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Silent Reach
SILENT REACH By OSMAR WHITE 1978 First American Edition OSMAR WHITE PUBLISHER - (LOCATION) / CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, NY 1978 First American Edition stated with the correct number line present Mystery, First Edition BINDING/ Hardback with dust jacket RUST
320 pages, Paperback
Published March 25, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 25, 2021
I picked this up in a second hand book store. I did so out of curiosity for a book about WA and the the northwest in particular in the 70s and 80s.
It’s… alright. Horrifically dated in parts. Genuinely interesting in others. Little curios in places for Perthians. Reminds me of the kind of book you’d read on holidays because you found it in the caravan park library.
It’s… alright. Horrifically dated in parts. Genuinely interesting in others. