Bitter Wash Road

To be honest I read a lot of Australian crime novels and after a time they do blur a bit! I didn’t help myself with this one by dropping it for a few months and forgetting who everyone was by the time I picked it up again and getting it confused with the Aaron Falk books… This was wrong of me as it deserved better! I did eventually finish it, after buying the next few in the series as Amazon Kindle deals of the day but do forgive me if I’m a bit vague on the plot details.

I did like this, “Hirsch” is a demoted cop banished to a backwater town after being associated with (but not actually being involved in) a bunch of crooked cops in the big city. The details of small town outback life, and the role of the local policeman are nicely captured. Unlike a detective assigned to a single case our hero must deal with multiple overlapping crimes at a greater or lesser degree of crisis. The main mystery here is a murder, who may or may not be connected to some killers on the loose. There’s a lot going on here and the story moves along nicely. The outback, as is often the case, becomes a character itself.

Our friend Paul was collateral damage from a corruption investigation, with an undeserved demotion, exile to a backwater town and the opprobrium g his colleagues as the outcome. He works through these handicaps to become part of the town, even gaining a girlfriend and solving a set of interlinked local and national crimes in the process.

Overall, a great police procedural with rounded (and flawed) characters and a town that really springs to life from the pages. It will be interesting to see whether this ever gets dramatised like so much else that I’ve been reading. The story is seeped in the atmosphere of small town australia with beautifully realised characters. and a cleverly constructed sequence of events that ends in a very exciting fashion! I really enjoyed this and moved on to the next volume (which I did read in one go!)