Sydney

Sydney Daily Telegraph crime reporter Yoni Bashan has obviously used some insider knowledge of his own, alongside that of members of the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (MEOCS) to craft a true crime book that's very readable, informative and surprisingly moving in places.

The subject matter is unpleasant obviously - with an intermingling of families and organised crime activities that covers drugs, murders and some brutal turf wars. The Squad is a highly specialised police unit tasked with an incredibly difficult job - investigating the crimes, identifying the perpetrators and ensuring convictions in a highly charged, dangerous environment. There's inter-generational feuding, and a closed society which is incredibly difficult for them to penetrate and a group of criminals that never rat out their own, or the opposition.

Told from the point of view of the police, THE SQUAD is well paced, written in a very readable style, engaging and involving without being sensationalised or overtly moralistic. It's a warts and all "what it is, is what it is" style of tale of a group of cops who take their responsibilities very seriously indeed. There's plenty of background to the formation of The Squad within the pages, and some of the political / on-high pressure that they deal with as well, all of which combined to make THE SQUAD very interesting reading indeed.

If anybody could point me in the direction of a good condition Chrysler Airflow I'd be very grateful. I know there was one in the 1953 Redex Trial and there were a few in Australia at the time, so surely, somewhere, in somebody's shed... frankly I'm lusting... But I digress, and that's the problem with Sulari Gentill's Rowland Sinclair series, of which A DANGEROUS LANGUAGE is book number 8. It's easy to identify with the perfectly packaged little details, as you find yourself immersed in a time and place that's beautifully described, standing out from the pages, making the things that Sinclair and his companions get up to something you feel a part of. Reading this series is part history lesson, part time spent with good friends, part escapade. 

Incorporated into all of these books are elements of fact. A DANGEROUS LANGUAGE continues the tension between Conservatives, Fascists and Communists in Australian Politics. Along the way it interweaves the sad story of the crime that became known as The Pyjama Girl Murder (for a really good outline of that story I can recommend Richard Evan's 2004 book THE PYJAMA GIRL MYSTERY), with that of the bizarre real-life story of Thomas Ley - Australian Politician, convicted murderer in England, into attempts to bring a well-known peace activist and anti-Fascist, Egon Kisch to Australia. Needless to say A DANGEROUS LANGUAGE revolves around a particularly political plot, with murder, mayhem and some hefty doses of romance and romantic shenanigans.

Told, as always, with Gentill's trademark light touch, this is not, however a book that requires the reader to be a political junkie. The history is nicely balanced against the action, and the ongoing development of the close friendship between Rowly and his companions, and the tension between Rowly and his uptight, older brother adds personal touches that don't overwhelm what is, after all, crime fiction at its core. There is a murder in Canberra to be solved. There's a peace activist to get into the country. There's a bunch of thugs to be averted. Along the way all the four companions come under threat, and at points, an under-whelmed older brother's influence is required yet again.

Being book 8 in this wonderful series, A DANGEROUS LANGUAGE is perhaps not the best place for new readers to start. There's so much back-story now to all of the characters, and their idiosyncrasies, that you really need to have started earlier on in the series. To say nothing of understanding all of the history and societal changes that have gone on in these people's lives. 

For welded on fans of this series, A DANGEROUS LANGUAGE will not disappoint. On the other hand, if you're new to the series, then I envy you. Each of the books in the Rowland Sinclair series is about as good as historical Australian Crime Fiction is ever going to get.

Back in the 1970's there was discussion, debate and disagreement about the likelihood of Croatian extremists operating in Australia, and whether or not there was any involvement by the Communist Yugoslavian Government. Tony Jones, ABC Journalist and Q&A host apparently raised this topic of conversation again recently, leading to the claims he makes in his debut historical thriller THE TWENTIETH MAN.

I should admit, first of all, to having very sketchy remembrance of the furore at the time, so the book with a combination of historical fact and fiction, real life people and made up characters provided an interesting combination of entertainment and information for this reader. The distinctions between these elements will probably be somewhat less clear for younger readers, or people with no awareness of politics from the time, which does make THE TWENTIETH MAN a book for those only looking for a good thriller, as well as those who might consider themselves political junkies.

THE TWENTIETH MAN is set in the 1970's with the central premise being there is an Croatian terrorist group, with operatives in Australia, determined to destroy the Yugoslavian government - in this case we move from a series of bombings in the heart of Sydney to an assassination threat against the visiting Yugoslavian Premier. All of which is delivered in a highly charged, rapid paced style. Regardless of whether you can or even want to tell the differences between fact and fiction, there's plenty in this really well written thriller to engage, amuse, and get the reader thinking long and hard about the ramifications of truth versus fiction.

