bedroom, the kindly counsellor takes too close
an interest in an artistic but troubled student,
the pink-cheeked Midwestern girl tiptoes into
a frat party.
WhileSVUprods our primal fears, and
though not every episode sees a pounded gavel
and declaration of, “Guilty!”, it simultaneously
offers reassurance that if the worst happens, it
will beokayin the end. The verdict is delivered
and the world, which 50 minutes ago had gone
wonky, is righted.
Law & Order, and star Sam Waterston’s
ever-expanding eyebrows, left this world in
2010 having tied the record for longest-running
live-action drama serial withGunsmoke,butSVU
shows no sign of following it to the knackers’
yard. In fact, it’s on season 18, just three away
from breaking that record. Be it that it feels like
a pair of warm slippers. Be it Ice-T’s zingers. Be
it the dun-dun/the chung-chung/the doink-doink.
Maybe the heartdoesjust want what the heart
wants. As Amanda Palmer sang, “Who needs
love when there’sLaw & Order?”EYEVINE, PHOTOFESTLAW & ORDER: SVU SEASON 17 IS OUT NOW ON DVD.
CRIMSON LAKE
★★★★★
FROMNOWIN THE OPENING pages ofCrimson
Lake, the latest novel by Australian
crime-writing darling Candice Fox,
hungry crocs lurk and hide just below
the surface of the stifling Cairns
wetlands. But in this oppressive small
town, who are the real monsters? The
two private eyes with murky pasts, or a
sweaty, angry mob who will stop at
nothing in their bid to expose them?
Two-time Ned Kelly Award-winnerNORSE MYTHOLOGY
★★★★★
FROMNOWNeil Gaiman (American Gods,The
Ocean At The End Of The Lane)was
first exposed to Norse mythology
through — youguessed it —Jack Kirby’s
Thor comics in the 1960s. As a boy he
was so enchanted that he devoured all
he could read about Odin and Thor and
Loki and Freya, and about Asgard and
Yggdrasil and Ragnarok; later he
realised how deeply many of those
myths were ingrained in the work of
everyone and everything from Tolkien
to Alan Garner to George RR Martin.Fox, fresh from a successful
collaboration with crime-writing king
James Patterson, has once again
created protagonists soaked in an
edgy, black-humour-laced vulnerability.
Detective Ted Conkaffey was a content
married police officer until his life was
destroyed by the six minutes in
between him being seen talking to a
young girl at a bus stop and her
abduction. Charged but set free after
the trial was aborted due to lack of
evidence, Ted escapes to Crimson Lake
where, in the eyes of a community
baying for blood, he is a guilty man.
He forms an unlikely partnership
with local woman-turned-private
investigator, Amanda. Though
seemingly more eccentric than evil,
she served ten years for a murder she
admitted to committing without ever
disclosing why. As the novel weaves in
details of the circumstances of their
cases, the book zeroes in on a third
crime — the pair’s hunt to solve the
disappearance of prominent local
author Jake Scully. Fox masterfully
pulls together all three threads — Ted’s
alleged crime, Amanda’s past and the
mystery of what happened to Jake
— into a heart-pounding conclusion.
AMY DALENow Gaiman has created his own
retelling of those classic myths (“Old
stories for a new boy”, as he notes in
his dedication to his first grandson
Everett), based at least in part on the
Edda, a 13th-century Norse manuscript
detailing some of the Nordic myths.
Gaiman has written his version of the
tales in lyrical, faintly archaic prose
(“Three times he went away, three
times he — eventually — returned”)
that carry a certain weight of history,
as though you’re hearing them intoned
from a wise old man sitting by a fire.
It’s probably best consumed over
several sittings rather than at a gulp,
but while the stories are all basically
standalone pieces, the book as a whole
does follow an arc, from the creation of
the world, through the stories of the
gods (often based around Loki being an
asshat), to Ragnarok and the end of all
things. Gaiman’s genuine affection for
these stories is obvious, and he salts
each of them with dry humour and
phrases that beg to be read aloud.
There’s also a glossary for when you’ve
had an extra horn of mead and are
getting Thrud, Thrym and Thokk
confused. A welcome change of pace
for fantasy fiends who want of a taste
of where it all began.TKLeft:Olivia Benson (Mariska
Hargitay) and Nick Amaro
(Danny Pino) out for justice.
Top:The crew looking delighted
as usual.
Above:Safety first while
jogging: the NYPD way.
Below:Elliot Stabler
(Christopher Meloni) was
Benson’s partner for 12 seasons.