AustCrimeFiction - All Posts

The Quarry, Kim Hunt

Karen — Tue, 21 May 2024 02:45:00 +0000

REVIEW

The Quarry, Kim Hunt

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

THE QUARRY is now the second novel in a series featuring NSW ranger Cal Nyx. If you're new to these, it's a series that's going to be well worth following. There's no immediate requirement to read the earlier book first (THE BEAUTIFUL DEAD), although it will give you a slightly fuller picture of this fascinating central character.

Of course there are some elements here that are kind of expected these days. Nyx is a tricky character, from a difficult background, who has found her place, working in the Australian landscape as it gives her a sense of peace and belonging. As does her love of classic cars, and her ongoing affection for Dif. The only person that provides Nyx with a link to family, he's complicated as well - how and why being revealed as the story progresses. Suffice to say, that he witnesses a dreadful thing, that has put him in danger, and the last time he's heard from is via a message to Nyx, about the only person in the world he can trust, and will understand where he's likely to have gone to ground.

A well balanced combination of extremely good characters, a very solid and intriguing plot, great atmosphere and some well placed social commentary into the bargain, THE QUARRY tackles quite a bit and achieves all of it with considerable flair. It's also nicely gritty and confronting in places, realistic and very well paced, with the reader called upon to spend a lot of time up close and personal with Cal Nyx, which isn't a bad place to be. A big part of that is the way that Nyx is aware of her shortcomings and brings to the story a lot of self-doubt, guilt, recrimination and a deep sense of morality, alongside some more super-human styled abilities. The lengths she goes to for Dif make perfect sense given their complicated past, her willingness to reach out to help the less well known an interesting twist.

It's particularly intriguing to see the contrasting experiences of Dif and Nyx - their shared traumatic past resulting in two very different coping strategies - him withdrawal, her engagement on her terms only. There's a connection between these two that is worth every second of reading time that it takes for it to unfurl, helped always by Nyx's wry and very dry capacity for observation and commentary.

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

Kim Hunt

ISBN

9780473675615

Year of Publication

2023

Series

Cal Nyx

Book Number (in series)

BLURB

Seeing something you shouldn't have makes life on the margins a whole lot scarier.

Ranger Cal Nyx works alone in the vast NSW bushland reserves but is pulled away from the quiet and solitude by a coded message that only one other person could understand.

Dif, the only remaining link to her family, is in danger. He’s also the last person the police are going to take seriously.

No stranger to the complications of Dif’s life, and with her femme MIA interstate, Cal burns rubber up and down a lonely coastline, calling in favors from her unique contacts to intercept a relentless killer.

Are Cal's skills, badass bravado and risky schemes enough to bring a single-minded murderer out of the shadows?

Can she save the one and only person who truly gets her?

Tags

#crimefiction

Crime Fiction

#yeahnoir

New Zealand

The Quarry

Kim Hunt

Review	The Quarry, Kim Hunt	Karen Chisholm	Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 22nd March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 29th March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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Bone Lands, Pip Fioretti

Karen — Wed, 08 May 2024 04:02:06 +0000

REVIEW

Bone Lands, Pip Fioretti

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

In 1911, Augustus (Gus) Hawkins is a mounted trooper in rural New South Wales. A veteran of the Boer war he's a complex man with a severe case of PTSD and a bad dose of long-standing longing for Flora Kirkbride, eldest of four children of a local "landed gentry" family. Until the night he discovers the bodies of her three younger siblings, brother and two sisters, shot dead on a road that he should have been patrolling. It's the night of the Coronation Dances, a time when the locals gathered in large groups. Which makes their murders doubly surprising, surely somebody's absence would have been noticed. Alas it seems that the only person who everyone thinks was missing in action is Hawkins himself. Instead of doing his patrols he was off bedding the local schoolteacher - something she rapidly denies just when he's in desperate need of an alibi, and some support.

Detectives from Sydney are bought in to run the investigation, but really, how can men from the city understand the dynamics of a small rural area, how the power balances work, with vast distances and little by way of communication other than notes delivered by horseback.

