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THE WRONG WOMAN is the first foray from J.P. Pomare overtly set in the US, and it was, for this reader, utterly seamless in its evocation of an American feeling small town. Helped a lot by the central character ex-cop, now Private Investigator Reid being from this particular community, and all too aware of the politics therein, the society and personal pressures and how they can lead to all sorts of problems for all sorts of people.

The novel relies on a lot of complications on a lot of levels. Starting out with Reid himself, an ex-cop, now private investigator, back in the town he fled years ago. As he returns, the second of two teenage girls goes missing, an investigation that he's not there to handle. Instead he's in town to look into a suspicious car crash for an insurance company who say they want it checked out urgently before they are prepared to pay out to the widow Eshana Stiles who was driving the car that badly injured her, killing her older, English professor husband, Oliver.

Complication one is that Reid had promised the local Chief of Police (and incidentally, father of one of the missing teenagers) that he would never return to the town in which he'd been a cop, after a career ending scandal.

Complication two is that the insurance company are being very pushy about this investigation, offering a lot of money to get it done in a hurry which is too much temptation for Reid, so he finds himself in Manson, trying to keep a low-profile and get what he assumes will be a quick look at a car crash on a wet and dark night over and done with.

Complication three is that Eshana is unconcious, and when she does wake from a coma, has no memory of the crash and the lead up to it at all. And something's not right about the way the whole thing looks. Something's also not right about what seemed like a successful life and marriage for Oliver and Eshana, and there's definitely something about Oliver that's complicated and hidden.

But as well as complications THE WRONG WOMAN is a novel that tests the boundaries of preconceptions. Is the now dead Oliver all that he seems, and why do we struggle so much with the idea that wives aren't always to blame, and sometimes victims aren't completely blameless? Pomare works with the idea that any professor marrying a much younger ex-student (ex by dint of a blink of time) might not be all that he seems, that Eshana may, or may not, have reasons to doubt what he says.

Yet another complication quickly emerges when it becomes known that Oliver was a "person of interest" in the disappearance of at least one of the teenage girls, and as Eshana starts to recover from her injuries, it turns out she's had a lot questions in the lead up to the crash as well.

Pomare deftly uses the viewpoints of both Reid and Eshana in this novel to weave together past and present timelines, ramping up the tension with each little discovery that Reid makes and Eshana reveals. Along the way, two vulnerable people in their own rights are exposed, each determined to understand what happened, and it's more than just the car crash itself.

Pomare seems to have a knack of writing standalone novels that are populated with fully developed characters, and scenarios that really make you think a lot about gut reactions, expectations and what is often a more nuanced, complicated truth. Fingers crossed he keeps it up for many more novels.

www.austcrimefiction.org/review/wrong-woman-jp-pomare

You wouldn't think reading crime fiction would leave you with a taste for wine, but here we are.

Set in the idyllic surrounds of the Mudgee (New South Wales) wine region, Oliver Wingfield has set himself up as a winemaker with a fine reputation for his wines, even if everyone talks about his reclusive nature and unorthodox techniques. He's a man with a complicated past, which is dragged kicking and screaming into the light after his estranged twin brother Theo suddenly arrives after a fifteen year period of no contact whatsoever, and is promptly murdered. Physically identical twins, they could not be more different personalities, or have lead such opposing lives. Theo, it seems, has been in decidedly dodgy territory since Oliver last saw him, but his death in Oliver's house, is not clear cut. Was the intended victim Theo, or is this a case of mistaken identity? Either way Oliver finds himself drawn into a series of murders, poison, stolen art and dangerous threats - to him and the people closest to him.

Readers of this debut novel will need to pay attention - for a reclusive individual Oliver has a largish supporting cast to keep track of, all of whom are well fleshed out, interesting / complicated in their own right. From his present - there's vineyard manager Gabe, as well as girlfriend and winebar owner Penny, and assorted supporters and winemaking mentors, near and far. There's also a few grumpy neighbours and slightly sniffy locals, who don't approve of Oliver testing the boundaries of winemaking norms. From his and Theo's past, there's a gallery manager, and friend of their now deceased mother, and there's something about her death, and their father that is slowly revealed as Oliver's carefully guarded past becomes clearer and the present gets messier and more people in his orbit start to die. All of which happens at a good pace, with lots of those red herrings being sprinkled in the reader's path as you go.

