Detective Darren Glass is back, and the stakes are higher than ever.
When the battered body of a young Aboriginal woman washes up onto a beach at Jervis Bay, Australian Federal Police Detective Darren Glass is brought in from Canberra to investigate. Glass quickly ties the murder to the disappearance of a sailor from the nearby naval base, and is forced to partner up with a senior intelligence officer from the Royal Australian Navy.
Together they follow the trail of evidence to the red heart of Australia, where a confrontation with outlaw bikies and Aboriginal activists proves deadly. As the body count mounts and foreign links emerge, the conspiracy at the heart of the case becomes a threat to Australia’s national security, as well as regional peace.
Dead Heat, Peter Cotton
One day I will finally understand how it is that I can find a book in a series intriguing (DEAD CAT BOUNCE in this case), and then completely and utterly miss the existence of the second novel. I mean there's catching the miss and there's waiting 7 or so years to notice the miss...
Anyway, I've finally managed to notice and DEAD HEAT arrived just in time for a short break to catch up on some reading so I bumped it up the list and sat down to revisit Darren Glass, who really does seem to have gotten his act together well and truly. If you don't include being bumped out of Canberra to Jervis Bay, and playing second fiddle to senior Intelligence Officers from the Royal Australian Navy, then there's a bit of dare doing on motorbikes in Central Australia, a couple of dead Royal Australian Navy operators, some drones, a dead Aboriginal woman, a dead Navy sailor, an attack on a highly secure Naval Base, some nukes, a booby trapped culvert, a constantly going missing Aboriginal woman, a Land Rights / come bikie conspiracy, blown up boats, shark attacks, and ... well a lot. It's busy this one. Engaging, complicated, and very very busy.
In the centre of it all is Fed Darren Glass (Jervis Bay is Federal territory for those that aren't aware), a gutsy young Aboriginal woman, a couple of Navy Intelligence officers who have a lot of skin in the game, an old light-house, some very weird rumours, and a land rights group that's involved in, or setting out, to commit some major mayhem. Or not, there's also a lot of very odd characters lurking about and Glass is out of his normal depth, under pressure and worried sick about the love of his life who is caught up in a political storm of her own in Indonesia.
It does seem there are only two Darren Glass novels, and whilst the main character looks like he's the main connection, they are really mostly about political nefariousness, corruption, and people behaving very badly. I'm glad I finally caught up with the second novel.