Hero, Patricia Wolf

HERO is the 5th book in the DS Lucas Walker series that has taken him from outback Queensland to Germany and back, and from the Australian Federal Police to the Queensland Police Force. One thing that stays the same though is the outreach of organised crime, which is surprisingly prevalent in these small Queensland towns.

Walker is stationed in the small outback town of Katima, driving distance from his home in Caloodie, working as a DS with a local cop who rapidly proves himself to be an able partner. For readers new to this series, there's been quite a bit happen in Walker's backstory, starting out when AFP DS Walker was at home in Caloodie on leave, only to find himself the only cop around to look into the disappearance of young German backpackers in OUTBACK. Which lead to a relationship with a German police officer - Barbara, and a run-in with organised crime and a major criminal bikie group, this time in Surfers Paradise, in the novel titled PARADISE. Back in the outback, and family involvement in OPAL, which then leads to Germany, and another close run in with the leader of that criminal bikie group in NEMESIS. All of which leads to the obvious question - is this a series that needs to be read in order, and pretty much that's a yes. 

These novels centre heavily on DS Lucas Walker, his stuttering love life and his extended family. Why he still calls Caloodie home, living in his grandmother's house there, where Ginger the dog came from, how he ended up working as a Queensland Police Officer after years in the AFP is all background that is really going to help you understand how everything fits together. Especially as the action in HERO is mostly about corruption, and criminal activities again, only this time in the world of high-profile sport. Although there's a twist at the end.

The title of this novel refers to Caden Conroy, a famous fast bowler, a cricketer that everyone admires. Good at the game, a supporter of up and coming talent, he's made a lot of money in his life, and his brother Cameron and his wife and daughter, as well as his girlfriend Bronte and business Manager Ollie all work hard at ensuring that what Conroy wants and needs, he gets. Until he's found bashed to death in his palatial country estate just outside Katima.

Whilst Walker and his colleague are first on scene, it doesn't take long for the higher ups to fly in the elite murder investigation squad, and Walker finds himself back in Katima trying to work out the story behind the unknown man found hanging from a tree in the local park, and whether or not that death is connected to the unsolved death of another young unidentified man in the area a few years before.

In many aspects, HERO is a hark back to the first novel in the series, in that it's good old fashioned, boots on the ground, investigation and chasing down leads that ultimately means that they are able to solve those two local cases, and the death of a national hero along the way. There's a hefty dose of romantic personal angst in there as well as some career jeopardy, and some complications with his immediate family back in Caloodie that has a bit of a hattip to a common theme these days - sovcit's and their ridiculous carry on.

Whether or not that aspect is actually going to head somewhere in future novels it's hard to tell, and to be honest, one would hope so because it went nowhere pretty rapidly in this one, but that was a minor distraction from the whole question of sport, corruption, money and power. Walker's past in the AFP gave him plenty of ways to find out the things that a standard outback cop might not have access to, and there's plenty of meat to the main plotline, including a lot of things to think about when it comes to sporting heroes.