Category Archives: Michael Robotham (Aus)

Aussie Authors Update #1

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Earlier this year I decided to post my reviews of Aussie crime fiction exclusively at my other blog, Fair Dinkum Crime, which I co-host with fellow Australian blogger and crime fiction fan Kerrie of Mysteries in Paradise. As the sole purpose of that blog is to review and discuss Australian crime fiction the decision made sense but has resulted in a distinct lack of Aussie crime fiction here at Reactions to Reading. That just feels all wrong to me so I have decided to post an occasional summary post about Aussie crime fiction here.

LINE OF SIGHT by David Whish-Wilson

Synopsis: In Perth, Western Australia in 1975 Ruby Devine, brothel madam and mother of three, is shot and killed in her car by the side of a highway. Some months later there has been no arrest and, some would argue, no proper investigation to speak of. Superintendent Frank Swann of the WA Police has accused his fellow officers of the crime and its subsequent cover up. Although his accusations have led to the establishment of a Royal Commission (the highest form of official enquiry possible in Australia) Swann’s life and the lives of his family are at real risk. In fact his oldest daughter has disappeared and Swann is fairly sure she is dead at the hands of the same cops who killed Ruby. Unfortunately he doesn’t have enough evidence, or enough living witnesses, to put them away.

Review summary: The book captures its time period and its setting beautifully. The language, the cultural and political references, the policing methods, the isolationist stance that Western Australians had (still have?) are all ably shown in a myriad of small ways and I really did feel transported back in time. The many scenes of utter desperation and despair in the book are, for the most part, balanced out by the inclusion of Swann’s perseverance and the Royal Commissioner’s slowly dawning strength to provide a really satisfying and highly recommended read.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, My rating 4/5

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THE MAYA CODEX by Adrian d’Hagé

Synopsis: The book opens in Vienna in 1937. With Hitler about to take control of his native Austria, Jewish University Professor Levi Weizman reluctantly agrees to accompany a Nazi expedition to the Guatemalan jungle. The Nazis are looking for proof of the superiority of their Aryan heritage, while Weizman is looking for a document believed to have been written by the Mayans many centuries ago. When the book jumps forward to the present day Levi Weizman’s granddaughter Aleta is following in the family tradition of archaeology. She too is searching for the fabled Mayan codex, purported to be a warning about a catastrophe that will befall the world in 2012. But she has made some powerful enemies in the CIA and the Catholic Church. CIA Agent Curtis O’Connor is sent to kill her but decides instead to join her search for the codex

Review summary: Overall The Maya Codex is an intelligent thriller that presents a plausible (if far-fetched) doomsday scenario that incorporates a rather chilling amount of credible details about our recent and not-so recent history.  The characters are pretty standard fare for a thriller but the book does offer some insight via an overall theme exploring the corrupting influence of knowledge and power on a collection of unlikable individuals. If clever, high-speed romps are your thing I can recommend this one.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, My rating 3.5/5

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THE TOWER by Michael Duffy

Synopsis: In Sydney’s CBD they’re building the world’s second-tallest building. One night a woman falls from The Tower and happens to land on a police car below. By the time Detective Sergeant Jon McIver and Detective Senior Constable Nicholas Troy of the Homicide Squad get to the scene it has been determined she which floors she could have fallen from and is a systematic search is underway. Although they are told to wait for the search to be completed McIver disappears into the upper floors and when he doesn’t return Troy becomes worried and goes after him, a little worried about McIver’s tendency to drink while on duty. McIver and Troy, along with the construction site’s security manager Sean Randall, do have an encounter that leaves one of the three injured. In the subsequent investigation the woman is eventually identified and the list of her possible killer(s) grows quickly.

Review summary: This first novel in a series introduces is fairly unique character for crime fiction in Nicholas Troy. He’s young-ish (early 30’s), doesn’t have the demons that many of the most famous fictional crime-fighters have and is not yet as jaded or set in his ways as an older man might be and is still trying to work out the kind of man, policeman, father, husband he is or wants to be. The book also has several other really interesting male characters, a first-rate depiction of Sydney and an almost true-crime sensibility. It’s well worth a read.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, my rating 3.5/5

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THE BLACK RUSSIAN by Lenny Bartulin

Synopsis: Jack Susko is a second hand bookseller with major financial problems. When he is delivering an old art catalogue to a customer the gallery belonging to said customer is the subject of an armed robbery. In addition to stealing the contents of the safe the thieves take off with the contents of Jack’s bag which, of course, was one of the few valuable items he owned (a rare first edition of an Ian Fleming novel that he was on his way to a buyer with). This turns out to be only the beginning of Jack’s woes as he reluctantly finds himself the centre of attention for several competing groups of evil villains.