With hat tips along the way to now well known journalistic names, much of the responsibility for identifying the threat, and then stopping it comes down to a combination of a young ABC Journalist, and daughter of a well known Communist - Anna Rosen; a rogue ASIO Agent Tom Moriarty; and the Federal Police. Intertwined with this is the coincidence of the election of the Whitlam Government; the appointment of Lionel Murphy as Attorney General and Murphy's war on ASIO who he believed needed to be made considerably more accountable than they had previously been. 

Alongside the hefty doses of political and bureaucratic intrigue, there's romantic complications, family tensions and a nearly pitch perfect feel of time and place. Australia was more naive in those days, imbued with a sense of optimism and "she'll be rightness", fuelled by youth, enthusiasm and bravado, littered with politically incorrect behaviour, sexism, recreational drugs and a care-freeness that's gone missing from life these days. Jones does a particularly good job with sense of time and place - everything about Canberra and its denizens feels right, everything about the sense of enthusiasm that came out of the early Whitlam days works within the context of the book. Particularly when it's stacked up against the historical back-story of the Croatian rebels. 

Extremely readable, fascinating and very cleverly done, THE TWENTIETH MAN is unfortunately a bit of a rarity in Australian fiction - an historical political thriller covering our recent past.

ABC journalist and host of Q&A Tony Jones put the cat among the pigeons last year when he suggested that there was Croation terrorism in Australia in the 1970s. There was fierce debate at that time around this suggestion about Croatian extremists and the involvement of the Communist Yugoslavian Government in potentially creating or manipulating the threat. In The Twentieth Man, Jones doubles down on his claims, in a historical thriller that gives Australian its own Day of the Jackal.

The Twentieth Man opens with a historical bombing in the heart of Sydney in 1972. The bombs are planted by an anonymous Croatian terrorist seeking to destroy targets associated with the Yugoslavian government. Jones uses this opening to introduce a range of characters and it is a while before the narrative settles down around a few key players, particularly Anna Rosen, junior ABC journalist and daughter of a known Communist, Al Sharp, with the Federal Police, and rogue ASIO agent Tom Moriarty. Later in the book the action moves to Yugoslavia where a group of twenty Croatians have infiltrated the country with the aim of creating a popular uprising against the Communist Government. The Twentieth Man of the title is the survivor of this mission.

Jones has crafted a fine historical thriller. The threat, when it emerges, is against the Yugoslavian Premier and becomes a race against time. But behind this fictional assassination attempt is the basis of the historical events which included the operation in Yugoslavia,  election of the Whitlam Government and in particular the installation of Lionel Murphy as Attorney General. Jones creates tension through the real events of Murphy’s war on Australia’s security service ASIO, based on Murphy’s conviction that ASIO was withholding information from the Government. All of Jones’ characters are caught up in this crusade which, in the long run, made that agency more accountable.

The story comes into focus around journalist Anna Rosen and the Croatian would-be assassin Marin Katich who, in the past, had been involved in a Romeo and Juliet-style relationship, their fathers mortal enemies. Rosen is a creature of her time, idealistic, struggling against chauvinism and happy to indulge in recreational drugs. Katich has his own struggles, trying to reconcile knowledge of his father’s wartime activities allied with the Nazis while trying to remain true to the cause he was raised in. While most of the main characters are fictional, there are plenty of historical figures both deep in the plot and included as cameos, most of whom will be familiar to Australian readers. This includes not only Lionel Murphy but journalists George Negus and Michelle Grattan and even a brief walk-on cameo from comedian Paul Hogan, from the time he was a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. And Jones also gets the feel of the period right, with plenty of period detail and non-politically correct behaviour.

The Twentieth Man is an incredibly assured debut novel and Jones has delivered a pacey and original historical thriller. While historical detectives seem to be everywhere, the historical political thriller is not a genre we have seen much of in Australia. And this one shines a light on fascinating period of Australian history, a time contemporaneous with Watergate, in an engaging and interesting way.

Many years ago there was a specialist bookshop tucked away in Auburn Road, Hawthorn run by a crime fiction expert and massive enabler (I think his name was Malcolm Campbell). He was one of those real-life people that made me thankful I'd made the trek from the bush to the big city, and Peter Corris was another. Sure I probably would have eventually found his books, but arriving in the city, finding that shop, and eventually being introduced to Cliff Hardy, kind of reinforced at that time it had been a good move all round.

From the opening book in the Cliff Hardy series, here was something that was familiar, and yet slightly different about them. They are, as further study eventually revealed, straight out of the lone-wolf, private eye rule book, and yet quintessentially Australian. They are also very Sydney - with the mean streets that Hardy lived on never that far from the Harbour, yet there is something in the quick-fire delivery, and the quiet determination that reeks of the laconic Australian character. Put a hat on him, push it back on his head and roll up his sleeves and Hardy could have been a man from the bush. Stick him in a Ford, hand him a glass of wine, and have him haunt a few coffee shops and bars and he was city through and through. Part of the appeal of Cliff Hardy is that he has always been as hard to pin down - age / background / look and feel, as he has been instantly recognisable. 

