Karen Chisholm
REVIEW
The Glasgow Smile, Chris Stuart
Reviewed By
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
The follow on from FOR REASONS OF THEIR OWN, GLASGOW SMILE is set (the title relates to something specific in the surroundings), in Melbourne, where the discovery of a woman's body stabbed and strangled late at night in the graffitied and dark tangled laneways of the innercity sets off a complicated investigation.
For those that haven't read the first novel, DI Robbie Gray and her offsider, new into town from very different locales in the NT, have some collective and individual baggage to lug around. Probably best to read my notes on FOR REASONS OF THEIR OWN to get the full gist of that, but this outing does continue many of the themes tackled in the earlier book.
The case at the core of GLASGOW SMILE is a bit of a teaser, not just because of the manner of the disposal of the body, which is odd. Propped up in an extraordinary position, carefully placed against a portrait on the wall, it's hard to tell if the placement is symbolic or misleading. The other problem is that there's a lot going on in Melbourne at the time of the killing - civil unrest, rising white extremism, corrupt government and a family desperate to hide some pretty dreadful secrets. All of which makes this anything but a straightforward investigation.
Which probably fits with the style of this second novel, which was anything but straightforward itself. The first in the series was tightly written and tense and enthralling as a result. This outing tends towards overwritten in places, which is a pity, because under all that noise there's a really good crime novel peeking out. Enough of it showing to provide impetus for the reader to stick with it, not enough to make it a resoundingly satisfying read though. Perhaps with a little paring down of the verbiage, and a strip back of some of the elements that didn't seem to go anywhere, this would have been a better outing in the Gray and Mac series. There's potential here, these two main characters are great, the plots have been engaging and really interesting, and the societal issues tackled deserving.
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BLURB
In a grimy graffiti-covered recess in one of Melbourne tangled inner city laneways, a woman is found murdered. ‘Why would anyone want to kill her? She was so ordinary,’ was the oft-repeated phrase DI Robbie Gray heard when the name of the deceased was revealed.
So why, then, she asked herself, was the body found propped up in such an extraordinary position, almost as if she was intimate with the portrait on the wall. Was this death intended to be symbolic, or was the placement merely a device to deceive?
Set against a background of civil unrest and rising white extremism, a government tainted by corruption and a family desperate to hide secrets, DI Robbie Gray, along with her Indigenous officer Mac must also grapple with their own demons of guilt and failure. When an arrest is made, they realise that not all killers hold a weapon, masks don’t always disguise, and the legacy of long-held secrets can have tragic consequences.
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