Review summary: the book’s sub-genre is hard to pin-point but it’s somewhere in the vicinity of black comedy with hints of satire and old fashioned hard-boiled detective caper thrown in. The character of Jack is entirely believable and he’s likeable too and I would recommend this to anyone who wants a book that has a definite Australian feel to it (the setting, the people and the attitude are spot on). Of course if you just want smart wisecracks and a slightly absurd romp it’ll fit that bill nicely too.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, my rating 3.5/5

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THE WRECKAGE by Michael Robotham

Synopsis: In Baghdad we meet Luca Terracini an American journalist investigating a series of bank robberies that no one else seems terribly interested in, despite the enormous sums of money involved and the sheer number of robberies. Meanwhile in London when retired policeman Vincent Ruiz witnesses a young girl being hit by her boyfriend he plays the good Samaritan; a decision he regrets when one of his most precious keepsakes goes missing. At the same time the wife of an English bank executive reports her husband missing. In a complex but thoroughly riveting plot these disparate stories eventually intertwine in an all-too credible tale of corruption on a grand scale and the lengths people will go to hide it.

Review summary: Although it features a couple of characters familiar to readers of his earlier novels, Michael Robotham’s seventh book is something of a departure from its predecessors; more political in content and also more of an international thriller. It is a very current book, delving into such issues as the current state of play in Iraq so many years after the war began, the fallout from the global financial crisis on the world’s banking institutions, and the bizarre combination of hard slog and good luck required to gather intelligence about terrorists and their evil plans in these uncertain times. While the story is certainly fast-paced and full of action and suspense, Robotham has managed to stay clear of sensationalism, develop engaging characters and providing a more thoughtful and thought-provoking book than the average thriller. It’s probably my favourite of Robotham’s books.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, my rating 4/5

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NAKED CRUELTY by Colleen McCullough

Synopsis: Taking place throughout 1968 this is McCullough’s third novel to feature Police Captain Carmine Delmonico and his team who battle the evil doers of Holloman, Connecticut. The book opens with a brutal rape which the victim, Maggie Drummond, reports to Police although the rapist warns her not to. What soon becomes clear is that Maggie was not the first victim of this rapist, merely the first brave enough to come forward. After publicity it transpires that a number of have been raped in an exclusive suburb. However, even having a string of earlier cases from which to garner evidence, the crime spree is not solved quickly. Part of the reason for that is the Holloman PD is stretched to the limit with damaging vandalism, a high-profile kidnapping and the discovery of a weapons cache at a local high school on their plates at the same time as the vicious rapes.

Review summary: I am a huge fan of Colleen McCullough and her writing (as I wrote about upon reading her second book in this series) but I’m afraid this book just didn’t work for me on many levels at all. The historical setting has too many modern sensibilities, there are far too many characters for any to be depicted in any depth and the plot is jam-packed with threads of which many are downright silly. Overall I found it superficial and pretentious, with only a few hints of the humour and adventurousness that I enjoyed about its predecessor.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, my rating 2/5

Out Of Step

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Yesterday’s announcement of the shortlist for the Ned Kelly Awards for Australian crime fiction* reminded me, once again, that I am generally out of step with the rest of humanity (or at least judging panels) when it comes to book awards.

Of the three books shortlisted in the best fiction category for this year’s awards I rated Michael Robotham’s Bleed for Me a disappointing 2 out of 5 and failed to finish Garry Disher’s Wyatt. I haven’t yet tackled Lenny Bartulin’s The Black Russian so can make no personal judgement about that one.

In my opinion the best work of Australian crime fiction for the eligible period is Peter Temple’s Truth but it was not considered, apparently at the request of Temple himself, but even taking that into consideration there are several books on the longlist that I think are better than those selected and a couple that didn’t even make it that far.