There's a lot going on in FOUR DOGS MISSING. A good cast of possible villains and victims, some past stuffing up the present, with decisions and actions coming back to haunt, and taunt, and some people who don't deserve the aggravation, or pain, or ending up dead as a result. The idea that the initial victim is the identical twin of the main seeker of truth is an interesting twist, especially as the life of the estranged Theo starts to reveal itself, right down to the correspondence between Theo and a woman who turns out to be a big help to Oliver when he needs it.

Despite the busy nature of the plot, the reader is played fair with, and even though the truth is there in the background all along, it's an interesting ride to sit with a brother as he searches for the truth about his twin, their family and how to handle a past hurtling straight at you.

To play fair with the reader of this review, FOUR DOGS MISSING is the name of the winery - and there's a reasonably innocuous reason for that. There are two dogs that, whilst unharmed, also seemed to disappear from the narrative which stretched this reader's nerves just a tad (the world sucks - I need to know what's right with it at the moment!), but that's a bit of personal nitpicking, in what is, overall a nicely balanced debut, with a most unlikely central protagonist. A piano playing, wine making reclusive, with a girlfriend he finds out he cares about more than he realised, a place in a small community he didn't see coming, and lots of people who have his back.

www.austcrimefiction.org/review/four-dogs-missing-rhys-gard

In the author's notes at the back of A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI, Nilima Rao provides background to the thinking behind this novel, including the structure of the Indian indentured servitude program, established by the British overseen, Indian government, coming into its own when slavery was abolished. Why am I not surprised that this was yet another example of utter bastardry, arranging for Indian workers, desperate to improve their lives however marginally, to be sent to places like Trinidad, Jamaica, and Mauritius on fixed period contracts with working and living conditions that were utterly shameful. Why am I not surprised that this lead to sexual and physical abuse by ruthless plantation owners, and from 1879 to 1916, over 60,000 Indians being sent into slavery by another name in Fiji, with 30,000 remaining after their contract periods expired. Amongst those staying on were Rao's own great-grandparents.

Because of this background, and the extensive research she has done into the Indian population in Fiji, it should come as no surprise that this historical mystery is set in 1914 in Fiji, with a central protagonist of Sikh background, who comes to Fiji via Hong Kong (again an historical reference to the transfer of a team of 10 officers to build up the Fijian police force by the governor of Hong Kong, previously the governor of Fiji). It should also come as no surprise that the subject matter is the disappearance of a young Indian woman from a sugercane plantation. The only reason the case is getting any attention at all is because of the insistence of a local priest that the woman would never have just upped and ran away with the plantation supervisor, she must have been kidnapped. Which leads to media attention and some very grumpy acknowledgement that something needs to be seen to be done by white management of the police force. Enter, Sergeant Akal Singh. Recently arrived in Fiji after a scandal in Hong Kong, he's struggling to adapt to his new environment, new bosses who regard him with contempt (partially because of the eventually revealed scandal), and the whole indentured worker scheme.

To be honest, I doubt much of the outcome of the investigation by Singh, and the potential suspects and the eventual truth / guilty party(ies) are going to come as a big surprise to frequent readers of crime fiction. There's unpleasant people after all, and then there's huge arrows over a few people's heads labelled "not just a horrible person". Which in A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI isn't the downside that you'd expect - this is a novel about the process, serving more as a whydunnit and "how the hell could people condone it" than a whodunnit.

The story does move along at a good pace, and the writing is descriptive, with a real sense of place, time and weather to go along with Singh's discomfort and struggles. His backstory is well delivered, with again, lots of clues along the way that will leave the reader in no doubt of his motivations and failures when it comes to the scandal in his past. There are also some really well fleshed out supporting characters - from the doctor that guides him through the plantation reality, to a co-worker who has to balances traditional / familial expectations with the desire to be a fully fledged police officer.

The media release that came with the novel includes the observation:

"The exploitation of migrant workers continues today. ... I hope my novel provides a human face to such stories."

It seems there is a second novel in the series being worked on, so it will be particularly interesting to see the human faces that are revealed in it.

www.austcrimefiction.org/review/disappearance-fiji-nilima-rao

In 2005 Nicole Morris founded the Australian Missing Persons register, an internet resource to help find missing people in Australia.

www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ (your browser may come up with a security alert because the site is missing the encryption layer).

