences is beautifully executed by this author, the flight, the pursuit and the ultimate confusion over the appearance of the second man.  "The killer" as he's referred to makes that fleeting appearance in the first part of the book, but his presence is felt throughout, his identity hidden as he slowly reveals himself, talking to his own controller, watching Julia and Craig, alternatively menacing and yet, there's something else about him as well.  There's also the developer George Matheson - a man who has been trying to redevelop the little village, a proposal that Craig's father Phillip was vehemently opposed to.  George is, in his own right, a fascinating character.  At the same time that the massacre occurs, and he and his nephew Toby are talking about how to redevelop Chilton, George's wife Vanessa is dying from cancer.  George seems to be genuinely distressed by the events that took place in Chilton, and yet there is the possibility that he is somehow involved.

There are some elements to SKIN AND BONES that don't work quite as well though.  The anonymous "killer" scenes in which he reveals his thinking, his manipulating, and his own puppet-master are predictable although well written, and I would suspect that readers will be able to make a reasonable stab at the anonymous killer's identity.  Stay with it though, as all is not as it seems, and there are some surprises to come.  It does feel very wrong to be using a word like enjoyed about a book that starts out with a shooting massacre.  I did enjoy it though, this is a really good crime fiction book with well executed thriller aspects, and a couple of central characters in Julia and Craig who you really are going to want the best for.

THE DEVIL'S TEARS is the debut thriller from ex Army Officer Steven Horne, as well as the first fictional book I've read set in Timor-Leste.  There's an excellent Author's Note at the end of the book that gives a potted history of the struggle in East Timor for those not so familiar with the story.

Knowing that the events described in this book are fictional, but undoubtedly based in the truth of what happened in that small country, so close to our own, ignored by the world for so long, is profoundly distressing.  In a quite remarkable balancing act, Steven Horne has avoided a number of potential pitfalls and created a really good thriller, peopled with wonderful characters, maintaining a good pace, with a very engaging story at the centre.  There are undoubtedly bad people in this book, in this story, but they aren't overdone.  Instead he concentrates on the appalling acts, the brave acts, the sheer tenacity and spirit that makes people triumph over dreadful circumstances.  

In another very clever touch, the length of the struggle of the people of East Timor is artfully demonstrated as a doctor is killed in a small village in the hills of East Timor, at the same time that his young daughter Abbey is playing with her two best friends in Australia.  That daughter grows up, and with those childhood friends, become involved in the struggle in their own way - as journalist, photographer and publisher.  The introduction of the doctor, coincides the introduction of Cesar and Helena da Silva and their three daughters, and it is their struggle to flee the country that we become intimately involved with.  Cesar and one of their twin daughters make it out eventually, Helena and the other two girls are trapped.  Helena and the girls treatment in East Timor is particularly gruelling to follow.  Cesar and his daughter make it to Australia, but their guilt, and worry and not knowing what happened to the others destroys their lives in other ways.  

There is a plot within THE DEVIL'S TEARS that interweaves the lives and stories of Abbey and her friends, Cesar, Helena and the girls and the ongoing freedom fight of the East Timorese.  Whilst Abbey and David put themselves dangerously on the line in East Timor to report and record the truth, the daily struggle for survival of Helena and family is just as tense, just as frightening.  The threat for both comes from particular groups of invading soldiers, and this, as well as the connections between both groups, give the story a tight, personal, very very personal feeling to the tension.

It's not particularly easy to read THE DEVIL'S TEARS, and that undoubtedly comes from the knowledge that events very very like these happened not so far from our own borders.  But ultimately, this is a fictional book, a thriller.  Does it work in that context?  Absolutely.  This is a great thriller, telling a good solid story, creating tension, making the reader ride the roller coaster with a good set of believable, sympathetic, brave and characters.   

I do like the occasional political biography, particularly when the subject matter is somebody that is admirable or interesting - regardless of your political persuasion.  As far as I'm concerned, regardless of your political persuasion, Julia Gillard's rise to Deputy Prime Minister in Australia - the first woman to take that position (why it has to have taken that long ... well that's another subject), is worthy of at the very least understanding.

A good biography has to tell something about the subject - and give the reader some insight into their life, their achievements, as well as provide some indication of the elements that make that person up, make them do whatever it is that they do, achieve whatever it is that they achieve.

THE MAKING OF JULIA GILLARD is a book that sheds light on Julia Gillard the person - whether or not that is because her personal persona is somewhat lower profile than other politicians, or whether I just haven't been paying attention.  There is insight into her background, the thinking that formed her attitudes and perceptions, the way that she has chosen and continues to choose to lead both her life and her politics.

I really enjoyed this book.  Learnt something about the person, learnt something about the process.  Learnt a lot about the political system.

It's nearly impossible for a reader to understand what it must be like to write a series of books, based around the same characters.  All we can do is be extremely grateful that writers like Katherine Howell can do it, book after book, maintaining the same high standard, giving us new stories, and new situations for the characters to appear in, keeping the series fresh and interesting all the time.

