Garry Disher

This entry in the Constable Hirschausen series has Paul running all over hell's half acre trying to hunt down a father and son gone rogue, as well as the man they are presumably hunting, who owes money to everyone in the district, and may have been responsible for a couple deaths as well. The usual good story-telling, but I do think the antipathy of the CIB and its agents, and their disdain for local policing is a bit overdone. It may be totally accurate, for all I know...it just gets monotonous and doesn't help the narrative. I have praised Disher in the past for replacing Hirsch's original dimwit mean-spirited Sergeant with an intelligent woman who appreciates his abilities and treats him with respect. Time for him to do the same with the CIB people, methinks.… (mais)

This is the third book in the Wyatt series which I am continuing to enjoy (though not as much as the Hal Challis series or Disher's standalones). Here, Wyatt is hiding out from the failure of his last attempt at a heist when a crooked detective locates him and entices him to Brisbane with talk of a lucrative bank job. Due to some shady dealings a sleepy, and not well-guarded, suburban bank, will briefly hold a couple of million in cash, which should make for easy pickings. Wyatt, still trying to recoup his financial losses from the failed previous job, goes through his meticulous planning process. What could possibly go wrong?

Read the book to find out.

3 stars… (mais)

A stand-alone (at least so far) from Garry Disher, who is just. so. darned. good. I really tore through this one. Acting Sgt. Alan Auhl has returned to work after a brief retirement, and is now assigned to Cold Cases and Missing Persons. Nevertheless, he seems to run across a lot of pesky recent crimes, which he'd much rather be working on. And then there are the domestic troubles of the tenants who share his three-story house in the Melbourne neighborhood of Carlton. Auhl has been hosting a sort of safe house for "waifs and strays"--friends or family members between jobs, women escaping abusive relationships, his own underemployed daughter, troubled teenagers needing a time-out, and since his wife moved out, the occasional overnight visit from her as well.

As a procedural, this was pretty good, my only quibble being that everyone in Auhl's work circle seems to be a bit too snarky and uncooperative just for the hell of it. But Auhl's personal set-up is the most intriguing part of the story; he has a bit of a messiah complex, and can't resist trying to help "fix" things for people who he sees as having got a raw deal. This leads him into some murky moral dilemmas, and left this reader slightly discomfited about her own reactions. Auhl is a very interesting character, and I hope Disher isn't through with him.

Unfortunately, some of Disher's books are very hard to come by in the U.S. I'll read everything I can get my hands on.… (mais)