Month: February 2022

“Intimacies,” an intriguing spare novel that never wastes a word, chronicles the days of an interpreter at the International Court in The Hague, her refuge after floating years. Here she becomes enmeshed in a loathsome yet fascinating interpretation assignment, translating for a charismatic yet sinister former president accused of genocide. Outside the court, a love affair seems to be suspended and a friendship invites hidden knowledge. The setting and milieu of the court of international justice is portrayed with a detached clinical eye that renders it fascinating, and the author’s open, running style suits the claustrophobic character-centered atmosphere. So, yes, there is much to admire during the reading of Intimacies, but the final impact is dampened by a mild plot that rouses tension but only partially delivers. An enjoyable read that could have aimed for more.

Garry Disher is not the only mystery writer tackling the Mornington Peninsula, a bayside neck of land near Melbourne. Simon Rowell’s second puzzler, “The Long Game, ” starring Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer, may not quite match the master’s peerless plotting and characterization, but it’s a rewarding, fast-paced read. The novel’s opener sees a surfer killed with a knife in his chest, and the case soon seems routine, but DS Mayer’s attentive digging soon unearths subtle oddities about the case. Before long, she (and her trusty dog) is on the trail of a devilishly clever opponent. The author’s prose is polished and well-controlled, and the varied locales of the beach are convincingly evoked. The climactic twist, although not telegraphed, might be guessable, but by the end of The Long Game, the tension has ratcheted up enough to provide a fitting ending in any case. Recommended.

Superstar crime fiction writers invariably slide downwards. Even the redoubtable James Lee Burke, for so long my favorite writer in any genre, became a self pastiche. Michael Connelly has always been the exception, his nearly two dozen Harry Bosch novels all perfectly plotted, suffused with characterization, and stylishly penned. Throw in the marvelous Mickey Haller books and it is no wonder that I always snap up the annual (or more frequent!) Connelly treat. “The Dark Hours” is the fourth outing for Renee Ballard, a Los Angeles detective of relentless activity and purpose, seemingly without higher ambitions, who is smart and expedient. The presence of Bosch as her partner/mentor enhanced the previous two Ballard outings. In The Dark Hours, Ballard takes on a New Years Eve killing of mystifying opaqueness while tracking two savage rapists. The author’s command of plot is as masterful as ever, making for an easy armchair read, but for the first time, I found myself thinking, “too much plot, where are the humans?” If you’re a Connelly fan, snap up The Dark Hours. If you’re a general crimmy fan, go back and read the Bosch classics.

In just a little over two years, British crime fiction author J M Dalgliesh has pumped out ten police procedurals featuring DI Tom Janssen and his eclectic team of detectives in picturesque Norfolk. Belying that rapidity of publication, the recent Janssen outings have been his best yet, and “Fool Me Twice” is a meaty, twisty investigative treat for the reader hungry for a diet of crime and justice. This time a top lawyer is discovered savagely murdered in his home and the trail through old clients and current family turns out to be as baffling as any Janssen has encountered. The author is a sophisticated, slick stylist, and the supporting cast of characters swirling around dependable, whip-smart Tom makes for a captivating read. I had been hoping that at some point the abiding cast of players would be tested, instead of coasting along like a old-style fictional tableau, but this vague notion was swept aside as soon as I began reading Fool Me Twice. A cracker of a plot, an ace read, Mr. Dalgliesh!

A cross between a high-octane thriller and a courtroom drama, “Survivor’s Guilt” sees transgender attorney Erin McCabe struggling to solve, without ending up as a victim, the murder of a millionaire. When the millionaire’s daughter pleads guilty, McCabe smells the proverbial rat, and with the aid of her practice partner, dives into a horrific world of trafficking and exploitation and evil. The author is a straightforward stylist and the thriller plot itself proceeds a little clumsily, but the underlying storyline and the interaction of Gigl with the victim, herself transgender, keeps the reader interested. The action scenes are gripping. Survivor’s Guilt offers an engrossing, slightly-off-the-beaten-track read.

Veteran environmentalist and antinuclear campaigner, Ian Lowe has written about the nuclear power industry and the nuclear arms race a number of times. Why now again? “Long Half-life: The Nuclear Industry in Australia” is Lowe’s riposte to a recent surge of pro-nuclear rhetoric and sentiment in Australia, a blip on the attention span of Australians that, he believes, might not allow for the history and the facts. Lowe is a cogent stylist with an easy manner, and this book is indeed a useful introduction to the history of nuclear power in Australia, from the days of nuclear testing in remote places, with unrealistic aspirations for nuclear energy, through the peak in interest in the late 1960s and early 1970s, through the two decades of political mayhem around uranium mining towards the end of last century. Lowe is a reasonably fair interlocutor, quite happy to give nuclear technology its due when it deserves it, but it is very hard to argue with his overall conclusion for the nation in 2021. As the only continent without a single power reactor, Australia is too far behind in terms of capability and infrastructure, and in any case, the nature of the nation’s dispersed, privatized utility system means that no firm could ever finance the huge upfront cost of a modern reactor. Long Half-Life is recommended as a skating introduction to its chosen topic.