There is much to be admired in BONE LANDS. Historical in setting and timing, the sense of place and that period is vividly evoked. But the thing that really should grab readers is the voice. Told in first person, Augustus Hawkins is bought to life with care, yet nothing is shied away from. He is a conflicted man, battling the demons that the Boer War left him with. Too many memories of unforgiveable things seen and never forgotten. He's no sufferer of fools, a man who likes a drink, and somebody who is determined to right wrongs where he can. He was also hopelessly attracted to the older, and surviving Kirkbride sister, who suffers dreadfully as a result of the murder of her siblings, and well, there's a twist coming that will probably make readers want to chew up the edges of some of these pages.

Sadly, despite BONE LANDS being historical in timeframe, there is much that still resonates today. Misogyny, deprivation, race, class, loyalty, power and influence sit alongside poverty, deprivation, hardship, and the effects of inappropriate farming methods on an ancient and fragile land. Domestic violence is part of all of this in, what is right now, a particularly prescient way.

Sense of place is unbelievably strong as well, you can feel the heat and dust, the hard work, the complications of searching for killers in a wide, lightly populated area. You can also feel the tensions associated with the death of three young adult siblings from one of the richest families in the area. The potential motives are obvious, and yet somehow, Hawkins feels something deeper is going on. It turns out it's up to him to find out what, Sydney detectives are out of their depth when it comes to a community lorded over by egos, blackmail, manipulation and scheming.

All of the bad is balanced elegantly on a knife-edge with dry and particularly Australian humour. It feels, on starting out, that this is a novel that is all dark, and quite confronting. But the author here has managed to use Hawkins voice to inject moments of lightness and kindness. It was such a relief to find a man who cares for his horses in particular, sure gruff about it, but caring none-the-less. His respect for Flora, as well as attraction, also shines through. In the middle of a lot of dark, he's a bright, sometimes flickering, light. And he's engaging and very real as a result.

There is a hell of a twist at the end, and in these days, the story probably should come with a trigger warning. This is yet another example of men's poor behaviour, and women's experience because of that. Augustus Hawkins is the sort of exception that we need to find a hell of a lot more of.

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

Pip Fioretti

ISBN

9781922992864

Year of Publication

2024

BLURB

1911, on a winter's night in arid New South Wales wool country, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins discovers the bodies of three young people. They are scions of the richest family in the district, savagely murdered on a road that Hawkins should have been patrolling, had he not been busy bedding the local schoolteacher.

Detectives arrive from Sydney and the disgraced Hawkins, a traumatised veteran of the Boer War, comes under fierce scrutiny. With his honour and sanity at stake, he becomes hell-bent on finding the murderer. But as ever darker secrets are revealed about the people he thinks of as friends, Hawkins is forced to confront an uncomfortable question: who is paying the price for the new nation's prosperity?

Tags

Review	Bone Lands, Pip Fioretti	Karen Chisholm	Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 15th March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - 3rd to 17th May	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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Devil's Breath, Jill Johnson

Karen — Tue, 07 May 2024 06:19:05 +0000

REVIEW

Devil's Breath, Jill Johnson

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Devil’s Breath is the first novel in a new crime series built around a neurodivergent professor of botanical toxicology, Eustacia Rose. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

Jill Johnson

ISBN

9781785304477

Year of Publication

2023

Series

Professor Eustacia Rose

Book Number (in series)

BLURB

I've always been better with plants than people . . .

Eustacia Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology who lives alone in London with only her extensive collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her garden with meticulous care. Her life is quiet. Her schedule never changes. Until the day she hears a scream and the temptation to investigate proves irresistible.

Through her telescope, Professor Rose is drawn into the life of an extraordinarily beautiful neighbour, Simone, and nicknames the men who visit her after poisonous plants according to the toxic effect they have on Simone. But who are these four men? And why does Eustacia Rose recognize one of them?

Just as she preserves her secret garden, she feels inexplicably compelled to protect her neighbour. But when her precious garden is vandalized and someone close to Simone is murdered with a toxin derived from a rare poisonous plant, Eustacia finds herself implicated in the crime and decides to take matters into her own hands . . .

