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The job is going really smoothly. The target is a politician named Cassandra Wintergreen, and Wyatt has found her hidden safe, the contents of which include a lot of money and an ornate Tiffany brooch. If he only knew how much trouble that brooch would cause him, he probably would have left it behind. It was originally stolen from a bank by a group known as The Magnetic Drill Gang who were working with a corrupt judge who set up their various heists and received their ill-gotten gains. It gets even more complicated when Wyatt tries to fence the jewelry through an intermediary named Liz Redding, who is not what she seems. The fact that the brooch has surfaced has put Wyatt in the cross hairs of the Magnetic Drill Gang and Judge Victor De Lisle. The only "good guy" in this book is Liz Redding, who attempts to mete out justice in spite of very difficult circumstances; but she isn't exactly a straight arrow either. The Gang is composed of a group of crooked police officers. Wyatt is a loner who doesn't trust anyone but does exhibit some admirable traits, such as loyalty to those he works with. Ultimately, he's a professional thief and not any kind of role model. Nobody hesitates to kill someone if they're getting in the way. The book resembles a caper with the Gang and Liz going after Wyatt, and Wyatt and the Gang going after De Lisle, although it has a much darker edge than one might expect. All roads lead to the judge, and there is a sense that some sort of justice has been served, if not of the respectable kind. PORT VILA BLUES was originally published in 1995 and is the fifth book in the Wyatt series. Thankfully, Soho Crime has been reissuing this excellent series, including the seventh book, WYATT, which was a finalist for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel in Australia. Folks who are fans of Richard Stark's Parker will find much to like in Wyatt, although these books aren't as dark as Stark's. § Formerly a training development manager for a large company, Maddy is now retired and continues to enable the addiction of crime fiction fans as owner of the online discussion group, 4 Mystery Addicts(4MA), while avidly reading in every possible free moment herself.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, October 2012
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