But forty-two books later, Cliff is flagging a little, but game as always, and Peter Corris has pulled the plug, battling a few health problems of his own. So reading WIN, LOSE OR DRAW is one of those jarring moments no matter how you look at it. It's the last ever book of a series that's become as part of all fans January's as has a food hangover or the Test Cricket. It's certainly always been my Boxing Day Test tradition - flat out on a couch, test on in the background, Cliff Hardy book in hand. Glass of white wine beside me. 

It also appears that the decision to call it quits on the series happened after the book had been written - so there's no maudlin fare-the-well's, no tying up of any long-standing questions (not that there really are that many, expect maybe how bloody old is Cliff really!). What we have in WIN, LOSE OR DRAW is classic Hardy, hired by a wealthy businessman, Gerard Fonteyn, to find his teenage daughter. Julianna has been missing for over a year and despite a number of other granted half-hearted attempts there's never been a hint that she's dead or alive. Initially Hardy is inclined to agree with this assessment, but a photograph that eventually comes to light is just enough for him to get out, kick some rocks and see what crawls out.

A nicely complicated plot is elegantly executed with plenty of opportunity for even a slightly cricket distracted reader to keep up, but as always at the heart of these books is the tough-guy, lone-wolf, rough-around-the-edges, good-bloke Cliff Hardy. Even exiting this way, on a high, solving the unsolvable, never looking back, never saying goodbye, no regrets, no apologies, kind of makes sense. It won't make fans feel any better come next January, but then there are 42 of these books that you can always re-read. That's a lot of January's.

There is no denying Peter Corris’ status as the godfather of modern Australian crime. Corris took the American private investigator corner of the crime genre and made it uniquely Australian. Still going now after 33 years, gumshoe and Sydney icon Cliff Hardy is back in action for the forty-second time in Win, Lose or Draw.

Hardy is hired by Gerard Fonteyn, a wealthy businessman, to find his daughter Julianna. Julianna has been missing for over a year and there is little prospect that she will actually be found. Hardy does some digging and agrees with this assessment. But months later a photo of someone who could be Julianna comes to light on Norfolk Island and Hardy is off. Very soon the search becomes extremely complicated involving drugs, under-age prostitution, murder, corrupt police and dodgy investigators. All in all, a typical Hardy scenario.

Win, Lose or Draw delivers exactly what it promises – a hard boiled jaunt through the seedier parts of the Gold Coast and Sydney. Hardy, although starting to show is age (if he aged at the same rate as normal people he would be about 80 by now), is still as tough as ever. Even tied up and looking at the prospect of being dumped at sea he still manages a hard boiled quip or two. The plot, as always, appears straight forward at first but even Hardy admits about two thirds of the way through that it “made my other missing persons cases look simple”. Complicated, yes, and with plenty of conflicting agendas which often collide violently and tragically, but Corris never lets the reader lose track of what is going on.

Win, Lose or Draw is vintage Corris and vintage Hardy. While there are secrets there is no great mystery to be solved, just hard graft of procedural detection. The tension slowly ratchets but doesn’t quite pay off in the way the reader expects, there is a dead pan noir sense of humour and with locations sketched economically but perfectly to give a great sense of place. The author bio suggests that this might be the final Cliff Hardy book. If so then Corris has ensured that his Sydney Private Eye goes out on a high.

Styled as a thriller from the legal world, CYANIDE GAMES introduces Peter Tanner - criminal defence barrister, widower, father. Very much one of the good guys, one of those that takes on a hell of a lot and seems to pull results together despite the odds.

There's some complicated set up underway in CYANIDE GAMES, so a greater part of the book is devoted to what feels like considerable framework construction. Which, given that Tanner is a lawyer, appears to end up involving a large amount of personal investigation, involvement and prodding of various bears with a variety of sticks. Once the action actually moves to a court room, Tanner's involvement - and skills - are considerably more believable and the action seems, oddly given it's mostly court room tactics, to actually heat up quite a bit. 

Legal thrillers must be a tricky undertaking for an author - working what seems to be a mostly intellectual role into that of an all action hero. Believing the central character is capable of just about anything really helps with this reader's level of acceptance. Giving them a seriously good reason to be off on a lone wolf crusade is also vital, which meant that CYANIDE GAMES was a little on the hit and miss side for this reader. Perhaps the character of Tanner was too "out of the box" - he's ticking a lot of the good boxes, and doesn't seem to have much on the downside. Perhaps it's also that the sheer bulk of the set up meant that so much of the book read like a prelude to something really good - which ended up being too short lived to create balance. 

Not to say that the series, on the whole, doesn't have potential. The court-room scenes showed more than enough promise of some very good tactical thinking - and game playing, which hopefully would be more to the fore now that the background is filled out. Definitely worth a read if you're a fan of legal thrillers.