It’s not only Australian award givers with which I am out of step. I’ve recently read the winner of this year’s Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year and found it the opposite of everything the judging panel said it was and the winner of the 2010 Edgar Award for best novel which was a decent read but not, in my opinion, the best of those on the shortlist. Even the winner of this years International Dagger Award for best translated crime fiction wasn’t my personal favourite of the shortlisted novels (though it is a superb novel). I don’t even have much luck with non-crime related awards as I have only gotten a third of the way through the winner of last year’s Man Booker Prize despite it being a work of historical fiction about a period I enjoy. Sigh.

I’m no longer surprised when my opinions don’t match those of the people who matter but the fact that it happens with alarming regularity is the reason I rarely seek out books that are shortlisted for or have won awards. Whether it’s because I don’t have a clue what makes a good book (entirely possible) or because it’s all a pretty subjective game of chance in the end, choosing books by virtue of the accolades that have been showered upon them doesn’t really work for me.

What about you? Do you deliberately look for books that have won awards? Do you have more luck than I do when it comes to award winners? Do you think some awards panels set out to make controversial choices to generate discussion and, if you do, is that a bad thing?

*I deliberately haven’t linked to the Awards website, it is utterly devoid of useful information though appears to be undergoing a revamp which I assume (hope) will be completed before the announcement of the winners next month.

Aussie Authors Aced

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I know the title doesn’t mean much but I had a yen for alliteration. What it means is that I have finished the highest possible level of the Aussie Author Challenge (8 books by Aussie Authors during 2010). And it’s only July.

These are the titles I read counted for the challenge

I have a swag more books by Aussies sitting very close to the top of the TBR pile so this is by no means the end of my aussie reading for the year. Stay tuned.

Review: Bleed for Me by Michael Robotham

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For the sixth book in the Aussie Authors challenge for this year I chose the audio book of Michael Robotham’s latest Joe O’Loughlin novel

Former policeman Ray Hegarty is dead and his 14-year old daughter Sienna is accused of his murder. Joe O’Loughlin is a psychologist who has previously worked with police and because Sienna is his daughter’s best friend he is drawn into this case too. While Joe believes Sienna is innocent and tenaciously investigates other people in and around the Hegarty family to see who else might have had a motive for murder, the Police generally accept that their former colleague was killed by his daughter. At the same three men are being tried for a hideous race hate crime and it seems as if the two cases might ultimately converge.

In the several earlier books in this series I have adored Joe O’Loughlin, imperfections and all. In my review of Shatter I wrote of Joe

Each time I meet him I find something else to love. Unlike many of the protagonists in crime fiction Joe is not a troubled loner nor does he have any super human abilities. Even his skills in reading people, which he is mostly very good at, let him down some times. He’s smart, funny and heart-wrenchingly self aware. I particularly like the way Joe deals with the personal issues in his life in a very realistic way. He’s not always sensible (who is?) but nor does he go to the extremes that you see in some fiction that make you wonder how the person could possibly have survived adolescence.

It seemed to me that almost none of that applied to Joe in this book. He has now been separated from his wife for two years and is enduring the increasingly difficult manifestations of his Parkinson’s disease which has, kind of, turned him into something of the troubled loner after all. At times I found him bordering on creepy, such as when he sat outside his family’s home watching their shadows behind the curtains. Ick! There is a not so fine line between love and stalking. At one point he resorts to extreme violence against another man and although he was provoked it was all very banal and meant that Joe didn’t bear much resemblance to the intriguing, thought-provoking character that he had been in the past and reading about his exploits this time around was a bit like being disappointed when a family member goes off the rails.

The rest of the characters were fairly standard fare, though Joe’s nearly ex-wife Julianne was more sensitively depicted than had been the case in past novels and we did get to see from her perspective how difficult Joe must be to live with. Of the new characters to this book I didn’t find any of them terribly compelling I’m afraid. There just didn’t seem to be anything new said here about a bloke who was teased as a kid becoming a paedophile and I think I have reached my quota of unstable divorcées becoming clingy when a new chap looks at them sideways. The bright spot for me was a very brief appearance by an older couple whose daughter had been missing, presumed dead, for several years. For me this was a glimpse into the kind of thoughtful characterisations that I’ve enjoyed from Robotham in the past.

