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Being a cop out in the sticks in Bushrangers Bay, near Melbourne, isn't what you'd call a happy job. There are marital, finance and family problems galore – and that's just for the cops. KITTYHAWK DOWN is the second outing for Homicide Squad Inspector Hal Challis. He's a morose sort of chap – with good reason. His wife tried to have him killed, and she's now banged up in prison, but can't let go of him. So his romance with local paper editor Tessa Kane looks like it's going nowhere fast – especially when he stands her up on Easter weekend. Bushrangers Bay appears to be a crime hot-spot. A corpse has been fished out of the sea, a child is missing, someone is stealing and torching cars, and letter boxes are being burned. And then a murder hits very close to home for Challis when a friend is terrorised, and then killed. There are other deaths too, and the police have to unknot a complex web of contacts in the small town. Garry Disher has a deceptively languid style and it takes a while for him to cut to the chase – it's one of those books where the back cover blurb isn't exactly inaccurate, but it doesn't totally represent what happens in the novel either. The book's not in the least dull, I hasten to add. Disher's a natural storyteller, and strikes a spot-on balance between plot and characterisation. There's a fair bit of the police crew's private lives, but it never tips over into slowing up the plot. So I did want to find out about Challis's ex-wife, and Sergeant Ellen Destry's rocky marriage, and Constable John Tankard's charm by-pass and DC Scobie Sutton's preoccupation with his young daughter and Constable Pam Murphy's financial woes. Disher's books have a dark, hard edge to them, rather as Peter Temple's do. This isn't the Oz of Neighbours and of sun-kissed beaches. This is small-town Australia, complete with eccentrics, deadbeats and those with something to hide. KITTYHAWK DOWN is strong and skilful crime writing.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, May 2008
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