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ASH ISLAND
by Barry Maitland
Minotaur, November 2016
320 pages
$25.99
ISBN: 1250113202


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

ASH ISLAND by Barry Maitland is Book 2 in this author's series The Belltree Trilogy. Detective Harry Belltree is newly assigned to work in the small Australian town of Newcastle. His life had been terribly changed by events that seem to have been the focus of the first book in the series, CRUCIFIXION CREEK. Harry was involved in a case in Sydney, which resulted in his being wounded, and he may have also left under a cloud. Shortly after he begins working with the local police, a body is found on Ash Island, a swampy, mostly deserted area near the town. The body shows signs of torture. Harry and his colleagues identify the victim as a seaman from one of the cargo ships that come into the port from the Orient. Then another body is found.

Besides investigating the murders, Harry is dealing with the seemingly unresolved aftermath of the Sydney case, and also with the fact that his parents were killed in a car crash in which his wife Jenny, now pregnant, was blinded. The crash happened very close to the area where he currently lives, and he cannot help but try to investigate the accident, which he believes was deliberate murder. His father was a highly respected judge, and seems to have been working on a land rights case that could have provoked someone or group to assassinate him.

At the novel's start, we meet another recurring character, Kelly Poole. She is also dealing with the after effects of some horrendous events that may have been described in the first book. She is a newspaper reporter, and although we first see her trying to take her own life because of what she has experienced, she soon becomes focused on finding the person who was responsible for what happened to her. Her path crosses Harry's and she becomes involved in the complex case he is investigating.

Harry discovers, through his sleuthing, that his parents and wife spent a night at a farm. He meets the owner, Amber Nordland, and learns that there is a company called Nordland, owned by her mercenary uncle that is trying to buy up rights to the land. Sammy Lee, who owns a local Chinese restaurant, may be involved with drug smuggling as he supplies the ships. There are a slew of other nefarious characters that are murderers and drug dealers as well as a cross-dressing wife-beater covered in tattoos. They do not have much depth and it becomes difficult to follow the intricate comings and goings of them all. Harry Belltree seems more acted upon than acting and the story itself suffers from a lack of overall focus. ASH ISLAND ends in a manner that sets up a situation for the final book in the trilogy but does not provide a satisfying resolution to the events of this one.

§ Anne Corey is a writer, poet, teacher and botanical artist in New York's Hudson Valley.

Reviewed by Anne Corey, December 2016

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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