Kerry Hood was in publishing for many years, working in publicity for several publishers over the time, working on fiction and non-fiction titles. Crime and thrillers have always been those she turns to first, however, and the ones she reads late at night or when she has a quiet moment.
Garry Disher is an Australian multi-award winning author of over sixty books. His brilliant crime novels include the Paul Hirsch mystery series and the Hal Challis Investigations series … and it seems he cannot put a foot wrong on stand-alone novels either.
Under the Cold Bright Lights centres around Sergeant Alan Auhl, who has come out of retirement to head up the Cold Case Unit in Victoria; under a gimlet-eyed boss, and alongside a couple of colleagues who repeatedly mock his age and make snide remarks about age-related infirmity. All of which he rides through with patience and some grace – it is all about the job.
It doesn’t take long for his partner, DC Claire Pascal, to realise this ex-homicide squad policeman is worth having on the team.
Auhl is, unofficially, immediately sucked into a very cold case that was one of his, when he worked a murder case originally – and, officially, they start work on the remains of someone who is dubbed Slab Man, found under a concrete block in the yard of a home long pulled down. Then there is also Auhl’s certainty that an arrogant doctor is responsible for the deaths of three women. But he must find a way to prove it.
This is a surprising novel is many ways. It steps outside the tramlines of body found/police step in/investigation/conviction. Auhl is a deeply moral man whose private life is a mess, but he seems to attract waifs and strays who stay in his big inherited house, as lodgers, friends or sanctuary seekers.
Yes, he follows orders, yes, he is a brilliant and committed detective, yes, he is a bulldog working his cases, but there is a streak of immorality that bubbles to the surface on occasion that is both a surprise and a jolt. Can it be possible that such a morally unambiguous man can be tempted to the dark side? Surely not …
Either way, Disher is one of those authors this reader will always seek out. He creates Australia on the page, and his characters have all the tendencies of real people – they irritate, amaze and console. What’s not to love?
