Detective Inspector Hal Challis is a homicide investigator who works in the Peninsula region near Melbourne, Australia. He consults across the police departments in the area – a nice conceit so the series won’t make one small town seem like the Sunnydale of serial killers! His role requires tact, as he steps in to provide expertise, It also requires him to get a strong sense of the officers he will work with, and they are a complex lot. A few thugs, some questionable personal decisions, […]
Twelve metres of shorn grass
Darren Keefe is “…a talented freak with no mooring,” a bad boy cricketer that never quite reaches his potential. As a young player rocketing towards the pinnacle of Australian cricket, Darren had little oversight or true coaching – no one wanted to change what was working, and if a coach tried to reel him in, his mother switched him to another team. When he starts making money, the troubles start: drugs, drinking, corruption in cricket, toxic masculinity, and so forth. There is a noir mystery […]
Short and satisfying beach read
Picked this up off a paperback sale rack when I was looking for a light, easy, vacation read – and it didn’t disappoint. Cecilia accidentally stumbles upon a sealed envelope in her attic – addressed to her by her husband, with the instructions to only open it after his death. The problem is that her husband is very much alive, and when she asks him about it, it is very clear that he doesn’t want her to open it. Naturally she does, and discovers […]
Was it the husband?
The Dry is a competent and engaging mystery thriller that’s set in a small farming community in Australia. It’s one of those books where the setting is as much of a character as the human characters, as the oppressive heat and dust provoke malevolent despair in the residents, which in turn breeds violence. The climate was also quite evocative for me as the reader, especially being here in California, where we have experienced a bit of drought ourselves. Goodreads summary: “After getting a note demanding […]