I hate finishing one of Michael Duffy’s books because I always want more. This is the third of Duffy’s, ‘Bella Greaves’ books and I savoured it to the last word.
Duffy’s main characters are Bella, editor of the local newspaper, and Paul Ruel, a homicide detective, exiled to The Blue Mountains. He and Bella have formed a respectful bond, working on several crimes together. He is also in a relationship with Bella’s daughter, Sib.
The Blue Mountains is a great setting for crime and Duffy, a local, brilliantly captures the moodiness and expanse of the landscape and unique anachronism that is Katoomba, with its Art Deco buildings, magnificent hotels, and its small-town characters.
Bella’s friend Brian Kelly is a kindly priest who walks the lookouts at night, at times rescuing jumpers that the mountains attract. When petty thief Liam Tarrant accuses the priest of sexual abuse many years ago, the town is divided, and Paul is tasked with investigating.
Bella’s demanding boss asks her to name and shame Kelly in her newspaper, but her moral code will not allow her to compromise her stance, even if it means getting the sack, something she can ill afford.
Kelly is brutally attacked after a newspaper runs the story and Paul’s investigation takes another turn as he searches for the attacker.
The Man in Black is a well-told story, the characters are credible, and the plot keeps you riveted. There’s enough continuity in the development of the characters to keep you coming back for more.
A great read.
Reviewed by Sue Stanbridge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Duffy has worked for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun Herald as a reporter of crime and other urban issues. He has written four true crime books and the novels The Tower, about crime and globalisation, The Simple Death, about voluntary euthanasia and the law and Drive By, about a Western suburbs crime family. Also a eries of crime fiction set in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. His book World War Noir was co-authored with Nick Hordern.
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