As mystery lovers around the world increasingly look Downunder, exciting new voices continue to add even more riches to our treasure trove of local crime writing. While names like Corris, Temple, Greenwood, and Disher laid a strong foundation for our modern era, a new generation of diverse talent is now adding strength in depth.
Last year, modern Aussie queen of crime Emma Viskic told me to keep an eye on South Sydney author Dinuka McKenzie, a promising talent whose debut was in the pipeline. That promise is fulfilled with The Torrent, a terrific series-starter which won the Banjo Prize as an unpublished manuscript. In the final week before DS Kate Mills goes on maternity leave, she’s tasked with looking into the drowning of a local man in massive floods that struck northern NSW, and a brutal robbery of the local McDonald’s.
Mills is a refreshing heroine, sharing McKenzie’s Sri Lankan-Australian heritage, who shows fictional cops don’t need to be tormented, loner mavericks to be fascinating. As Mills juggles pregnancy anxieties with two cases that prove more than they seem, McKenzie takes readers on an engaging journey that’s full of small-town colour, great plotting, and a fascinating cast of characters. A really good read; more please.
Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dinuka McKenzie is an Australian writer and the author of the Detective Kate Miles crime series published in Australia and the UK. She is the winner of the 2020 HarperCollins Australia Banjo Prize. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards, the Bad Sydney Crime Danger Awards, longlisted for the Richell Prize, and highly commended in the Australian Crime Writers Association, Louie Award.
Her short fiction has appeared in the 2022 Dark Deeds Down Under Crime and Thriller Anthology. Dinuka lives in Southern Sydney on Dharawal country with her husband, two kids, and their pet chicken.
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