Category Archives: Shane Maloney

Crime Fiction Alphabet: V is for Victoria (the bit of Australia not the Queen)

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I have neglected the last couple of alphabet letters but it can’t be helped: day-job workload and a dead computer reduced my blogging in recent weeks. Unfortunately I’ve chosen to return to the meme for a pesky letter of the alphabet for which I could think of only two subjects to discuss. One is a theme common to crime fiction but is a word I can never spell correctly and the other is a state in Australia that I am meant to be at war with. I’ve chosen to go with Victoria, the state of Australia that we South Australians are taught to hate from birth (it’s all to do with sport which is a subject that bores me witless) but which is home to some of the best crime fiction in the country. Victoria is a small state in the south-east of the country and its capital city is Melbourne.

As far as I know Carolyn Morwood only wrote two novels featuring Marlo Shawe who is a professional cricketer and amateur sleuth based in Melbourne but I enjoyed them both and would like to know what happened to this author. In the second of the books, 2002′s A Simple Death, Marlo finds a homeless man who has been bludgeoned to death and her boss becomes a suspect in the case.

One of the world’s earliest mystery stories is Fergus Hume‘s 1893 tale Mystery of a Hansom Cab in which a hansom cab driver finds his passenger has been poisoned and has died during their journey. I think I read this book many years ago but I picked up a new copy last year when a new publisher released it in a spiffy leather-ish binding.

Garry Disher has two crime series which are both set in Victoria. The novels featuring Detective Inspector Hal Challis and Sergeant Ellen Destry take place in and around the Mornington Peninsula, one of the state’s holiday destinations. The first novel of the series is 1999′s The Dragon Man which involves the investigation into a series of assaults on women and takes place across a blistering Australian summer (fans of the series take note, Disher’s website says there’s a new instalment of this series with a working title of Whispering Death due this year)

Jarad Henry has written two books set in Victoria. I haven’t read the first, Head Shot, which is about a drug squad detective who is accused of murdering a gangland figure who killed a policeman but I did read the second novel to feature the same detective as its central character. Blood Sunset takes place across a sweltering Melbourne summer in which bushfires ring the city and detective Rubens McCauley investigates the death of a young runaway. Melbourne, warts and all, is a distinct character in this terrific novel (more rumours, via tweets from the emerging writer’s festival held in Melbourne recently, are that Jarad Henry’s third novel will be out later this year)

Kerry Greenwood’s historical series starring Phyrne Fisher features the Melbourne of the 1920′s while her Corinna Chapman series takes place in the present day, inner-city version of the place. While the series is definitely at the lighter end of the crime fiction spectrum it does present a very recognisable Melbourne, including some of its darker elements (fact this time, Greenwood’s historical series and its Victorian setting will be brought to television next year).

Leigh Redhead‘s protagonist is Melbourne based former stripper Simone Kirsch. In her first outing, 2004′s Peepshow, Kirsch has enrolled in a course at security college (she won’t be accepted into the police force due to her former career) and becomes involved in the hunt for the kidnappers of one of her old dancing colleagues. This series shows off the seedier side of life in Melbourne .

Lindy Cameron‘s trilogy featuring Melbourne-based private detective Kit O’Malley is a treat. The first book in the series, Blood Guilt (1999), uses another sweltering Australian summer (trust me this is an almost annual occurrence so it’s not surprising to see the weather as a recurring theme) as the backdrop for a philandering husband investigation which turns into a hunt for a murderer.

Peter Klein brings the world of Victorian horse-racing to life in his series of novels featuring John Punter, a professional gambler and amateur detective. These novels have a real ring of authenticity due to Klein’s long history with the racing world in which he started as a strapper. Although racing takes place everywhere in the country (we are a nation of gamblers after all) it is the Melbourne Cup that, quite literally, stops the country on the first Tuesday each November and Klein draws out this aspect of Victoria’s life very well in novels such as Punter’s Turf.

Peter Temple made his home in Victoria after leaving his native South Africa and spending time in several places (including Sydney) and most of his crime fiction is set in the state. His quartet of novels featuring lawyer/gambler/private detective Jack Irish paint a picture of Melbourne that you’d swear could only have been drawn by someone born and bred there. It’s the little things, like the lamenting of the old-timers for the loss of the football clubs they knew and understood, that make Temple’s Melbourne come alive.