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Review	Devil's Breath, Jill Johnson	Karen Chisholm	Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 29th March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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Dragon's Back, A.C. Edwards

Karen — Fri, 03 May 2024 05:14:08 +0000

REVIEW

Dragon's Back, A.C. Edwards

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Friday, May 3, 2024

Set in Hong Kong, DRAGON'S BACK is the first novel in the series introducing PI Galahad Jones. The series currently includes the second novel, DRAGON'S CLAW, and third, DRAGON'S EYE. Galahad Jones is a personally conflicted sort of a man, his business is struggling, he's got a gambling debt that would choke a horse, a big problem with people who want their money or else, and a nice line in female sidekicks, from his unimpressed office administrator to his apprentice Joey Loh - a woman who takes "sidekick" to a whole new level.

It's worth mentioning at this point that the author of these books is a former policeman, paratrooper and special forces office who, whilst serving in the Australian Army, was deployed across both South East Asia and the South West Pacific. He knows about action, and with his work including close-protection of High Net Worth individuals, he knows a thing or two about pressure. This comes across very clearly in both the action and reaction scenes. There's something very real about Galahad Jones, and Joey Loh. They are brave, but not completely crazy, resourceful but not totally bullet proof, tough as nails and complicated as hell. Very human characters needless to say.

There is a lot going on in the plot of DRAGON'S BACK, right from the start, when Jones has a case which seems pretty straightforward - a husband whose wife suspects is having an affair - until it becomes anything but, and things start to collide, the death of an undocumented Cambodian girl, which leads to a human trafficking ring that ends up with a lot of bad people circling Jones. Including a loan shark that wants his debt paid, two of the biggest criminals in Hong Kong in a battle for control, and a corrupt cop lurking in the background. All of which add up to a big headache for Jones, Loh and anybody at all seen to be on their side.

Alongside the very high levels of action, mayhem, rushing and/or sneaking about, the threats, the fights, the escapes by the skin of your teeth moments, there is detail here about Galahad Jones, that unlikely name, his sister Prudence, their family backgrounds, and their lives in general. Interspersed with this is a really strong sense of a fascinating place, albeit from the slightly less "touristy" viewpoint than you'd expect in a brochure.

The next two books in the series are queued up, and whilst some hefty queue jumping is going to be required to get them up the priority list, the urge to do so is pretty strong. The opening salvo in the Galahad Jones series might have gotten a tad busy at times, but the pace held up, the stories of everyone were compelling, the action worked, and there's nothing like a bit of high octane, no holds barred, peril to wile away the winter nights.

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

A.C. Edwards

ISBN

9780646859392

Year of Publication

2023

Series

Dragon

Book Number (in series)

BLURB

A woman wants her errant husband tracked, an undocumented Cambodian girl is found dead, the city’s two biggest criminal societies vie for power, a loan shark wants his money back, and a corrupt cop is pulling strings from the shadows. It’s just another day in Hong Kong.

Former cop Galahad Jones’ struggling business as a private investigator was on life-support. With no friends to speak of and a gambling debt that, if called in, could see him floating face down in Hong Kong harbour, things weren’t good.

Reluctantly taking a job to investigate a cheating husband, Galahad is suddenly catapulted into the deadly world of Hong Kong’s criminal underbelly. Conspiracy and betrayal reign as he finds himself in a life and death chase through the mean streets of Kowloon and The Island to bring down a human trafficking ring and, hopefully, keep his head on his shoulders in the process.

With the help of his apprentice, Joey Loh, and mysterious girlfriend Angel Yeung, Galahad must confront his past, Hong Kong triads and official corruption to free the girls and clear his murdered father’s name. Dark forces are arrayed against him and Galahad is never quite sure who is friend and who is foe.

One thing is for certain... Galahad Jones will do whatever it takes, no matter the personal cost.

Tags

Review	Dragon's Back, A.C. Edwards	Karen Chisholm	Friday, May 3, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 15th March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 12th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 19th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 26th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - 3rd to 17th May	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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The Water's Dead, Catherine Lea

Karen — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 06:16:32 +0000

REVIEW

The Water's Dead, Catherine Lea

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

THE WATER'S DEAD is the first novel featuring DI Nyree Bradshaw (BETTER LEFT DEAD is out in September), set in the upper north island region of New Zealand, with idyllic scenery, pockets of poverty, a strong, tight knit Māori community, and a lot of fractious relationships.

