As well as being cracking yarns, crime novels generally offer a razor-sharp snapshot of society. That’s certainly the case in this brilliant novel – and the picture it paints of modern Australia is not pretty: towns and land ravaged by drought, deep state conspiracy theories, drugs, corruption, the precarity of life lived on the fringe, the after-effects of COVID-19 on a community.
Aaron Love has been on his own, scrounging a living in drought-devastated Lake Herrod, since his father, Dog, disappeared two years ago, presumed drowned. A reporter comes asking questions – and then his dead body is found in the dried-out lake, along with evidence that Dog is alive and involved in organised crime.
Detective Martyn Kravets, haunted by the death of his police partner and under official investigation, is assigned to the crime. He soon uncovers a dark world of conspiracy and crime that stretches well beyond Lake Herrod.
Dust, drought and desperation come alive on the page, with the haunted landscape echoing the grubbiness and venality of much of modern life. Although the individual is often little match for the institutions of power, glimpses of humanity shine through. One of the best books I’ve read this year.
Reviewed by Melinda Woledge
Read a book review of Smoke by Michael Brissenden
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Brissenden is an author and journalist. His first book of fiction – The List was published in 2017. A second thriller – Dead Letters also features the Federal investigator Sidney Allen was published in March 2021.
Michael was a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for 35 years. He was posted to Moscow, Brussels and Washington and worked in Canberra for many years in various roles – including as the Political Editor for the daily television current affairs program – The 7.30 Report, as the ABC’s defence and security correspondent and as the presenter of the ‘AM’ Current Affairs program on ABC radio. From 2017 to 2021 he was a reporter with the ABC’s investigative television documentary program – Four Corners.
Michael has also written non fiction. In 2012 American Stories: Tales of Hope and Anger. The book was a personal account of a country on edge that chronicled the undercurrents of division and anger that surfaced during the first term of the Obama presidency. Divisions that would later be exploited to such devastating effect by Donald Trump.
He has contributed to a number of essay collections over the years and written for The Bulletin, The Canberra Times and New Matilda.
Before he turned to journalism and writing Michael dabbled in art and music. He has a degree in Visual Art from the Sydney College of the Arts and continues to believe he might one day master the double bass.
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