In Sanctuary, Australian crime writing legend Garry Disher, introduces us to his newest protagonist, another anti-hero with a shady background.
Grace is a skilful thief having been under the tutelage of experts from a child. She grew up in foster homes with minimal supervision and made a living of sorts by using her wits and smarts. She now works for herself, always on the run and watching her back.
When a person from her past appears while she is scoping a job at an antiques fair, she bolts to rural nowhere town Battendorf, in the Adelaide Hills, to lie low. Scoring a job in Erin Mandel’s antique store is a bonus and the fact that the owner takes a shine to Grace and invites her to stay in her granny flat might mean that she can finally settle for a while. Unfortunately for Grace, Erin also has a past she is running from, and that past is about to catch up with her.
Over all of Disher’s novels I am consistently impressed by how he manages to capture the zeitgeist. Sanctuary touches on themes of coercive control, moral ambiguity and the deep-felt ripple effect of the deception that con artists inflict on victims. This book is a bit of a departure for the author, with multiple plot strands to take care of, but shows a writer still at the top of his game.
Disher is the master of protagonists who we may not want to like but we can’t help but connect with. On the other hand, the villains of Sanctuary are a particular kind of nasty. I am hoping that there might be another outing for retired country cop Detective Senior Constable Des Liddington who stole the show in the end.
Reviewed by Maryanne Vagg
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Garry Disher has published over 50 highly praised, prize-winning and widely translated books in a range of genres: crime thrillers, literary/general novels, short-story collections, YA/children’s fiction, and writers’ handbooks.
His growing international reputation has seen him tour Germany and the United States, where his crime and YA novels have appeared on best-books-of-the-year lists and won various awards.
His latest titles include a literary novel, Her, the ninth Wyatt thriller, Kill Shot, the stand-alone crime novel, The Way it is Now, and Day’s End, the fourth in his best-selling and prize-winning ‘Hirsch’ series.
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