CRIME FICTION

The following crime fiction reviews by The Bookman appeared in the Sunday Star Times on 26 April, 2009.

VOODOO DOLL
Leah Giarratano
Bantam – NZ$36.99

Here is a crime fiction author I hadn’t come across previously. She is an Australian writer who has had a long career as a clinical psychologist specializing in psychological trauma, sex offences and psychopathology. Her specialities and vast experience are clearly seen especially when she takes us into the minds of violent and sexual offenders. It is a nightmare world some of these characters belong in and this book is not for the squeamish and probably shouldn’t be read at night if you are home alone!

Voodoo Doll is the second novel featuring Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson, the first, which I now have on order, is Vodka Doesn’t Freeze. This new title starts at, apparently, as a simple home invasion investigation but very quickly it develops into far more than that. The home invasions occur mainly in the south western Sydney suburb of Liverpool where Sergeant Jackson has just been transferred, with some reluctance on her part. The home invasions and become increasingly violent until unsurprisingly a murder occurs.

This is crime fiction with a difference in that right from the outset the identities of the gang members are revealed. The leader is a very disturbed Vietnamese thug by the name of Henry Nguyen who has been nicknamed Cutter because of the pleasure he gets from cutting, both victims and himself.
There are really three parallel stories running through the novel –the home invasions and the police efforts catch the culprits, the healing process from the psychological scars of our protagonist Jill Jackson as well as her fitting in to the location with a new police partner, and the story of Joss who was among the victims of the first home invasion and who recognizes the gang leader even though he was wearing a balaclava.
One of the features of the novel for me is the excellent characterisation, there really are some superbly drawn characters here, especially Jackson and new partner, Gabriel Delahunt, who is on secondment from the Federal Police.
There is an authentic Australian feel to the novel, both with setting and language.
It is a compelling psychological thriller and I reckon we will hear a lot more about this author.

TO DREAM OF THE DEAD
Phil Rickman – Quercus - $35

Phil Rickman is the author of the Merrily Watkins thriller series, of which this is the 10th, and nine other novels. He lives near Hay-on-Wye, close to where his mysteries are set, and presents a regular book programme in BBC Wales Radio.
This latest title can be read as a stand-alone novel but there is a big plus in reading the series as the reader gets to know very well the residents of Lewardine, the fictional Herefordshire village in the Welsh borders featuring the inimitable Merrily Watkins, vicar, exorcist, sleuth and solo Mum of pagan teenage daughter Jane.
It is approaching Christmas, it has been raining for weeks, the river is about to burst its banks threatening the district with isolation, and there is much tension in the village caused by the local council’s plan to develop Coleman’s Meadow for an executive housing estate. Problem is that beneath the Meadow are some ancient standing stones and there is much opposition to the development. The situation becomes a whole lot worse when a leading pro-development councilor is brutally murdered, his detached head placed in an ancient cross with his body dumped in the flooded river. Then TV personality and archaeologist Bill Blore arrives on the scene attempting to film the dig for the Bronze Age stones for his programme adding fuel to the fire.
Rickman cleverly bases this situation on a real life controversy in Hereford a few years back where the council built a road over a 4000 year old artifact known as the Rotherwas Ribbon. Through his characters he has quite a lot to say about local government’s contempt for the democratic process.
This is a well-written, quite complex, long and entertaining yarn with loads of believable characters. More than a murder mystery really touching as it does on issues of local government, Christian fundamentalism, freedom of speech, small town drug dealing, and village life in the “new Cotswolds.

SKIN AND BONES
Tom Bale – Preface Publishing - $36.99

Sometimes the line between thriller and crime fiction is rather blurred, certainly this is the case with Skin and Bones a first novel from a writer I reckon we are going to hear a lot more about. On reflection I guess the book fits comfortably into both genres.
The opening chapter, running to just five pages, is one of the most effective and gripping openings I have read in a long while. I was immediately captivated and had great trouble putting the book aside when called for lunch.
On the third Saturday in January, Julia Trent, a London-based primary school teacher, travels to the tiny Sussex village of Chilton in order to clean out the home of her recently deceased parents.
She calls into the village shop for a few supplies and finds herself in the middle of a Hungerford-style massacre.
She finds herself being stalked by a deranged gunman who has been wandering around the village indiscriminately shooting everyone he sees. The gunman eventually catches her and is about to shoot her when an elderly resident distracts him and she makes a temporary escape. However she is caught again and just when all appears lost a helmeted motorcyclist arrives and what happens then is even more shocking than what has gone on before.
Without giving too much away Julia Trent does survive, though not in great shape, and later, while still recovering, teams up with the journalist son of the elderly local resident who distracted the gunman and indirectly saved her life. Together they set about establishing the motive of those responsible for the massacre and it proves to be a daunting, dangerous and deadly task.
Skin and Bones is fast-moving, tense and dramatic stuff from the first page to the last.

DANTE’S NUMBERS
David Hewson – Macmillan - $36.99

This is the eighth of Hewson’s novels featuring Nic Costa, Leo Falcone and Gianni Peroni of the Rome police department along with pathologist Teresa Lupo. I am quite a fan of this bunch, in particular because through their adventures they expose the grittier side of Roman life.
However in this latest Coast thriller the gang shift offshore and Costa makes his first ever visit to the U.S.
The story opens in Italy with the premiere of a new movie, Inferno, from the highly regarded, but elderly and unwell, film director Roberto Tonti. As a result of murder and mayhem at the premiere the Italian team head off to San Fransisco where the US premiere is to be held.
At this point I lost the plot somewhat and I blame that on the author’s probably quite clever ploy of intertwining the story with Alfred Hitchcock’s famous 1958 psychological thriller VERTIGO starring James Stewart, Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. If you are a Hitchcock afficianado and are totally au fait with the storyline of that movie then you will almost certainly enjoy this book but I am not and as a result it seemed rather contrived.

I do like Nic Costa though and I thought the author handled superbly his coming to terms with the death of his wife and the potential new love interest in his life. Overall though a bit disappointing. If you haven’t read any of this series before I would recommend you start with some of the earlier titles, they are altogether more satisfying.

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
Stieg Larsson – Maclehose Press - $37.99

I have kept the best for last. This is the long-awaited sequel to 2008’s number one crime fiction title, (in my opinion), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Larsson, a senior magazine editor and investigative journalist, died suddenly and unexpectedly in late 2004 shortly after delivering three manuscripts to his Swedish publisher. These manuscripts make up the Millenium Trilogy which have already sold more than five million copies worldwide with the third title yet to be published in English.
Our protagonist this time is Lisbeth Salander whom we met in the first book. She is a mathematics-obsessed computer hacker extraordinaire. She is also a pierced and tattooed, bisexual, anti-social and vengeful woman in her late twenties. She is often unlikeable but her character is wonderfully developed by Larsson.
The book focuses on the Swedish sex-trafficking trade and when two journalists are found dead in their apartment shortly before their expose of the sex industry and Salander’s prints are found on the murder weapon she is in big trouble and for much of the book is on the run.
However the editor-in-chief of Millenium magazine, Michael Blomkvist, who had worked with Salander in the first book, believes she can’t possibly be guilty and employs his magazine’s staff and resources to try and prove her innocence. As a result he uncovers her shocking earlier life and becomes even more determined to help.
Superb stuff, multi-layered., complex and utterly compelling. And it is not often that you enjoy a sequel even more than its outstanding predecessor. If you haven’t read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo then be sure to do so before reading this one. Two of the best crime fiction titles in many a year.