Garry Disher is known for his kids books and the Wyatt
series. At least, that's what I thought. I had no idea he had
written a police procedural until my brother returned from
holiday in Australia bearing gifts, one of which was Disher's
THE DRAGON MAN. Set in The Peninsula (there aren't any
geographical pointers - I had to consult a map. The Peninsula
stretches out from the mainland like a leg with a pointy-toed
foot just west of Adelaide) the main focus of the local
police force's investigation is the capture of a serial
killer who's preying on young women. Of course, being a
multiple viewpoint Ed McBain-type procedural, the police have
lots of other concurrent investigations demanding their
time.
Two aspects of this book stood out. The first was the quality
of the writing: not a single wasted word. The second was the
complexity of the relationships between certain characters.
For example, one of the cops is sleeping with a woman who has
a coke habit. The coke makes her nervous, paranoid even.
Nevertheless, the cop agrees to supply her in the
self-deluding belief that the coke helps calm her down. What
he doesn't know is that her anxiety isn't drug-induced. It is
based on the fact that she sold out some of her old criminal
acquaintances, and was placed in New Zealand's witness
protection program. She was seen leaving the country and she
knows if they find her she's dead. She can't tell the one
person (the cop) who might be able to help her. She doesn't
trust him enough. Hence
(this is my understanding) the test: he must adopt the role
of drug dealer to demonstrate the risks he's prepared to take
for her. Of course, when he does, she hates him for feeding
her habit, he hates himself for feeding her habit, and such
mutual self-loathing doesn't engender much trust.
*** BIG CLUE THAT MIGHT BE A SPOILER ***
(or it might be misleading)
S P O I L E R
In terms of plot, this is a whodunnit. The identity of the
serial killer came as no surprise to me. I concluded for the
nth time: in multiple viewpoint whodunnits the killer is the
character whose viewpoint is least represented in normal
third person (not including first person italicised, or
anonymous third person). There were two significant
characters with no viewpoint representation. One was far too
obvious. Had to be the other.
I may be like a man with a winning betting system, though.
Lucky.
Al
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