‘Darkness for Light’ by Emma Viskic

Published by Pushkin Vertigo,
19 March 2020.
ISBN: 978-1-78227543-5 (PB)

The quotation from Isaiah (woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness . . . )  well describes this third novel in the series featuring the deaf Melbourne PI Caleb Zelic. Despite his profound hearing problems Caleb manages well as a private investigator of business frauds etc although his marriage to sculptress Kat has been in abeyance after she suffered two failed pregnancies. But he must keep the business going even though his former partner and – he had thought - friend, Frankie Reynolds, having been revealed in a previous novel as secretly working for crime, had betrayed him and then disappeared.

So, Caleb is quite happy to meet a prospective client, a Martin Amon, at a children’s farm. And there he finds Amon – shot dead. He is interviewed by two police officers who reveal that Amon was, unknown to Caleb, a federal police officer. They let him go but very soon he is waylaid by someone he remembers all too well – he had encountered her when she had been searching for Frankie but had never known her name. She had been violent then, claiming it was to keep her cover; now she is equally menacing, threatening to have him arrested for the murder of one of Frankie’s criminal associates. Unfortunately, she is all too right on that score; that particular death was down to Caleb. He has to find Frankie. Perhaps her sister Maggie will know where she is. But when Caleb goes to Maggie’s house in a posh suburb of Melbourne, he finds that Maggie has been attacked and is seriously wounded. Her 9-year old daughter Tilda, however, is safe and Frankie appears and takes charge of the little girl. But then Tilda is abducted and matters, serious enough before, are now on a different level. And at the same time, Caleb’s elderly deaf friend Alberto who with his family runs a restaurant which has become a gathering place for others who also have hearing problems now seems uneasy about something. And problems, not to say bodies, multiply while the narrative winds backwards and forwards before reaching a surprising conclusion.

As can be seen, there is a lot of backstory in Darkness for Light which I have tried to indicate without giving away too much. Luckily most of the backstory is revealed in the first few chapters of this book, enough at least for the reader to appreciate what is going on. It is written in the same staccato style as the author’s first novel, Resurrection Bay, also reviewed in Mystery People (click on the title) which also matches the speed and violence of this book. The author, not being herself deaf, shows an impressive knowledge of how the profoundly deaf cope with the particular difficulties of their lives.

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Reviewer: Radmila May

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.

http://www.emma-viskic.com/

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.

‘The Man on the Street’ by Trevor Wood

Published by Quercus,
31 October 2019.
ISBN: 978-1-78747-836-7 (HB)

Just when you think you've encountered every kind of accidental sleuth the crime writing fraternity can invent, along comes another you'd never thought of, which knocks the entire concept out of the park.

Jimmy – he has a surname, but never admits to it if he can help it – is a homeless man. Yes, that's right. Jimmy is a veteran of the Falklands living rough on the streets of Newcastle. He suffers from PTSD and is also an ex-con with convictions for GBH and murder. Who on earth is going to believe that he witnessed a man being hit on the head and thrown in the River Tyne? Especially when he has learned not to trust the police, his mantra for survival has become not my fight, and he doesn't tell anyone what he's seen for several weeks.

But someone does believe him. Carrie's father has gone missing, and she puts out a call on social media, to which Jimmy's mate Gadge introduces him. And suddenly Jimmy is involved, whether he likes it or not.

The Man on the Street rapidly turns into one of those crime novels which is much more than just a crime novel – proving something every crime fiction fan knows: that you can do anything you like in a crime novel as long as there's crime as well. Without appearing to preach at all, Trevor Wood creates an almost filmic story of life on the streets – the joshing and abuse which mask loyal friendship, the wide variety of backstories which brought homeless people to where they are, the voluntary organizations which keep them alive and well. Most of all, the attitude of the more fortunate towards them; the surprise at the very idea that they might had once had responsible jobs, and even less likely, might actually have feelings. 

Wood has a sure hand with characters, homeless and not; and the backdrop to his story is almost tactile, so vividly evoked are the hidey-holes and secret places homeless people seek out. The plot, too, is a satisfying tangle of corrupt police, money-grabbing entrepreneurs and ordinary folk, some sympathetic, some rather less so. It all ends well, of course, but along the way Jimmy is beaten up, shot at, accused of murder and hardly ever believed or trusted: all in a day's unemployment to a homeless person resigned to being almost invisible except when a scapegoat is needed.

If something a little different is your bag, this is the novel for you. And Trevor Wood is certainly a talent to watch.

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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Trevor Wood has lived in Newcastle for 25 years and considers himself an adopted Geordie, though he still can’t speak the language. He's a successful playwright who has also worked as a journalist and spin-doctor for the City Council. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for 16 years joining, presciently, as a Writer. Trevor holds an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) from UEA. His first novel, The Man on the Street, which is set in his home city, will be published by Quercus in Spring 2020. He is represented by Oli Munson at AM Heath.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.

‘Evil River’ by Keith Jacobsen

Published by The Book Guild,
28 February 2020.
ISBN: 978-1-913208-30-1 (PB)

A book by an unfamiliar author is always something of a leap of faith – but one of the great pleasures of reviewing fiction is the occasional unexpected gem that falls into one's lap.

The premise of Evil River was certainly intriguing: an Oxford academic as accidental sleuth, looking into the apparent suicide of one of his students. And sure enough, the more I read, the more promising the novel itself became, until before long I was completely engrossed.

Creative writing manuals have a great deal to say about 'voice': the author's unique style and way with words. Keith Jacobsen has chosen first-person narration as a story-telling medium and puts a different spin on the concept: he captures the 'voice' of Alan Harris, the academic, to perfection. His measured, diffident, slightly formal tone comes across loud and clear as he recounts the events surrounding the tragic death of Simon Harvey, a student in whom, we discover, he was beginning to see echoes of his own emotionally stilted youth.

Alan's own reserved personality comes to life just as vividly as those of the people involved in Simon's sad story. After the student's body is discovered in the river, close to a punt in which are two empty bottles, one which contained whisky, the other tranquillizers, he finds himself asking questions about the young man's life, and seeking out his friends – one in particular – and members of his family. What he finds is profoundly disturbing and leads the unsuspecting don down paths he never expected to venture on, into mystery and danger, and friendships he had never thought to find.

The action moves between Oxford, suburban Liverpool and central London, and all three are portrayed with a sure hand. Jacobsen clearly knows Oxford very well indeed and recreates the unique 'bubble' atmosphere of academia in the early 1970s with a sure hand. He reminds the reader that as well as the beautiful ancient stone dreaming spires and picturesque quads and meadows, the city has its less salubrious side; the river bend in which Simon's body gets caught is an unlovely and malodorous tangle of weeds.

Evil River is clearly the work of a skilful and experienced writer. A story which begins on a sad but quiet note rapidly escalates into something darker, and eventually picks up and runs with the theme of families and the harm they can inflict on each other. Read it, and perhaps, like me, you'll feel you've had an unexpected treat.

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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Keith Jacobsen was born in Liverpool in 1948. He was educated at St Catherine's College, Oxford. He worked as a private piano teacher after taking early retirement from the civil service in 1999, having been a civil servant for twenty-seven years, moving up through the ranks of what was then known as the administrative class, taking a special interest in international health relations.  He now teaches on a voluntary basis, leading a piano group of his local U3A (University of the third Age).  He is the author of Place of a Skull (Thames River Press, 2013) and Sisters of Fury (Book Guild, 2015).  He now lives in North London with his wife, Valerie, also a senior civil servant

http://www.keithjacobsen.co.uk/

 

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.