Overview
Praise for Garry Disher:“[A] first-rate Australian author.”—The New York Times Book Review
“While many readers want their thrillers with gouts of gore and endless gunplay, for me, a writer like Disher—old-fashioned in the best sense of the term—is the most satisfying. The humanity that his officers bring to the story, their interactions, their doggedness and determination, are the real reasons to give his series a try.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Delightful. . . . BUY IT!”—New York Magazine
“Engrossing. Disher builds his books carefully, creating inexorable tension. . . . Reads you can't put down.”—St. Petersburg Times
“Disher has a slick, fast style that's delightfully free of filler and extraneous plotlines. Once the hook is set, he just lets the story pull you along.”—Globe & Mail (Toronto)
“[Disher] has packed this police procedural with the kind of detail that enthralls fans of the genre and with deftly sketched characters.”—Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
“Disher creates the kind of complex, edgy, principled yet flawed characters it’s a pleasure to worry about.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Challis and his team investigate the brutal beating of the chaplain of a prestigious school and the murder of the woman in charge of punishing local land use violations. But will Hal Challis and Ellen Destry’s new romantic relationship interfere with their work?
Garry Disher is the author of over forty books for adults and children. The previous mystery in the Inspector Hal Challis series, Chain of Evidence, won the Ned Kelly Award for best Australian crime novel.
Synopsis
Love and death on Australia's Mornington Peninsula.
The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio
Inspector Hal Challis is very much in charge of the operations in an excellent Australian series written by Garry Disher…There are no shootouts here. Just the drama of people from very different social classes locked in battle over the schools, the services, the beaches, the views—and a way of life that has already gone behind a cloud.
Editorials
Marilyn Stasio
Inspector Hal Challis is very much in charge of the operations in an excellent Australian series written by Garry Disher…There are no shootouts here. Just the drama of people from very different social classes locked in battle over the schools, the services, the beaches, the views—and a way of life that has already gone behind a cloud.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Two major crimes occupy Det. Insp. Hal Challis and his subordinate and now lover, Sgt. Ellen Destry, in this superior police procedural from Australian Disher, the fifth entry in the Ned Kelly Award-winning series (after 2007's Chain of Evidence). Challis and his team of Waterloo, Queensland, officers investigate the brutal assault on a private school chaplain as well as the murder of a public official in charge of enforcing compliance with land use regulations. Extra pressure for the first case's resolution comes from a prominent politician who already has an axe to grind with the police. That Challis's relationship with Destry violates police regulations complicates matters. Disher has a gift for terse description (e.g., Challis's boss "wore the look of a man who'd been adored but only by his mother and long ago"). While the deus ex machina solution to the official's murder may disappoint some, the personal interactions among Challis and his colleagues will quickly engage even newcomers. Author tour. (Apr.)
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