Published by Pushkin Vertigo,
24 August 2017.
ISBN: 978-1782273622(PB)
24 August 2017.
ISBN: 978-1782273622(PB)
Caleb Zelic and his childhood friend Gary ‘Gaz’
Marsden have been investigating warehouse robberies. Caleb, along with his
business partner ex-police officer Francesca ‘Frankie’ Reynolds, runs a firm
investigating business frauds, warehouse robberies etc but Gary is still a
serving police officer with the Melbourne police whom Caleb has persuaded to do
a bit of extra work on the side so when Caleb finds Gary brutally murdered the
police are doubly determined to find out who killed Gary – and why. Just before
he was killed Gary had sent a text to Caleb’s mobile saying that someone called
Scott was after him. Caleb is determined to find out who had murdered Gary, but
his difficulties are compounded by his almost 100% deafness. Lip reading and
sign language partially compensate, while Caleb’s extra sensitivity regarding
other people’s expressions and demeanour are also helpful. Then Caleb and
Frankie discover that the security guard at one of the warehouses, which Gary
had been investigating, has been beaten up. Is there a link between that and
Gary’s death? Caleb’s enquiries at the guard’s employers are met with a
suspiciously blank wall. Frankie disappears and Caleb himself is attacked in
his own apartment by two thugs. Caleb has to go on the run and there is only
place he can go to, only one person he can look to for refuge. His estranged wife
Kat. But will his turning to her put her in danger? Then there is the
possibility that Caleb’s brother is in some way involved, and that others whom
Caleb has trusted are included in the web of corruption. The shadow of
suspicion even falls on members of the police force.
This
story is told in a staccato style which well suits the fast-moving narrative
with its numerous yet coherent plot developments. Caleb’s problems with
communication which he refuses to allow to hinder his investigations are well
and convincingly portrayed. Recommended.
------
Emma Viskic
is an award-winning Australian crime writer. Her critically acclaimed debut
novel, Resurrection Bay, won the 2016
Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, as well as an unprecedented three
Davitt Awards: Best Adult Novel, Best Debut, and Readers' Choice. Resurrection Bay was iBooks Australia’s
Crime Novel of 2015. She has also won the Ned Kelly and Thunderbolt Awards for
her short form fiction. Emma studied Australian sign language (Auslan) in order
to write the character of Caleb Zelic in Resurrection Bay. The second novel in
the Caleb Zelic series, And Fire Came
Down, will be out September 2017. A
classically trained clarinettist, Emma’s musical career has ranged from
performing with José Carreras and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, to busking in the London
Underground.
Radmila May was
born in the U.S. but has lived in the U.K. since she was seven apart from seven
years in The Hague. She read law at university but did not go into practice.
Instead she worked for many years for a firm of law publishers and still does
occasional work for them including taking part in a substantial revision and
updating of her late husband’s legal practitioners’ work on Criminal Evidence
published late 2015. She has also contributed short stories with a distinctly
criminal flavour to two of the Oxford Stories anthologies published by Oxpens
Press – a third story is to be published shortly in another Oxford Stories
anthology – and is now concentrating on her own writing.
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