Garry Disher is an Australian author of crime fiction and children's literature. He was born in 1949 and grew up on his parents' farm in South Australia. He gained post graduate degrees from Adelaide and Melbourne universities. He travelled widely overseas and became a full time writer in 1988 after he had returned to Australia. He has published over fifty tiles across multiple genres. He has also won many awards and has a growing international reputation for his best selling crime novels.
BLOOD MOON
CONNIE said "as a detective story it was okay but it didn't really get me as involved as I would have liked." She found it too bitty - too many lesser crimes going on amongst the teenagers. She didn't warm to the characters and didn't like some of the language. There was too much emphasis on the detective's sex life. In her estimation it didn't live up to the praises of the press.
PLAY ABANDONED
DIANN found this book gave no direction and did not give her the interest to pursue it further. She didn't like the characters and the story line went nowhere.
THE HEAT
JULIA read this book in two days. She enjoyed it. Wyatt is a clever man in what he does. The double cross is supposed to end with him getting killed but you'll have to read the book to find out if he was killed.
JUDY D also enjoyed reading The Heat.
ROSEMARIE also read this book. She had already read 6 of his novels which included books from both the Challis collection and Hirsch collection where the main characters and plot revolve around the local constabulary solving crimes and dealing with their own personal issues.
This was very different. It is the 9th from the Wyatt series and it is an unusual scenario, basing the plot around the criminal, but it most definitely works. The tension is high and the pace is fast. The protagonist is a criminal and his quest is to steal a painting and supposedly return it to it's rightful owner. The plot is original and there are enough twists and turns. Rosemary thoroughly enjoyed the read.
PEACE
BEV really enjoyed this book. Constable Paul Hirsch runs a one man police station in the dry farming country south of the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. He is new to the town but participating in community activities and it is starting to pay off. It's Christmas. There's a grass fire, two boys steal a ute and Brenda drives her car into the front bar of the pub. Life has been peaceful before this and now Hirsch is asked to check out a family living in an isolated spot where he discovers a murder. Life is not so peaceful after that.
JOAN also read this book. It is the 2nd in the Hirsch Detective series, published in 2019. Constable Hirsch is sent to the Flinders Ranges, South Australia as a demotion for whistle blowing on his crook cop colleagues.
Tensions mount when a crazy drunk drives into the Pub, wayward teenagers start stealing cars and there is a case of animal cruelty but the plot thickens when a child is released from a hot, locked car. The one cop town becomes front and centre of a deeper complicated plot. Character definition is realistic but plot tension is rather exhausting and overall too complicated and long. You may find it an absorbing read if you have been following Constable Hirsch and wish to stay with him for the 3rd in this series.
THE WAY IT IS NOW
JUDY A said this is a stand alone crime novel. Detective Charlie Deravin is on suspension from his job at the sex crimes unit in Melbourne. He's staying at the family's beach shack. Charlie is using the time to look further into the disappearance of his mother from there 20 years ago. His father has long been one of the main suspects in her disappearance - they were going through a divorce at the time. The narrative swings between the past and the present and explores issues of toxic masculinity, homophobia, police old boys' culture and the abuse of power.
THE SUNKEN ROAD
PAMELA said "I didn't like the book since I couldn't relate to the characters and I found the style somewhat irritating. I didn't read past page 61."
The setting is in wheat and sheep country in the mid north of South Australia. It's the story of an area, a town, the people and also the story of Anna nee Tolley (D.O.B. 1949). The story starts during the depression when a young mother is taken by a shark at Henley Beach, The widower, with his young son, goes north to the South Australian town of Pandowie. That son's daughter is Anna. It is written in the 3rd person with no paragraphs. It's not in chronological order and there are shifting time references, even in mid sentence. It forms a sort of impressionistic tapestry.
THE DRAGON MAN
LYN said this is the first in the Hal Challis series. He is the detective for the Mornington Peninsula police force in Victoria. A serial killer is on the loose in a small coastal town near Melbourne. Challis must apprehend him before he strikes again. He also has to contend with the local newspaper undermining his investigation and his wife's constant phone calls from the sanatorium she was committed to eight years ago. Of course, the murderer strikes again. The murders are eventually solved and the murderer caught. Lyn was expecting to enjoy this book but sadly she did not, although she did enjoy the descriptions of the Mornington Peninsula, having been there before.
BITTER WASH ROAD (HELL TO PAY)
PRUE: This is the first in the trilogy known as the Paul Hirschhausen novels. It was published in the US as "Hell to Pay". It is described as a modern western. Hirsch, a whistleblower who reported on corrupt colleagues has been demoted and exiled to Tiverton, a small South Australian town in wheat country. It's very Australian. The author is considered a master wordsmith.
In the opening chapter , when he's called out to investigate gunshots on the isolated Bitter Wash Road, Hirsch realises he's completely exposed. If anyone is going to kill hm, this is the perfect place to set up an ambush. Could it be his colleagues or the pair of fugitive killers heading for Longreach in a distinctive black Chrysler. He discovers the body of a teenage girl in a ditch by the side of the road. A hit and run? Getting answers proves difficult. Hirsch is a good, honest police officer who had a promising career. The book was called Hell to Pay because he won't back down and it will cause problems for many people.
Kris
APRIL: We will be reading a book by any Australian author