None more so than the relationships of Huia Coburn, a young woman whose body is found dumped in a rock pool at the bottom of a waterfall by a couple of tourists with a messy story of their own. The complications of Huia's murder are compounded when it's realised that she was looking after a young, diabetic child at the time of her death. Lily Holmes is now missing, and time is running out to find her, as well as a killer who would batter a young, pregnant woman to death.

Introducing DI Nyree Bradshaw is part of the work that this novel undertakes, a woman with a complicated backstory and enough family dysfunction to get what is going on in Huia's fractured family setup. Mind you, Huia's own mother is an odd one, and her stepfather even more dodgy. Add that to the highly questionable boyfriend, and Huia's recent reconnection with her Māori father and his iwi marae (tribal meeting / gathering ground), and there is a lot for Bradshaw to be looking into very closely.

As is the way with many New Zealand crime fiction novels, the Māori words and concepts are used freely when the storyline involves people or places that are relevant. Readers not familiar with the terminology will have no problems in following along in THE WATER'S DEAD. Sufficient context is always provided, leaving this particular reader with a strong sense of longing that we would at least attempt the same in this country. Along with that sense of culture's crossing, there's a really strong sense of the place in this novel as well, which contrasts with the unrelenting sadness of a young woman dead and a young child endangered. Both of which affect Bradshaw deeply, making her absolutely driven to find the child, solve the crime, and get rid of some policing dead wood imposed on her, without ever realising the complications until it's almost too late.

Despite the growing concern that her investigation is being sabotaged, despite the family dysfunction on all sides, and the ridiculous and downright inexplicable behaviour of a lot of people, Bradshaw is one of those cops that ploughs on. When she's threatened, she persists. When her home is invaded, she continues forward (although that thread did mysteriously disappear from view), and when it feels like Lily is unlikely to have survived, she doubles down on her determination.

A debut novel like this will always have some work to do - introducing a new character, explaining some of her foibles and aspirations, setting up the background to the place, position and motivations for all. Which nearly always explains why a few things might disappear in the mix (like a comprehensively trashed house). The point is whether or not there is plenty to be going on with, particularly when it comes to a potential series character, and Bradshaw's got that in spades. Her estranged son and she have some work to do, the police service has some work to do, and there are some families in the wake of this murder that definitely have some work to do. Now looking very forward to reading the second book.

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

Catherine Lea

ISBN

9780473594749

Year of Publication

2022

Series

Nyree Bradshaw

Book Number (in series)

BLURB

The chin tattoo confirms the victim is Maori. The whorls of ink from her lower lip to her chin—the moko, is worn only by Maori women. So, her ethnicity is a given. Finding who murdered Huia Coburn, and dumped her body in the volcanic rock pool at the base of Mason’s Rock waterfall has now fallen to DI Nyree Bradshaw.

From the strangely unsympathetic parents, to the belligerent boyfriend on home detention for drugs, it seems everyone has something to hide and no one is telling the truth.

Then Nyree discovers six-year-old diabetic, Lily Holmes is missing, last seen in the victim's care. Now, Nyree must now find the killer to save Lily.

She has already failed her own son. She cannot fail this child.

Tags

Review	The Water's Dead, Catherine Lea	Karen Chisholm	Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 8th March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 5th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 12th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 19th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 26th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - 3rd to 17th May	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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One Of Us Is Missing, B.M. Carroll

Karen — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 02:46:01 +0000

REVIEW

One Of Us Is Missing, B.M. Carroll

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

In BM Carroll’s latest crime novel, one family’s celebration turns to disaster as a teenager disappears amid a crowd of concert-goers. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

B.M. Carroll

ISBN

9781923022126

Year of Publication

2024

BLURB

There's no such thing as safety in numbers ...

Rachel and Rory Sullivan decide to celebrate making it through a difficult year by taking their teenagers, Emmet and Bridie, to their first stadium concert. By the end of the night, one of the four has vanished without a trace.