A valuable part of that website is the FAQ - www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/FAQ.htm which provides important information if you have somebody who is missing.

The book, VANISHED, came from the stories of people included on the site - although the statement:

“Around 52,000 people go missing each year in Australia, and there are 52,000 reasons why.”

does make you wonder how difficult the process must have been to select the cases that are highlighted here.

Released in June 2023 by Big Sky Publishing, the book tells the story, in Nicole's words, of the impact of the disappearances, as well as the known details. It describes the consequences of people simply vanishing for, in particular, the parents, siblings, children and extended family. From questioning their failure to find their loved ones, to what they believe they didn't see / do / understand in the lead up to and post the disappearance there is so much sadness, regret and guilt - a lot of which isn't mitigated by their overwhelming lack of responsibility. In some cases the disappearances were instantaneous, a brother that was there one minute, vanished the next. Two teenage girls doing what all teenage girls do, who disappeared in an instance.

All of these stories are compassionately told by Morris, taking care with relatives feelings and sensitivities, pointing out frustrations and doubts, without heading into sensationalist territory. It was, although, very sobering to see the lack of police action, time and time again. From the old "well teenagers will be teenagers" (inexcusable) to the difficulties of dealing with mentally ill, uncooperative adults (understandable but nonetheless very difficult to process), that's the message that really slated home to this reader in particular. In the years where we know killers like Ivan Milat and others were active, to think that perhaps a bit of digging around in some missing teenager cases, might have found something that could have prevented even more loss, well it's tricky to deal with, easy to question.

Needless to say, this is difficult reading and will be particularly difficult for people with disappearance in their own lives. Morris is careful in the way she treats people's stories though - there's nothing in here that feels exploitative or as already said, sensationalist. It's a telling of the outcomes, and a plea for awareness - of the cases she's highlighted and so many more into the bargain. It was particularly pleasing to see that police attitudes and procedures seem to have improved somewhat in recent years, although there is always more that could be done to support families, right down to listening to those that know when they say something is wrong - this is out of character.

A rating from this reader doesn't feel at all appropriate. It's a book worth reading, a good reminder of the reality of 52,000 yearly disappearances, and the number of those that remain lost to this day.

If you have any information about these (or other missing) people, please call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

www.austcrimefiction.org/review/vanished-nicole-morris

A humble, gentle man who left this country a legacy that too many don't know about, and quite a few don't deserve, Vince Copley was born in 1936, and spent the first years of his life in the Aboriginal mission system in South Australia.

After his father died when Vince was 4, and his mother was forced to work away a lot, he ended up as a resident of St Francis Boy's Home, run by a good man and his wife, luckily for him, giving him a chance for some education, and importantly for him, a sporting passion for both AFL and cricket. Both of which he played for many years, before turning his attention to the fight for recognition of his people, equal treatment and their proper place in their own land.

A lovely man, utterly lacking in airs and graces, this story was told by him to his fellow author, Lea McInerney, initially after encouragement from his beloved wife - a white Australian woman who deserves a book of her own, her strength was notable. The book was pulled into shape during interviews and discussions, with McInerney writing a follow on describing the process and providing some of her own personal insight into Vince and his family. There is also a Further Reading section which is well worth following up. Vince was quietly instrumental in, and present at, a time and actions that formed the basis of organised campaigns for better treatment and recognition of First Nations people. He was also subject to horrendous racism and behaviour that white Australians should be utterly ashamed of. I've not time at all for the deflective tactic of the past being another land and we shouldn't be held responsible. We absolutely must tell what happened and acknowlege it - history repeats when we are allowed to ignore the truth.

Vince sadly passed away in January 2022, so he will not live to see the next phase in the ongoing fight for the proper place, and proper recognition of First Nations people, which says a hell of a lot about the time it has taken for us to grow up. Having read this book for our local f2f bookclub it gave us all an opportunity to discuss both the current campaign for Constitutional Recognition of a Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and a future where Treaty and Truth are approached with the sense of urgency they deserve.

