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David Whish-Wilson

Autor/a de Perth (The City Series)

16+ obres 125 Membres 12 Ressenyes

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Obres de David Whish-Wilson

Perth (The City Series) (2013) 25 exemplars
Zero at the Bone (2013) 21 exemplars
Line of sight (2010) 20 exemplars
Old Scores (2016) 10 exemplars
The Summons (2006) 7 exemplars
The Coves (2018) 7 exemplars
True West (2019) 7 exemplars
Shore Leave (Frank Swann) (2020) 7 exemplars
Crime Factory: Hard Labour (2012) 5 exemplars
Perth (2020) 3 exemplars
Die Gruben von Perth (2018) 2 exemplars
The Sawdust House (2022) 2 exemplars
I Am Already Dead (2023) 1 exemplars

Obres associades

In This Desert, There Were Seeds (2019) — Col·laborador — 1 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Gènere
male
Nacionalitat
Australia
Lloc de naixement
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Membres

Ressenyes

SHORE LEAVE is the fourth novel in the Frank Swann series. Frank's an ex-cop, now private investigator in 1970's / 80's Perth and Fremantle. In this outing it's 1989 and the Yanks are in town, and with the arrival of a huge US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, there are lots of sailors on shore leave around, making for a busy time for the local pubs, clubs and brothels; two dead women and an AWOL sailor suspect.

Swann finds himself involved in the murder investigation when asked by US Navy Master-At-Arms Steve Webb (the ship's head cop for want of a better description) for some assistance with local knowledge / local identities. And there are plenty of them, as well as plenty of odd cases that eventually all seem to be pointing in the one direction. There's that murder of two women, and the main suspect - an AWOL African-American sailor; white supremacists; a terminally ill escaped armed robber on a mission; warring bikie gangs; a missing cache of M16s off the aircraft carrier; and a gold mine owner with a big problem, desperate for Swann's help. All this while Swann is extremely ill with a mysterious malady that local doctors haven't been able to identify, he's debilitated and losing weight, nauseous and struggling.

Since the inception of this series, there have been echoes of the lone-wolf stylings of Cliff Hardy, the iconic PI that sprang from the pen of Peter Corris, shading the sun-drenched streets of Sydney with touches of deepest, darkest noir. It's easy to imagine Fremantle, with ports and a convict past; history of displacement of the native people's; a goldrush, and a lot of similarities with Sydney's founding, as a likely successor to the mean streets of Sydney. The icing on the cake here is that it's also perfectly possible to imagine Frank Swann as the successor to Cliff Hardy. The descriptive elements of the writing are sparse, pointed and cleverly understated. There's the same dry sense of humour, love of place, love of family, and sense that whatever it takes is absolutely okay in Swann's book, as it always was in Hardy's. I particularly love the asides, the dry observational way that Swann goes about his business, the way that he has connections that aren't boasted about, they just are. Swann's also not a whinger, he just gets on with things, right down to trying to survive up until the American connection fortuitously solves the illness mystery.

It's worth also remembering the timeframe of these books, the way that mobile phones are new and quite astounding (and only work because of the mast on the carrier). Public phone boxes are still a thing, surveillance is done from the seat of a car, and disappearing corrupt colleagues can be achieved with enough will, and some smarts into the bargain.

Start with SHORE LEAVE if that's your only choice, but this really is a series that deserves a complete, in order, pursuit. The threads sound complicated, and a bit of background knowledge won't hurt, although it's not necessary. For quite a while it's very hard to see how this is all going to end up, but as the action heats up and the bad guys start to lose control, Swann's attitude of press on and damn the torpedoes starts to pay off.

There's a dark noir-inspired heart at the centre of SHORE LEAVE, the characters are gritty, real, messy and complicated. The storyline is beautifully crafted and there is just so much to love about this entire series.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/shore-leave-david-whish-wilson
… (més)
 
Marcat
austcrimefiction | Jan 29, 2021 |
The editors of this book interviewed 40 fans of the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers. many of these are high profile fans and included, David Wirrpanda, Shaun McManus, Dennis Lillee, Justin Langer Alison Fan, Gillian O'Shaughnessy, Julie Bishop, Melissa Parke, Jesse Dart, and Ross McLean. They captured insights, impressions and passions from this group about one of the AFL's great rivalries, the West Coast Eagles vs Fremantle Dockers twice annual derby matches.
 
Marcat
Readingthegame | Jun 7, 2020 |
Lee Southern has fled north west Western Australia after the disappearance of his father, the first president of the Knights bikie gang. Lee believes that the new Knights president has killed his father Jack Southern, and as a parting gesture Lee has burnt their latest plantation. So he is fully expecting the Knights to come after him.

The reader is introduced to a tough world that he/she is probably not familiar with: violent, racist, drug-taking, extremist. Lee imagines he will be able to earn money as a tow truck driver and does not realise the monopoly that a local group has on the trade. His involvement eventually leads to him being used in various "jobs" which give the gang a further hold over him. In addition Lee has contacted Emma, his girlfriend from Geraldton and this eventually puts her in jeopardy.

After the gang helps Lee locate his father the action ramps up even further.

The publisher's page contains a pdf for book clubs.
… (més)
 
Marcat
smik | Apr 30, 2020 |
One of the interesting aspects of the New South City Series is that the authors vary in their approach to the task. David Whish-Wilson has surveyed Perth by using the landscape as a catalyst for his observations and memories from the landscape, covered in four long chapters:

  • The River

  • The Limestone Coast

  • The Plain, and

  • The City of Light.


The book is also influenced by the author's current preoccupation with his family:
Because my three children are relatively young, and because I spend so much time with them, it's natural that my experience of the city often revisits my experiences as a child. Down on the beach after sunset, I watch them settle as the colours on the horizon fade and they begin to sense the night's quiet ghosting, inhabiting the darkness in a way that's really only possible in a city like Perth, It's a city with presence, but balanced with an expansiveness that is perfectly suited to dreamers... (p.121)

That expansiveness is in part due to Perth being 'one of the most sprawled (120km long) cities on earth.' It's a city very dependent on cars, and it's a bit startling to read that
... to sustain an individual in Perth's current housing stock 'tales 14.5 hectares of land, seven times the world average. Western Australians, Saudi Arabians and Singaporeans share the increasingly dishonourable status of being the most unsustainable people on the planet. (p. 213)

It's disconcerting to read about their rates of homelessness too, not that Melbourne has anything to be proud of on that issue either...

Another issue that would be interesting to contrast with Melbourne has to do with the obsession with sport:
Perth's obsession with sport has literally shaped the character of the city. Some eighty percent of all open spaces within the city limits are sporting grounds, which are in turn used by only five percent of the population on very rare occasions. (p.250)

I wonder if that's true of Melbourne too? The area where I live has countless sporting grounds, and our local council (like most others, probably) spends a vast amount of ratepayers' money maintaining them and building infrastructure like stadiums, changing rooms, watering-systems and carparks, and as far as I can tell, there are never any complaints about this expenditure. Indeed, when it comes to voting for community grants, sporting projects win every time over anything else. As in Perth (with the exception of the golf courses because the wealthy play golf whenever they like) the majority of these sportsgrounds are play places for dogs during the week. But they are certainly used at weekends. Woe betide any pooch that strays onto a match in progress!

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/07/19/perth-new-south-city-series-8-by-david-whish...
… (més)
 
Marcat
anzlitlovers | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Jul 19, 2019 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
16
També de
2
Membres
125
Popularitat
#160,151
Valoració
4.0
Ressenyes
12
ISBN
43
Llengües
1

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