Following on from FRANTIC and THE DARKEST HOUR, the third book COLD JUSTICE again simply does not miss a beat.  Part of the reason that these books are so good is the shifting viewpoint.  Not only does the author use her paramedic / ambulance officer background to great effect, writing characters from within that world, she combines them with a good, solid, interesting police cast, concentrating on a central character - Detective Ella Marconi.  This switching perspective gives the stories some real depth, although, in COLD JUSTICE, the formula is twisted slightly again.  Georgie Daniels is a paramedic with current day work problems, and a teenage connection back to the murder of a classmate.  Nineteen years ago she discovered the body of Tim Pieters hidden amongst bushes.  His family was devastated and Georgie's own friendship with Freya destroyed overnight.  All these years later, having problems with an out of control boss, she's transferred to a new ambulance station and finds herself working with (and being assessed by) her old school friend Freya.  At the same time the investigation into the death of Tim Pieters is reopened and Ella Marconi has nowhere else to start but with the person who discovered his body, his friends at school and his family members.

There's some really good balancing of all of the elements in this story - Marconi has a work life, and a personal life, and they coincide and collide realistically.  Whilst everything in her life isn't perfect, it's also not so imperfect that it's unbelievable (although I'd kill any boyfriend who taught my mother how to send text messages like that!).  Georgie and Freya have their own lives as well - Georgie and her husband, away from their beloved country home and animals, Freya with kids and a husband she loves no matter what sort of a twit he can make of herself.  Both women have a demanding work life, and a not straight-forward private life and the complications of their teenage friendship, the murder of Tim and how they went their separate ways creates a prickliness between them which really works.  On the victim's side the damage that was done to Tim's family as a result of his murder is carefully displayed - the pain and struggle of his mother Tamara in particular is graphic.  

The final balancing act, however, is to give a good cast of characters a great plot to work within.  Resolving a cold case from so long ago isn't an easy task for Marconi, but persistence, focus, good sixth sense, and a willingness to put reluctance aside and work with the less than ideal partner that is assigned to her, and eventually the truth is revealed.  

COLD JUSTICE is a terrific book.  It would work as a standalone, or it works as part of the continuing story of Ella Marconi.  It works as a character study, or as a plot driven police procedural.  Basically it just works.  Really really really well.

Fremantle Press have just released the third DSS Stevie Hooper book by WA based writer Felicity Young, TAKE OUT, following on from HARUM SCARUM and AN EASEFUL DEATH.

Starting off with a prologue that is obviously telegraphing something awful in the future of Mai, a young Asian girl, the action moves to Perth.  Stevie is working in the Sex Crimes unit, but it's in her capacity as friend that she steps into the strangely deserted Pavel house that morning.  The house is luxurious, big, beautiful, yet it's contents are sparse, scruffy, untidy.  The remains of an unfinished meal are on the table, and in one of the back rooms, a young child has been deserted - alive, but strangely it seems he has been fed and looked after until only recently.  For days after his parents have both just vanished.

The only reason the baby is discovered in time is because Stevie knows Skye - a young visiting nurse, who has been alerted to something wrong at the Pavel house by one of their neighbours.  Unfortunately that elderly neighbour has had a severe stroke affecting her speech patterns, which makes them garbled and nonsensical.  A simple disappearance isn't really a case for a DSS in the Sex Crimes squad, and the local police are keen to move her out of the way when they show up, but Stevie's not one that's easily distracted and there are things at this crime scene that don't quite add up.  Mind you, Stevie would do well to leave it alone, especially as she and partner Monty are up to their elbows in house renovations, and he's about to undergo major heart surgery.

When the investigation into the father's background quickly reveals a very sinister connection to human trafficking and sexual enslavement Stevie's concern is vindicated and despite worrying about Monty, their house, her daughter, Skye, and her own safety, finds herself ultimately on the trail of a shadowy Madam and her son.

The subject matter of TAKE OUT is sleazy and unpleasant, but it is handled carefully.  The sexual exploitation of young people (in this case female) is difficult to comprehend and TAKE OUT makes it that more difficult by letting the reader get to really know one of the (now) women - Mai.  Along with Mai's story, and the disappearance of the Pavel husband and wife, there are a number of other lesser, but connected threads, and there is a sprinkling of personal stories - triumphs and sadness as well.  

TAKE OUT has a busy plot, but the focus remains on a number of aspects of enforced prostitution, making the novel possibly quite challenging for some readers.  There is a very strong concentration on the victims of the sexual exploitation - working on making them human, real people that can be sympathised with.  Combine that with Stevie, her work colleagues, her personal life and the increasing complications in both and it does mean that the villains of the piece are little more than bit players for quite a bit of the book.  The perpetrators, whilst eventually identified, remain shadowy, almost strangely incidental and there's little if no explanation of the inexplicable attempted - which may intrigue some readers and frustrate others.  TAKE OUT does, however, balance the personal angst and professional responsibilities of Stevie a lot better than in the earlier novels, and the complexity of the plot is handled well, believably and with sensitivity.  TAKE OUT really does take on a difficult subject with sensitivity and insight, making the victims a point of focus, delivering a realistic (and therefore not all neatly wrapped up and sealed off) resolution.  For added measure, there's a bit of a kick in the tail at the end of the book as well. For this reader at least, that alone went miles towards demonstrating why some things remain utterly inexplicable.