Blood Moon

Soho Crime publishes several series set outside the US; e.g., Cara Black's Aimee Leduc series set in Paris, Leighton Gage's Mario Silva Brazil-based series, Rebecca Pawel's series set in Spain following the civil war, Magdalen Nabb's Marshal Guarnaccia series set in Florence and several others, including Garry Disher's Inspector Hal Challis series set on the Mornington Crescent south of Melbourne, Australia. BLOOD MOON is the fifth in the Hal Challis series and, like many other Soho Crime titles, it's in a compact hardcover with attractive cover art. The setting of the Hal Challis series is always a player in these titles. The towns Challis and his team police are working class, but because they are also on the water, there are many wealthy people from Melbourne who snap up old beachfront and water view properties and tear them down to build mini-mansion weekend homes. Teens from well-off families descend on the beach area for a week of sun and fun----including drinking, drugs, sex and troublemaking----each year when school lets out. Conflicts between the residents and these visitors are featured prominently in BLOOD MOON. Challis and his team investigate the murder of a government employee responsible for enforcing land-use codes. She has had numerous run-ins with newcomers tearing down old houses, overbuilding and ripping up protected vegetation that interferes with their views. She suspected that her boss accepted bribes from the newcomers. But maybe her murderer wasn't from her work life. Maybe it was her obsessively jealous and controlling husband. Also under investigation is the beating of a private school chaplain. The investigators soon find the chaplain has connections to a racist politician and is himself part of an extremist sect. Was the chaplain's attacker one of the spoiled students who drove another school employee to a breakdown? Someone connected with his political activities or his creepy church? As they carry out their investigations, the officers deal with a stream of problems caused by the partying teens and with their own personal issues. One officer's wife has withdrawn from her family after joining the strange sect. Hal is having some adjustment issues with his new relationship with Ellen Destry, a member of his team. Ellen struggles with some old demons. Pam Murphy begins a relationship with a cocky new member of the team, while her old work partner suspects the new guy is up to no good. Garry Disher writes excellent police procedurals with multi-threaded, but easy to follow plots. He makes his characters very real, and gives us a good sense of his setting, its economy, politics and people. I highly recommend this series. It isn't absolutely critical to read the books in order.

Most mystery writers are content to solve one case per story, but Garry Disher has successfully juggled several crimes and perpetrators in this book. There's the chaplain of an exclusive boarding school found beaten to a pulp. Almost everyone at the school loathed him. There's the murder of a lovely young woman who has the difficult job of enforcing land use regulations. Her husband is abusive, her boss is slimy, and she's not popular with the rich folks who violate the law to build their dream mansions. Anyone might have killed her or had her killed. Then there's Schoolies week, a term that reminds us we're in Australia. School kids on holiday are flooding the town of Waterloo for a bit of fun by the sea. Drug-related crimes and rape are likely, if not inevitable. The title of this book is inspired by the eclipse of the moon that will take place during Schoolies week, staining the moon red and, it's feared, inflaming the students. In the midst of so much criminal anger and passion, the passions of the police force are very much in evidence too. Inspector Hal Challis is sleeping with his sergeant Ellen Destry, and certain members of his staff are in bed together as well. The mix of private lives and public duty is very skillfully handled and makes for a complex story with never a dull page. I'd recommend all the other books in the series and suggest reading them in order. But this book can also stand on its own. Disher does a good job of summarizing previous events in the lives of the characters.

To say that Adrian Wishart was a control freak would be an understatement. It is, therefore, perhaps understandable that when he reports his wife missing, the police are less concerned than Mr. Wishart might have hoped. After all, his wife has not been missing for very long. His fears, however, ultimately prove to be well-founded. But is he in fact the person responsible for his wife's death? They'd only been married for three years. He was known to have been extremely jealous, and given to following his wife around and keeping close track of her movements at all times, whether she was at work or having lunch with a girlfriend. But he appears to have an airtight alibi for the relevant time frame. The police are already involved in another investigation: the severe beating of the chaplain at a prestigious boarding school, who is also the head of a local fundamentalist church. The victim is in a coma, and the fact that the man's brother is an aide to a local politician, one given to loud criticism of the police, makes matters even more 'delicate.' The expectations of a lunar eclipse seems to heighten the already intense atmosphere, and on the night of the highly anticipated event Pam Murphy, a new member of the detective squad, stands "transfixed. All human activity except the need to congregate and worship was suspended for an hour or so. . . The red moon mellowed them. They swayed to inner choruses and seemed inclined to kiss and hug each other." Inspector Hal Challis of the Australian Victoria Police has become 'involved' with Sergeant Ellen Destry, a member of his squad, the Crime Investigation Unit. Though their relationship is only of 3 weeks duration, things have already been getting 'sticky,' on both personal and professional levels. All of these disparate themes are played out with subtlety and precision. This is the fifth in the Inspector Challis series, set in the Melbourne area. On its most basic level, it is a police procedural, done as well as anything in the genre, but it is more than that, with wonderful characters and sense of place. It is thoroughly enjoyable, and highly recommended.

Get all five of these books - you'll end up on pins and needles waiting for the sixth one, just as you do if you read Donna Leon and Lee Child. I know - they are hard acts to follow, but Gary Disher is THAT good. Great characters, convincing sense of place, and really intricate but easy-to-follow plots. It is preferable to start with the first because the development of the relationships between characters is too good to miss. And each book has some very surprising plot twists that are entirely believable but totally unexpected. Don't waste time and energy thinking you know what will happen next! Wonderful books!

In Waterloo, Queensland, Australia, someone attacked Lachlan Roe, chaplain to the exclusive Landseer private school. The victim was left in a coma and has connections to the highest levels of government. Detective Inspector Hal Challis knows that political ties mean interference to expedite results at all costs to the investigation he will lead with the help of his lover, Sergeant Ellen Destry and the rest of the team. Political big shot Ollie Hindmarsh has already made a TV appearance. Lachlan's brother Dirk manages to compromise the crime scene to Challis' consternation. Adding to the already visible assault case is two incidents. One of Challis' team Scobie Sutton who breached official policy when he allowed Dirk into his sibling's home, has received hate racist email at his police address. At a time when Challis considers benching Scobie, a murder of a public official enforcing land use rules during schoolie week adds workload pressure. The latest Challis Australian police procedural is a super investigative tale mostly because of the interaction of the Waterloo team. The story line is fast-paced with both cases engaging the reader from the onset. However, it is the byplay between the cops especially Hal and Ellen and Hal and Scobie who make this a fun read. Harriet Klausner