The second Gary Chance novel, ORPHAN ROAD, sees Chance move his centre of activities to Victoria, all because of an old friend and former employer, the once notorious Melbourne social identity, Vera Leigh. Owner of a struggling S&M club being circled by property developers, knower of decidedly dodgy characters, it all starts with Chance and another contact of Leigh's in Byron, shaking down a peace and love cult front for a major drug smuggling ring. Which turns into another one of those jobs that could be described by the quote in the blurb:

"The heist always goes wrong and the consequences, even half a century later, can be deadly."

Of course that particular line is referring primarily to the job that Chance finds himself embroiled in on his return to Melbourne, new woman in tow, to find Leigh and contacts of hers looking to share some previously unknown information about the notorious 1970s Great Bookie Robbery - a heist that has gone down in Melbourne folklore. It seems that there was something at the Melbourne bookmakers club that day that was never mentioned in dispatches. Sure the three million dollars stolen has never been recovered, no-one has ever been charged, and just about everybody believed to be connected to the crime has since died - natural causes or not. But it seems that the thing that wasn't particularly well known was the stash of uncut South African diamonds that went missing on the day. And Leigh's pretty sure she knows who had them. Only problem is, it turns out Leigh isn't the only one who had an inkling, and Chance turns out to not be the only one looking.

When the first Gary Chance novel GUNSHINE STATE was released in 2018, my review included:

"When approaching such well sculpted and highly stylised ground as this, there can be a lack of fresh perspective. Not so in GUNSHINE STATE which uses many of the well-known elements of noir (the bad boy central character, dark settings, shabby dives, surrounded by a very dodgy group of potential back stabbers), lifting it somewhere different with the predominantly Queensland "Gunshine" setting, establishing a character like Gary Chance who is part hardman, part hair trigger, part lover, all of whatever it takes."

In this outing, so much of that still applies. Granted the location is less "shine" and more grey Melbourne and Western Victoria, and Chance is less lone wolf and more surrounded by people who share his affection for diamonds and, for want of a better description, regard for Leigh - not necessarily in that order. To that end, he finds himself on the trail of an old gangster, a family torn apart by the fallout from the Robbery and, what should come as a surprise to no-one, the disaster that was Catholic peodophilia in Western Victoria.

All of which combined with Chance's affection for Leigh, and regard for his companions in the final pursuit - Eva and Loomis, serves as a hint of grey at the dark centre at the heart of Gary Chance's noir world. Not much mind you, but at one point it kind of looked like the lone wolf might have picked up a thorn in his paw. Which was quickly removed, problems were solved, lives were lost, others were saved, and the past was revealed. To a select few on a need to know basis.

Whether or not the diamonds surfaced, the neo-Nazi's were dealt with, the crooked cops done for and the dodgy property developers buried in their own foundations, you'll have to read ORPHAN ROAD to find out. But fans of noir styled caper and heist novels, and anything that says a lot about humanity in a few well-placed words, should do exactly that. Read ORPHAN ROAD, and if you've not read GUNSHINE STATE then get to that as well.

This is a seriously good, noir-styled novel. Machine guns, Ford XB GS Falcon (mustard coloured), inner city Melbourne rabbit warren buildings, Byron Bay cults, protofacists and all.

www.austcrimefiction.org/review/orphan-road-andrew-nette

The third novel in the Reggie da Costa series, DEADLY GAME is set in 1920's Melbourne featuring the celebrated, well groomed crime reporter da Costa, and the brave, and very determined Ruby Rhodes.

da Costa has a habit of gathering beautiful woman in his life, with problems and complicated lives of their own. None of which stops da Costa looking upon a lot of them (except perhaps the one he should be looking towards) as potential love interests. Needless to say, this never quite works out as he'd hoped. A DEADLY GAME introduces him to Rhodes, a quiet, studious museum assistant, not at all like her glamorous identical twin sister Katherine, who has died in very mysterious circumstances. Ruby, and their brother Dusty, had no idea quite how different a life she had been leading. Separated from the family years before, Katherine's death has come as a shock - but her life has come as a bigger one. Leaving her house, car, expensive jewellery and clothes to them, Ruby and Dusty feel compelled to search for the truth about their sister.

