The Dragon Man

Garry Disher has brought a colorful, atmospherically dense, thriller to the bustling world of books of that genre. The description of police procedures, everyday life in Victoria, combined with the haunting presence of a serial killer who seems to be breathing down everybodys' necks, distills down to a gripping read. My first Australian thriller, my first Disher, and, on both counts, certainly not my last. Great book !

This is an excellent police procedural written by an Australian author of whom I'd never heard. His main character, Challis, is the classic haunted, somewhat melancholy, yet very-advanced-in-rank-for-his-age detective. In spite of loneliness, a barren, dry summer, and a milktoast superior, he treats his fellow officers, witnesses, and suspects with respect and understanding. The setting is different from the NYC- or London-based crime thrillers--and the change in atmosphere is refreshing and adds to the atmosphere as both the summer heat and the townspeople's anxiety over a serial killer in their midst intensifies. The characters are carefully drawn and unique, ignoring the temptation to toss us the usual typecasts in a novel of this kind. Those who enjoy this genre will be happy to discover a great veteran author to explore.

Detective Inspector Hal Challis and must find a serial killer. His task is being complicated by the letters the killer is sending to the local newspaper, which publishes them. These letters contain information that the police would rather keep confidential. His personal life is being interrupted with phone calls from his ex-wife who through long distance phone calls is trying to put their marriabe back in place. She's calling from the sanitarium where she has been imprisoned for the past eight years for attempted murder -- his. To 'help' him, Detective Challis has a crew of helpers. It's not at all certain that they are more help or trouble. You kind of think that some of them might do better if they were to join his ex in the loony bin. ==A good mystery, characters with depth, a moving plot line, with some comedy thrown in. A good read.

Gary Disher is a native Australia and presently lives on the Victorian Coast. A lifetime writer, he was a fellow in Creative Writing at Stanford in 1978. He has written and published novels, short stories, writing how to's, the Wyatt crime thrillers, the Personal Best anthologies, and children's books. He has been short-listed for several awards and was nominated for the Booker Prize in England. Detective Inspector Challis lives a modest life, but is known as the "Dragon Man" to his officers. His "beat" is the Peninsula, a piece of seaside land east of Melbourne, and he is a veteran homicide investigator. He has a thing going with Tessa Kane, the local newspaperwoman, and they both wonder if they even like each other. As the tale begins two girls are found murdered, a week apart. Someone is torching mailboxes, and it seems that there is human misery all around, from the cop who has been seduced by a woman in the Witness Protection Program to the new female cop who has a crush on a surfing instructor. It seems that all involved are only human, even Challis himself: "It was a clumsy insult, delivered with a grin of Christmas cheer. Challis wanted to say that some people had all the luck but let it go. People underestimated him, he knew that, and didn't care. They thought that a policeman who liked to restore old aeroplanes and had a wife who'd tried to have him shot was a man who would allow things to happen to him. A man destined to remain stuck where he was in the force, detective inspector, no higher." The Dragon Man is a character-driven psycho-mystery that is as much about the policemen and policewomen themselves as it is about a murdering psychopath. Challis is an every man type of character who is likeable because of his expertise and self-knowledge. He keeps his crew calm, even as they each go through life's tribulations. He certainly has much to contend with, but the little mini-vignettes that Disher throws out intertwine with a plot that has many tentacles. Disher bites off a lot with this dark mystery, but manages to pull everything around to a great denouement and satisfying conclusion. This tale is a great thriller to read during rainy weather all wrapped up in a blanket by the fire with a dog or kitty nearby to render comfort. Shelley Glodowski Senior Reviewer

In this series debut Australian Detective Inspector Hal Challis finds the dreaded Christmas season complicated by a serial killer arriving in the vanguard of the usual tourists on this coastal peninsula near Melbourne. A loner restoring a vintage "Dragon" airplane in his spare time, Challis endures almost daily phone calls from his disturbed wife, imprisoned after conspiring with her lover to murder him. A police officer doesn't have the luxury of screening his calls. Point of view, while centered on Challis, shifts quickly among members of his team, as well as a local boy caught up in a crime spree, his pyromaniac bruiser of a mate, a New Zealand woman hiding from her past, and the killer. The serial killer taunts the police in messages to the local newspaper. Challis' team, running down their few slim leads as well as handling the usual - from vandalized mailboxes to burglary, assault and arson - is a varied bunch. A brute-force constable is paired with a young woman whose ambitions he disparages; Sergeant van Alphen steals drugs to buy sex from the New Zealand woman, Sergeant Destry fends off her husband's bitterness and eyes the air-conditioning man, earnest Scobie Sutton worries about his daughter, and the boss, McQuarrie, sticks his nose in where it's least welcome. Challis, a newcomer to the Peninsula, a beautiful, insular place with the usual tensions between newcomer and native, has embarked on a touchy romance with the newspaper reporter. The novel's character-driven pace moves along at a good clip as the cops become mired in red herrings, stumble over new information in unlikely places and keep on top of the normal mayhem. Award-winning author Disher makes his characters as interesting as his plot and the Australian setting is well realized.