Caleb Zelic can't hear you. But he can see everything.
The latest pulsating thriller in the Caleb Zelic series
After a lifetime of bad decisions PI Caleb Zelic is finally making good ones. He's in therapy, his business is recovering and his relationship with his estranged wife Kat is on the mend.
But soon Caleb is drawn into the tangled life of his troubled ex partner Frankie, which leads to a confrontation with the cops. And when Frankie's niece is kidnapped, she and Caleb must work together to save the child's life. But can Caleb trust her after her past betrayals?
Darkness For Light, Emma Viskic
The third book in the Caleb Zelic series finds him working hard rebuilding his life and his business after the very heated ending of the previous novel, AND FIRE CAME DOWN. In the time since his on again / off again business partner Frankie has disappeared, but his ex-wife Kat, now pregnant with their child, is back. He's getting therapy for his problems (albeit frequently standing around in the Victoria Market), and he's reconnected with long time friends in the deaf community.
Newcomers to this series will find themselves having to sort through some rapid fire introductions to a very strong set of characters. Zelic is a private investigator, a deaf man with a complicated relationship with every woman in his life. Then there's Kat, his ex-wife, friend and artist, who along with her family are worthy of a novel in their own right, but Zelic is really is trying to work out what shape their future is going to take, while they both worry about the life of their baby due to past miscarriages. Finally there's business partner Frankie. She's harder to quantify, but goes from nowhere to be seen, to back in Zelic's life creating problems as always quickly. Things get ridiculously complicated when a prospective client is murdered; Frankie's sister is beaten up and her niece Tilda kidnapped. To say nothing of the lurking presence of a federal cop who may or may not be as dodgy, or not as dodgy, as Frankie. Nobody, including Zelic, can tell.
Caleb Zelic is one of those enduring crash bang sort of characters in Australian crime fiction that is capable of stuffing things up at lightning pace and resolving things at similar speed, somehow coming out of it with no clue how to make all the bad stuff never happen again. And not only is the reader happy to forgive him all of that, it's possible to actually like him for it. This is no slick, lone wolf, PI type, talking (or belting) his way into and out of trouble. He's much more of a car crash PI character who is wonderfully human, absolutely forgiveable and immensely likeable in a "come closer mate whilst I just slip my hands around your bloody stupid throat, then we'll decide if it's a hug or strangulation" way.
I admit there is always going to be a sneaking liking for an underdog in these parts, and obviously there's a level of vulnerability inherent in a character who is deaf relying on communication as a way of solving problems, but there's nothing manipulative or overtly sympathy seeking about Zelic. He beats himself up with a ferocity that allows the reader to spend a lot of time shouting "oh for goodness sake what are you doing now man" at the pages. Reading isn't often an interactive pastime, but that's just one of the pleasant surprises about this series.
A series that, in an ideal world, you'd be insisting people read from the start, although nothing's ideal these days, and what the hell. Read the Caleb Zelic series from the start, or start here, and read them backwards, individually, in any order, multiple times, anywhere, anytime. Just get on with reading these books.
Darkness For Light, Emma Viskic (review by Gordon Duncan)
‘He slowed as he took the bend, then sped up and pulled into the kerb. Door half-open, eyes on the mirror. The black sedan rounded the corner. It drew nearer, headlights off, the driver a hazy silhouette. Closer, nearly level. Passing. It kept going, the brakelights flashing once as it reached the next bend, then it was gone. He breathed again. Just someone taking the same traffic-avoiding route across town. Nothing to do with him, or a dead man with his face shot off.’
Caleb Zelic returns in Emma Viskic’s third novel Darkness For Light. It’s now a few months since fire ravaged end of And Fire Came Down and Caleb is slowly putting his life and his business back together. He’s seeing a therapist, his ex-wife Kat is speaking to him, his ex-partner Frankie is nowhere to be seen and he’s re-connected with the deaf community. ‘Make good decisions’ would appear to be his new mantra, but this is Caleb and bad decisions are never too far away.
When a prospective client he was due to meet is murdered and Frankie’s niece Tilda is kidnapped, Caleb is not only drawn back into a world he doesn’t want to be a part of, he must also join up again with Frankie and that’s definitely not a good decision. To make matters worse Frankie has a file which everyone seems to want, and Caleb is being blackmailed into handing over Frankie or the file. Caleb however is only interested in saving Tilda and if he’s lucky, he may just redeem himself as well.
Caleb Zelic is a great character and Emma Viskic vividly brings him to life. At the recent launch of Darkness For Light Emma spoke about a question which was asked during the recent book tour of the United States she undertook with Sulari Gentill, Jock Serong and Robert Gott. They were asked about the difference between American and Australian readers. The consensus was that Australians love the underdog, or the loser as Emma put it. Although I wouldn’t go so far as to describe him as a loser, I would say that Caleb Zelic is a man who spends his life constantly tripping over his own good intentions. Now that’s something we can all relate to.