It is always a treat to crack open a new Garry Disher novel, because you know you’re in the hands of one of Australia’s finest crime writers.
Across four previous outings we’ve come to know Senior Constable Paul Hirschhausen, or ‘Hirsch’, a lone cop in a small South Australian town who has gradually found his place in the community.
Now, with drought biting hard, Hirsch is carrying out his routine firearms audit, checking that households across his patch are doing the right thing. On the surface, everything seems in order. But then he’s called out to help a stranded tourist, Annika Nordrum, whose camper has bogged on a back track near the ruins of Mischance Creek.
After winching her free, Hirsch learns that Annika isn’t your average traveller. She’s searching for the body of her mother, who vanished seven years earlier while travelling with Annika’s father, whose body was later discovered at the bottom of a mineshaft. What begins as a roadside rescue soon pulls Hirsch into a cold case.
Long-time readers know this is the point to strap in, because complications and trouble are never far behind Hirsch. Disher has an uncanny knack for catching the national mood, and Mischance Creek touches on themes of small-town corruption, the widening gap between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in rural Australia, and the simmering rise of sovereign citizen movements.
This is a terrific read. It works as a standalone, but really – why stop there? The ‘Hirsch’ series is that good.
Reviewed by Maryanne Vagg
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Garry Disher has published 60 titles across multiple genres. With a growing international reputation for his best-selling crime novels, he has won four German and three Australian awards for best crime novel of the year, and been longlisted twice for a British CWA Dagger award. In 2018 he received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award.
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