As the police investigation intensifies, suspicion is cast on the remaining family members. Everyone has been deceiving one another, but who is to blame for what went wrong? The passing of each hour amplifies their terror that life will never be the same again.

One of Us is Missing is a dark domestic thriller about the dangers lurking right in plain sight.

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Review	One Of Us Is Missing, B.M. Carroll	Karen Chisholm	Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Blog	Updates - Fortnight Ending 16th February	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 22nd March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 29th March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - 3rd to 17th May	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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It Takes a Town ... to solve a Murder, Aoife Clifford

Karen — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 02:40:32 +0000

REVIEW

It Takes a Town ... to solve a Murder, Aoife Clifford

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Thursday, April 18, 2024

In Aoife Clifford’s third novel, the death of a local celebrity brings two old schoolmates together to answer some troubling questions. Full Review at: Newtown Review of Books

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

Aoife Clifford

ISBN

9781761152733

Year of Publication

2024

BLURB

So many people had reason to hate her, but did anyone have reason to kill her?

Everyone dies famous in a country town, but glamorous Vanessa Walton was a shining star. A celebrity since a television commercial when she was a child, Vanessa is back on the front page for all the wrong reasons; after a terrible storm she has been found dead at the bottom of her stairs.

At first her death seems to be a simple accident, but anonymous letters are discovered that suggest otherwise – and when 16-year-old Jasmine Landridge claims it is murder, she suddenly disappears. As the police begin to investigate, secrets are exposed and friendships unravel.

What happens to a community when murders and abductions sit alongside petty workmates, teenage tribulations and longstanding friendships? It will take a town to solve this crime, but what will be broken in the effort to piece together the truth?

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Review	It Takes a Town ... to solve a Murder, Aoife Clifford	Karen Chisholm	Thursday, April 18, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 2nd February, 2024	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Fortnight Ending 16th February	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 23rd February	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 19th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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Sanctuary, Garry Disher

Karen — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 01:30:14 +0000

REVIEW

Sanctuary, Garry Disher

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Thursday, April 11, 2024

A new crime novel by Garry Disher is always exciting. In Sanctuary, he introduces a new protagonist: a female lone wolf. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

Garry Disher

ISBN

9781922790620

Year of Publication

2024

BLURB

Grace is a thief- a good one. She was taught by experts and she's been practising since she was a kid. She specialises in small, high-value items-stamps, watches-and she knows her Jaeger-LeCoultres from her Patek Philippes. But it's a solitary life, always watchful, always moving. It's not the life she wants.

Lying low after a run-in with an old associate, Grace walks into Erin Mandel's rural antiques shop and sees a chance for something different. A normal job. A place to call home.

But someone is looking for Erin. And someone's looking for Grace, too. And they are both, in their own ways, very dangerous men.

Tags

Review	Sanctuary, Garry Disher	Karen Chisholm	Thursday, April 11, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 12th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 19th April	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - week ending 5th January 2024	Karen Chisholm	Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Blog	Updates - week ending 12th January 2024	Karen Chisholm	Tuesday, January 2, 2024

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The Mystery Writer, Sulari Gentill

Karen — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 04:34:16 +0000

REVIEW

The Mystery Writer, Sulari Gentill

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

In Sulari Gentill’s new novel, aspiring writer Theo and her brother Gus become embroiled in increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

Sulari Gentill

ISBN

9781761152238

Year of Publication

2024

BLURB

She needs to write the ending ... before she meets hers.

Theo has one dream – to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar – and then he turns up dead. Suddenly, Theo finds herself as the prime suspect.

As Theo grapples with the shocking turn of events, she realizes that Dan may not have been the person he seemed to be, and there is something sinister going on in the world of publishing. Desperate to clear her name and uncover the truth, Theo sets out on a quest to find out who killed Dan and why.

As she digs deeper, Theo uncovers a web of deceit, conspiracy, and hidden motives, with clues leading her to a shadowy online platform called The Shield. With her own life in danger, Theo must unravel the mystery before she becomes the next victim.

