SEPTEMBER 7 2019 LISTENER 53
by CRAIG SISTERSONH
ow far would you go to save an
abducted child? That’s a ques-
tion quickly answered for sheriff’s
deputy Noah Harper in Christch-
urch author Paul Cleave’s superb 11th
thriller, WHATEVER IT TAKES (Upstart Press,
$37.99). Bloodied hands and gunpowder
residue are the evidence of Noah’s method- a rescued girl and the self-destruction of
his life are the result. Job gone, marriage
gone, banished from his town, Noah has
no intention of ever returning to Acacia
Pines. Twelve years later, he’s semi-happily
working in a bar far away, until Alyssa
goes missing again and a dying priest
asks for Noah’s help. Cleave’s first tale set
abroad delivers the compromised char-
acters, fizzing prose and plot lines salted
with sly humour we’ve come to expect
from the crown prince of Antipodean
noir, while taking readers somewhere new.
Acacia Pines is heartland America, a one-
road-in town of sawmills, vast forests and
elected lawmen. Cleave expertly delivers a
page-whirring tale that touches on tough
issues and entertains throughout.
E
dition neuf of French crime-writing
queen Fred Vargas’ series featuring
eccentric Parisian cop Commissaire
Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg is a spiralling
delight of a tale. In THIS POISON WILL
REMAIN, expertly translated by Sian
Reynolds (Harvill Secker, $37), Adamsberg
is called back from holiday to investigate
the murder of a young woman, only to
be redirected to a puzzling series of deathsof older men. Could they really all have
died as a result of bites from the painful,
but not usually deadly, recluse spider?
Theories and hunches are ridiculed, but
what part does a historic orphanage play?
Vargas tantalises readers with a diabolical
mystery and the welcome return of the
doggedly curious Adamsberg, an atypical
detective who has an eclectic group of
colleagues. A witty, stylish crime novel
from a true master. Vargas and Reynolds
have already teamed for a record four
CWA International Daggers for best
translated crime fiction; they may need
more space on the mantlepiece.B
efore Peter Temple, Michael
Robotham and Jane Harper were
scooping Gold Daggers and raising
the flag for Australian crime writing on
the global stage, there was the great Peter
Corris. The prolific Sydney
author single-handedly
kick-started the modern era
of “terror Australis” in 1980
when he broke through
after much publisher rejec-
tion with The Dying Trade, a
distinctly Aussie version of the
hardboiled US tales he loved,
with a distinctly Aussie hero- private eye and all-round hardman Cliff
Hardy. More than 80 books, including 42
Cliff Hardy novels, followed. Sadly, last
year “late” was added to “great”. SEE YOU
AT THE TOXTETH (Allen & Unwin, $32.99) is a
fitting tribute to the godfather of modern
Australian crime. It’s an expertly curated
collection of Cliff Hardy short stories and
Corris’ columns on a variety of topics, as
well as his previously unpublished ABC of
Crime Writing. We witness the many faces
of Sydney throughout Hardy’s adventures,
and the changing face of Australia as more
than three decades pass by. For long-time
fans or those new to Corris and Hardy,
this entertaining read gives more insight
into the giant on whose shoulders so
many others have stood. l
Unleashed
on America
Paul Cleave breaks out
of Christchurch for a
sly tale of a maverick
sheriff ’s deputy in the
US heartland.
Paul Cleave: fizzing prose and plot lines salted
with sly humour.CRIME ROUNDUP