Melbourne is also home to one of the few writers of Australian crime caper novels I can think of. Shane Maloney‘s series featuring political aide and bumbling amateur sleuth Murray Whelan is based in Melbourne. Melbourne certainly seems to be the home of comedy in Australia (it boasts one of the world’s largest and most influential comedy festivals) so perhaps it’s not surprising it is also home to some fictional crime comedy.

Have you read any of these crime tales set in Victoria? or have I missed your favourite crime fiction set in Victoria? Do tell in the comments

Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.

Crime Fiction Alphabet: P is for Politicians

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I talked more generally about politically themed reading during our last Federal election but I thought it worth having a look at how politicians themselves are treated in crime fiction. Perhaps it won’t surprise too many of you that, for the most part, they’re either murdered horribly or depicted as completely corrupt.

Anthony Gilbert‘s series of ten mystery novels written in the 1920′s and 30′s featuring Scott Egerton, a rising British political leader (and one of the few politicians in crime fiction who is both brilliant and not at all corrupt), came to my attention when I was at University. It wasn’t easy to introduce genre fiction into my high-brow studies but I was writing about women who had been forced by convention (or the need for cash) to write as men, and Gilbert is one of several pseudonyms used by Lucy Beatrice Malleson. In 1932′s The Body on the Beam Egerton investigates the death of a woman of..er…uncertain reputation…whose body is found hanged. A man is quickly arrested for the crime but Egerton thinks it’s all a bit too easy and goes on to trap the real criminal. (Gilbert/Malleson went on to create the character of fat, uncouth lawyer Arthur G Crook who appeared in around 50 novels up until Malleson’s death in 1973)

Bartholomew Gill’s McGarr and the Politician’s Wife is the first novel of what became a long running series featuring Peter McGarr who is Chief Superintendent of Detectives for the Irish Garda. In this story the discovery of a body at a yacht club leads police to investigate a politician of dubious credibility and his promiscuous wife and tackles issues such as the impact of the IRA on local politics. The book was originally published in 1977 though was later republished in 2000 as McGarr and the Politician but I don’t know if this later version makes any substantial changes to the story to account for the altered political environment.

John Maddox Roberts’ historical series set in ancient Rome features a Senator, Decuis Caecilius Metellus (the Younger), as its amateur investigator and the cases often involve his political colleagues. In The Sacrilege a secret female-only ceremony is infiltrated by a corrupt politician who dresses as a woman and when a series of murders follows this Decuis starts investigating and, as always, uncovers a massive conspiracy that threatens the Repbulic of Rome. I must say when I read about ancient Roman politics (or watch it) I think our modern-day politicians get off lightly :)

Politicians are heavily featured in Australian author Shane Maloney‘s series following the adventures of Murray Whelan, aide, advisor and fixit man as well as reluctant amateur sleuth. In The Brush Off Murray’s boss has scored the job of Minister for the Arts so when an artist is found dead Murray’s first job is to ensure no fallout reaches his boss.  He discovers political cover-ups, abuse of power, fraudulent use of public money (all before breakfast). Maloney’s writing is a treat and having spent some time doing similar jobs to Murray’s I think he depicts that particular environment beautifully.

Robin Spano’s Dead Politician Society opens with the murder of a local politician in Toronto, Canada. Surely I can’t be the the only reader who happily inserted a particularly annoying politician of my own acquaintance in the mental images running through my head during that sequence. As part of its investigation into the case the Toronto police insert a young policewoman into a political group active at the university to identify whether or not any of its members are responsible for the death.

In Alan Glynn’s Winterland the crime part of the story almost plays a secondary role to its political elements. Set in present-day Ireland as the economic prosperity of the previous decade turns sour, the book opens with the death of two men on the same evening. As only one of the deaths is thought to be murder so police are not involved but a victim’s relative delves into the matter and uncovers the seedier side of Irish politics. Larry Bolger, son of a politician himself, is being groomed to take a shot at becoming the country’s political leader. His desire for the job, and the desire of his connections to make sure he gets it, are at the heart of this compelling story.

One of the surprising things I learned as I toddled around the internet looking up the titles of books half-remembered for this post, is that American TV news anchor Jim Lehrer (who has been, rather inexplicably, appearing daily on Australia’s foreign language TV channel for the past couple of decades) has written a swag of mystery novels including seven books featuring a character called one-eyed Mack who is the Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma. Has anyone read any of these and are they any good?

Do you have a favourite politician in crime fiction? They don’t have to be dead or corrupt :)

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Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise is hosting the crime fiction alphabet meme which requires the posting of an article relating to the letter of the week. Do join in the fun by reading the posts and/or contributing one of your own. You don’t have to write every week.