Along the way da Costa finds himself taking on the mantle of protector and facilitator to the brother and sister team - with Dusty as his new apprentice reporter, and Ruby, having assumed her sister's identity, using his connections and guidance, to infiltrate the gambling dens, social clubs and darker corners of 1920s Melbourne. The trio unearth corruption, murders, smuggling rings, a very dodgy customs officer and gangsters galore. All in a day's work for da Costa, frightening and sobering new ground for Ruby and Dusty.

New readers to this series would be able to jump in at any point as each of these books stands alone reasonably well. Having said that, the back story for da Costa is a good one, and it doesn't hurt to read the first two novels if you're new, if for no other reason than to get an idea of what a hamfisted potential love interest identifier he is. Plus there's a bit of water under the family bridge in his background that is backstoried in each novel, although a more fleshed out past will help understand him better.

The evocation of 1920s Melbourne is really good in this series - not so much a travelogue through the seedy and dodgy, but a walk through the way that life happened in the time, and location. It's really well done as it relies on the characters interaction with the world around them, adding a level of reality to the viewpoint and experience for the reader.

The characters, with a shifting set of female sidekicks are well fleshed out, and da Costa is a fascinating combination of the most unlikely set of character traits. A high profile, almost flashy, reporter who is more than willing to share the limelight, a decent and kind man with a slightly lovelorn air about him, he's a man of very fine tastes, with his exquisite attire and flashy fast cars, yet he lives a surprisingly quiet, contained sort of a life, possessed of a contact book that would be the envy of many. A man who absolutely adores his mum, and will never forgive his father who treated her poorly indeed.

A series that is developing into a really fascinating combination of character study in historical crime fiction, with a central protagonist that is not straight out of casting 101, and a hefty dose of murder, mayhem and fun and games - it is most definitely one I'd recommend, in particular, to fans of historical crime fiction.

DISCLAIMER: I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of A DEADLY GAME for the purposes of this review, and to provide a quotation for the cover.

www.austcrimefiction.org/review/deadly-game-laraine-stephens

Took me a while to start reading this (published in 2022), mostly because this book, of all the books around Terry Pratchett, will mean knowing something personal about the man behind the genius. Written by Terry's long-time assistant, and very good friend, Rob Wilkins, this is an emotional (inspiring / hilarious and frequently brutally honest) walk through exactly that. At the heart of the writing genius was a gloriously grumpy, irascible, kind and funny human being, with a capacity for vision and thought that was utterly astounding.

Wilkins came into Terry's life as a result of a very fun episode in which a bad case of staff envy overtook Terry on hearing novelist Jilly Cooper talk about her invaluable PA. Of course that could simply be Terry's way of justifying a deep seated understanding that the day to day wasn't his strong point - and how could it be with a proto-book on the page in front of him and goodness knows how many brewing quietly in the back of his mind. Aside from the day to day reality of dealing with "the author" Wilkins became a firm friend, almost a family member in some ways - dealing with the complications of the day to day, as well as life on the road before, and sadly after, Terry's increasing impairment due to the early and rare form of Alzheimer's he was dealing with.

To read about life in the day to day job of "the author" was fascinating, but to read about it as he gradually lost capacity such an emotional journey - Terry was a perfectionist, and a deep and creative thinker, who was gradually and inexorably losing all of that - his ability to think remained until the final book, but his ability to transcribe was lost. The idea that he managed to hold onto the complex Discworld and Chalk environments as he described the stories to Wilkins was heart-breaking. I can't imagine what it was like for Wilkins, and Terry's family as they stood by, unable to do anything but support, never able to stop the progress. In particular, the scene described as Neil Gaiman arrived to visit his dear friend one final time took me quite some time to read - the kindness, the gentleness of approach, the sense of profound sorrow and loss, and the sheer awfulness of a disease that takes the core of someone and leaves the shell behind was moving, beautiful and utterly devastating all at the same time.

Wilkins did an outstanding job with this biography (including footnotes which made me smile a lot). It can't have been easy to write, every moment a reminder of what those close to Terry lost. What we have all lost. Of course, there are always the books which are wonderful to read and re-read over and over again, the thought that there were other entries percolating in his mind, before he lost the ability to write them, and before he lost his life, well, it's sad. The thought that his presence has now gone from his family and friends way too early is awful.

This book definitely serves as a reminder that his name must continue to be spoken.

GNU Sir Terry Pratchett.