As was the case for me with Shatter and The Night Ferry I struggled to stay interested in the story too. It dragged a bit, especially in the first half (and I am generally far more forgiving of stories in audio format). We spent too much time inside Joe’s head as he reviewed and picked over almost every conversation he’d had and there was a lot of recounting of events which were quite predictable the first time round and did not improve on repetition. There also seemed to be a few too many plot elements that were not explored in any depth and therefore added nothing to the whole. The inclusion of a really brutal description of an animal’s death for example served no purpose other than to add gore and cruelty.

Although there was just enough to keep me listening, thanks in part to Sean Barrett’s sensitive narration, ultimately neither the story nor its characters ever succeeded in really hooking me in.  It felt to me a little too much like the author was checking off a list of elements that the modern psychological thriller ought to have without giving much meaning to any of them.  Overall I found it too formulaic and shallow to truly engage me.

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My rating 2/5

Narrator Sean Barrett; Publisher Hachette Audio [2010]; ISBN N/A (downloaded from audible); Length 11 hours 45 minutes

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As always the review is one person’s opinion, others have loved this book so check out their thoughts too. Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise tells us the book kept her reading in a single sitting and Craig Sisterson’s review in the Nelson Mail says the book was compelling.

On the other hand Karen at Aust Crime Fiction also had problems with the gratiutious animal violence and I found one reviewer who thought that some of the problems I identified might not have been noticeable to someone who had read all of the previous books in this series but, alas, this was not true for me.

Crime Fiction Alphabet – L is for Lost

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We’re nearly half-way through the Crime Fiction Alphabet and I’m highlighting my favourite book by former Australian ghost-writer turned crime fiction author Michael Robotham. It’s the second of Robotham’s four loosely related books which feature several of the same characters but in each one a different person takes centre stage. Lost opens with Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz having been shot and nearly drowned in the Thames. He has also lost his memory of the previous days in which critical events took place in a kidnapping case that has tormented him for three years.

Obviously amnesia isn’t a new plot device but it’s used with great skill here. The way Ruiz re-creates the events conveys his frustration and fear beautifully. The story cracks along at a rapid pace while at the same time including detail and back story where necessary so that the characters are wonderfully complex. Robotham is a dab hand at getting to the nub of writing people because even minor characters that only appear for a page or two are so perfectly depicted that you quickly develop a real sense of them. For fans of Robotham’s earlier novel, Suspect, this book provides an enjoyable opportunity to meet up with Joe O’Loughlin again, although this time he is more competent professional than the rattled major-crime suspect he was in the earlier outing.

Michael Robotham takes risks with his crime writing and while it doesn’t always pay off equally well I applaud his approach. Rather than sticking with what can be formulaic series-writing he tries new things and makes each book different from its predecessor and, as someone who has tired of many series due to their predictability, I really appreciate that.

You can read the first chapter of Lost at Michael Robotham’s website.

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My previous entries in the Crime Fiction Alphabet are

Review: Shatter, Michael Robotham

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Title: Shatter

Author: Michael Robotham

Publisher: Sphere [2008]

ISBN: 978-0-7515-3731-4

Length: 470 pages

One afternoon Joe O’Loughlin, a clinical psychologist, is asked to help in a crisis situation: a naked woman is standing on a bridge preparing to jump to her death. Joe talks to her briefly but she jumps anyway. Several days later the woman’s teenage daughter, Darcy, appears on Joe’s doorstep and begs him to help her convince Police that her mother didn’t commit suicide. Joe begins to wonder if, somehow, the woman could have been coerced into jumping. He calls on his old friend, now-retired Detective Vincent Ruiz for some help and together they talk to the local police.

Joe O’Loughlin has appeared in 3 books now although they can all be read as standalones. Each time I meet him I find something else to love. Unlike many of the protagonists in crime fiction Joe is not a troubled loner nor does he have any super human abilities. Even his skills in reading people, which he is mostly very good at, let him down some times. He’s smart, funny and heart-wrenchingly self aware. I particularly like the way Joe deals with the personal issues in his life in a very realistic way. He’s not always sensible (who is?) but nor does he go to the extremes that you see in some fiction that make you wonder how the person could possibly have survived adolescence.

