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Some authors treat the reader to a gentle introduction, perhaps extolling the beauty of the season or the attributes of the protagonist. Not so David Hewson, author of the popular Nic Costa series, in this outing. Bierce, who only discloses a single name, is already strapped to a gurney. Blond Martin the Medic introduces himself to Bierce then proceeds to discuss just what effect the drugs with which Bierce is to be injected will have on the unfortunate corpse to be. But the execution does not go ahead. Bierce, once a cop, has been incarcerated in Gwinnet jail for 22 years for the murder of his wife Miriam and son Ricky. Bierce doesn't believe it could be possible that he committed the slaughter but he is unable to remember the relevant times. He knows he adored his family and was happy with them – always bearing in mind that Miriam was not content with the frequent absences his job as a policeman necessitated. Stapleton, a former colleague of Bierce, tells him that someone has confessed to the murder, a deathbed confession, so Bierce is being set free. The erstwhile convict, after his release, is totally off-balance, a stranger in the city he used to know but a place that is now totally unfamiliar to him in a time that is as strange as the city. He goes to what used to be his home, finding it relatively unchanged, except for the presence of a half-Chinese girl who introduces herself as Alice Loong. Alice says her mother was murdered – apparently by the same people who killed Miriam and Ricky – but that the case was never investigated. Circumstances alter overnight and Bierce and Alice flee. For most of the novel Bierce is constantly off balance, attempting to come to terms with the brave new world in which he finds himself. With the help of Alice, he seeks to solve the mystery surrounding the killing. In so doing, he discovers that the world he thought so familiar was a far darker and more dangerous place than he was aware. Hewson has done a fine job with the detail of the changes wrought in Bierce's city just as Bierce is excellently portrayed, completely believable as the time traveller needing to become comfortable within the new and vastly different era. Alice's character is not, perhaps, as fully fleshed out as Bierce's but her grandmother comes across as a delight. Bierce's lawyer, Susanna, is a horse of a different colour altogether, credible in her own strange and selfish manner and a necessary adjunct to the tale. I did feel that perhaps a fuller prediction of the future might have been given, but that was just my own curiosity. The adventures undergone by them are sufficiently harrowing and thrilling to content most readers. Another puzzle I would have liked to have seen solved was an identification of the location of the novel. A too-quick glance at the cover at first made me think it might be set in Sydney, but then mention of St Kilda made me think it was in Melbourne, but on reflection, I think it must be in the US. On the whole, though, I found THE PROMISED LAND to be a very satisfying read.
Reviewed by Denise Pickles, August 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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