Tags

Review	The Mystery Writer, Sulari Gentill	Karen Chisholm	Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 19th January 2024	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 26th January 2024	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 2nd February, 2024	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024
Blog	Updates - Week Ending 29th March	Karen Chisholm	Monday, January 15, 2024

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The Beacon, P.A. Thomas

Karen — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 02:25:22 +0000

REVIEW

The Beacon, P.A. Thomas

Reviewed By

Karen Chisholm

Friday, March 22, 2024

A disgraced son of a powerful Australian media tycoon, the traumatised daughter of a small town newspaper editor, coincidentally owned by the aforementioned tycoon. One is sent to "learn the ropes of journalism" / ie been kicked down the line, the other is in town after something sent her legal career into free fall. Then the local newspaper editor dies in a seeming shark attack and things get messy.

Byron Bay does have a reputation for being a laid back, holiday destination, pumped full of influencer types, and some serious money. So when Jack Harris is sent there to learn the ropes of running a small town newspaper, after being demoted as an executive in his father's multi-million dollar media network, it's not all hard work. After all, living in his father's exclusive mansion, with a couple of lifelong family retainers on hand is not exactly slumming it in the sticks. Although Jack finds Caitlin O'Shaughnessy very hard work indeed. His first day at the office, hungover and in no mood, finds Caitlin's father, and editor of The Beacon, Patrick, missing, and his very pissed off daughter on hand to make his life difficult. To be fair, she's got a pretty good line in making a lot of people's life difficult.

Character based crime fiction is always an interesting undertaking, and whilst Byron and it's environs, and some of the tensions that happen when an idyllic setting is populated by wealthy incomers, are part of the story in THE BEACON, this is very much character based storytelling. Which is fortunate, because these are two great characters, and the setup here is particularly interesting. It turns out that Patrick O'Shaughnessy had gone surfing and never returned. His body, minus one leg eventually shows up, looking for all the world like he's been the victim of a shark attack, until it doesn't look that way at all. In the meantime Caitlin and Jack have to try to find out what happened to her much loved, and admired widely, father, whilst also trying to stay one step ahead of a lot of unknowns, and not deck each other in the process.

Turns out there's a story that Patrick's been working on that has made him very twitchy, alarmed enough to take out a new life insurance policy which sets Jack to thinking, as does the state of Patrick's surfboard which doesn't shout shark attack as far as Jack's concerned. Luckily it turns out Jack is a pretty darn good investigative reporter, and he's got his own underworld connection (school friend Ricky). It's Ricky's connections and technical abilities, Jack's ability to annoy people into revelation, and Caitlin's knowledge of her father and everyone he was connected to that pull the whole thing together, and the way they remain as much in the dark as the reader as the hunt continues really works.

Thoroughly enjoyable and highly entertaining, THE BEACON is a largish book that hasn't succumbed to padding, repetition or large periods of downtime. There's potential here for the start of a very interesting new series - Jack Harris has all the makings of a very good investigative reporter, and Caitlin O'Shaughnessy would be a very able partner in pursuit.

Book Source Declaration

I received a copy of this book from the publisher or author.

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK INFORMATION

Author

P.A. Thomas

ISBN

9781760688622

Year of Publication

2024

BLURB

Jack Harris, the disgraced son of Australia’s most powerful business tycoon, has just been exiled to Byron Bay as a junior journalist at his father’s smallest regional newspaper, The Beacon. His arrival coincides with the disappearance of the newspaper’s editor, Patrick O’Shaughnessy, while out on his morning surf. When Patrick’s body is discovered in the ocean, with a severed leg, it appears certain that he’s fallen victim to a shark attack.

But when rumours emerge that Patrick was about to publish an explosive article – its subject unknown – Jack begins to suspect his death is not what it seems.

Although police aren’t buying his murder theory, Jack joins forces with Patrick’s daughter and investigates anyway, taking a sometimes less than lawful dive into the newspaperman’s past. Together they discover plenty of Byron locals with a motive to kill, including a bioholistic dentist with a secret, a naturist with an undisguised grudge, and even the mayor of Northern Rivers Shire. But has Jack bitten off more than he can chew?

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Review	The Beacon, P.A. Thomas	Karen Chisholm	Friday, March 22, 2024
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