Signal Loss

September 15, 2017
Another crime wave--actually two separate waves--for the sorely tried police in the back of the Australian beyond.Elliot Lovelock and Stephen Pym, two enforcers meth importer Hector Kaye has dispatched to Victoria to whack Owen Valentine, close not only Valentine's account, but their own in a brush fire they carelessly start. There wouldn't be a single loose end if Valentine weren't connected to so many other dubious types, from Christine Penford, the live-in so spaced out on her partner's product that she scarcely seems to notice when Clover, her 6-year-old daughter, goes missing, to Tony Slatter, aka the Moonta Moth, a retired public servant whose tropism toward night-lit houses that aren't his brought him to Valentine's doorstep and a serious beating. As Inspector Hal Challis, of the Crime Investigation Unit (Whispering Death, 2012, etc.), works at cross-purposes with sadly misnamed Senior Sgt. Serena Coolidge, of the Major Drug Investigative Division, to follow the trail of meth to suppliers used to flying above the law, his lover, Sgt. Ellen Destry, of CIU's sex crimes unit, is uncovering evidence that Roslyn Wreidt wasn't just robbed, but raped by a chatty assailant who's clearly struck before and plans to strike again. Not to be outdone, Janine Quine, a civilian CIU employee, is so desperate to erase her strung-out husband Jeff's theft from his employer, conveyancer Raymond Loeb, that she agrees to some activities that may seriously compromise the unit. On the domestic front, Ellen's kid sister, Allie, comes to visit with a man who instantly triggers Ellen's alarm bells.There are so many felonies in this quiet corner of Australia, in fact, that jurisdictional squabbles loom larger and larger as the criminals get tangled in multiple nets before Disher sorts it all out with consummate professionalism and just a trace of regret.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 9, 2017
Early in Ned Kelly Award–winner Disher’s excellent seventh Hal Challis investigation (after 2012’s Whispering Death), a pair of hit men from Sydney execute a fencer of stolen property who has the bad luck to spot them in the act of disposing of a body in the rural peninsula south of Melbourne. Soon afterward, the killers unwittingly drive into the path of a wildfire and are burned to death. In the same area, an epidemic of meth-related “ice crimes” preoccupies Challis, who’s also working on a rash of thefts. Meanwhile, Senior Sergeant Coolidge, from a task force in Melbourne, mounts an operation on drug trafficking. And Challis’s girlfriend, Ellen Destry, who heads the local sex crimes unit, investigates a possible serial rapist. The story’s momentum never slows as Disher weaves these strands together with consummate skill and lyrical language (“The room was a hot, stale cave deep inside the police station and had never witnessed anything but loss and hopelessness”). This is a searing commentary on the meth crisis and its tremendous toll on users and communities alike.

December 1, 2017

Insp. Hal Challis has his hands full with a methamphetamine epidemic that has spawned a series of crimes and interdepartmental complications and rivalries. The crimes include several murders committed by dangerously dysfunctional Lovelock and Pym, who make the mistake of trying to outrun a wildfire they started, and a missing child being used as collateral by a drug dealer. Sgt. Ellen Destry, the new head of the sex crimes unit, is pursuing an elusive serial rapist. She is also trying to extricate her troublesome sister from the clutches of a notorious con man. Ably assisted by their colleagues, Challis and Destry cross paths professionally and romantically during their investigations. VERDICT The seventh series outing (after Whispering Death) by prolific Ned Kelly Award winner Disher is a fine police procedural marked by well-developed characters and social issues that add depth. Australian crime fiction devotees may wish to check out Disher's "Wyatt" series and other Ned Kelly winners including Jane Harper, Peter Corris, Adrian Hyland, Peter Temple, and Barry Maitland.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2017
In the seventh in the Inspector Challis series, Australian cop Hal Challis' investigation into the deaths of two professional assassins leads him deep into Sydney's drug scene; meanwhile, Hal's colleague and girlfriend, Ellen Destry, is on the trail of a serial rapist. The Challis series is tough and gritty, and the tone definitely suggests noir (here, the two hit men beat another man to death before getting caught in a brush fire and burning to death themselves, and that's just the opening scenes); the writing is heavy on atmosphere ( He stared gloomily across the desolate tract of house slabs . . . ); and the characters are full of contradictions and inner turmoils. Fans of the series will dive into this one, and here's the best part: the book works as a stand-alone, which means it's a great way for newbies to make Challis' acquaintance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)