Jack Furey has reached a momentous birthday. He’s turning 100 but he’s not too happy about it. Jack doesn’t want to be in a nursing home and hates being treated like an invisible idiot. The trouble is, Jack Furey has a mind as sharp as a tack and when Vivian Morley drops by to check Jack’s still breathing, his mind wanders back to 1942, Wangamba, Far North Queensland and the ‘other’ invasion – the Yanks have come to town to set up a ‘secret’ airbase.

Now he’s Sergeant Furey, working for the state police. The new airbase brings with it more American soldiers than the town can handle and Jack’s powers of law-enforcement are tested. It’s also a time of racial segregation and when a new American dance hall is set up to entertain the visitors, the real trouble starts.

Rumours of prostitution, teen pregnancies and backyard abortions surface and Jack doesn’t seem to get the cooperation he needs when he starts investigating a murder. The accused is a ‘blackfella’ but the evidence just doesn’t stack up. The obvious and immediate explanationsseem doubtful and a campaign of denial and intimidation thwarts Jack’s investigation at every turn. But Jack Furey is no ordinary country cop.

Furey’s War is a great old-fashioned yarn set in a convincingly portrayed Australian country town. One like we’ve all probably visited but never suspected what might lie beneath its apparently quiet veneer. It’s not strictly a ‘war’ story but it does quite nicely reflect a time when Australia was confronting the unknown and the unfamiliar. Jack Furey is a very likeable character too – he’s rough and ready, but he’s also honest, unusually sensitive and both resourceful and determined. He’s not your average detective but he carries this authentic Australian story well and it’s a nice trip back in time.

Reviewed by John Francis