But the real joy of Joe is the way he interacts with the people around him: his family, his old friend Ruiz and, in this book, young Darcy and the DI in charge of the case, Veronica Cray. There’s always a dry, sarcastic wit to his relationships and it gives the book an undercurrent of humour which is a welcome relief among the dark subject matter. I think the natural-sounding dialogue that peppers the book is Robotham’s best writing and something that sets him apart from other authors.

Now comes the heretical part of this review: I didn’t find Shatter particularly suspenseful. It was never much of a whodunnit (the culprit was revealed quite early on) nor, really, a why or a even a how dunnit (again all of those were revealed without fanfare and long before the end of the book). In the end it was what happens next story which, especially towards the end, was disappointingly predictable. Most of the story is told from Joe’s perspective but there are also short chapters told from the killer’s point of view and in them he talks about his capacity to break a person’s mind. Although the killer’s methods, described at some length which somehow made them less scary, led to extreme consequences I was never as gobsmackingly shocked as I was supposed to be by the notion that one person could manipulate another into doing something truly awful. I’ve read history, I watch the news and I’ve seen teenage girls in action. So, I never stepped over that line that separates me from knowing I’m in a fictional world to wondering if, maybe, that noise I heard outside the window isn’t evil that somehow leapt from the page.

Perhaps I have suffered a little too much from the hype that has surrounded this book but it wasn’t the ‘wow’ read for me that others have described. The characters and dialogue are excellent, and well worth reading the book for, but, for me, the story wasn’t as engaging as Robotham’s two earlier books featuring Joe O’Loughlin (Suspect and Lost). I think it relied a little too heavily on one big, hairy, audacious plot point and because that didn’t quite work for me the rest was a little flat.

My rating 3.5/5

Other stuff

Shatter is a popular book among crime fiction bloggers so here are just a few of the links I found to reviews from people who all, I think, got a little more from this book than I did:

Review: The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham

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Title: The Night Ferry

Author: Michael Robotham

Publisher: Sphere [2008]

ISBN: 978-0-7515-3730-7

Alisha Barba is a police constable on sick leave due to the horrific injuries she received during a previous case (which took place in Robotham’s Lost a.k.a. The Drowning Man). Cate Beaumont is an old friend from whom Alisha has been estranged for eight years but when she rings and asks to meet Alisha quickly agrees. On the night of the meeting the two talk only briefly before Cate and her husband are run down by a car. Alisha soon discovers that all is not what it seems and that Cate may have been embroiled in something sinister enough to warrant the attempt on her life.

I should have loved this book. I certainly expected to. In fact saved it up especially for a time when I’d want a guaranteed good read. But, alas, it was not to be.

I’ve really enjoyed Robotham’s two earlier books (Suspect and Lost). I like the way he seems to get into the characters heads in a believable way. But, in this case, I didn’t find the main character very credible at all. I don’t know if it’s because a white Australian male simply can’t speak in the voice of an English woman of Indian descent or something else but, whatever the reason, to borrow from the advertising business, I never ‘bought’ Alisha. One minute she was a courageous woman overcoming adversity or fighting for justice and the next throwing a grown-up tantrum or having a sulking session. The two sides didn’t gel together. And her lack of ability to understand the world is not as black and white as she would like grew tiresome.

As did the story. It was too repetitive. The first half (about 250 pages) could easily have been condensed because it went around in circles and had a whole lot of unnecessary scenes. A good book should fly by but this one flowed  like mud travelling uphill. The premise was excellent and the overall themes were interesting but I lost interest in these as we went to another Dutch cafe for another pointless conversation and then had another bit of biffo with a bad guy to no apparent purpose.

Normally I’d have stopped reading long before the end. But I did keep wondering if I was missing something as I’d liked Robotham’s earlier books so much. So I plodded along. And, to be fair, it got better. The last 150 or so pages offered a decent resolution and did actually entertain me although Alisha’s annoyance factor only grew.

I’m glad this wasn’t the first Robotham book I read because if it had been I doubt I would pick up another. As it is I’m still looking forward to reading Shatter in a couple of months and can be philosophical that this particular book just wasn’t for me. I can’t count the number of times a book as captured my imagination or provided me with comfort or escape. So I guess the occasional disappointment isn’t too big a price to pay for all the hours of enjoyment.

My rating 2/5

As reading is all a matter of taste here are links to reviews with a different slant on the the book. You should, as always, make up your own minds.

It’s a Crime (or a mystery)

Mysteries in Paradise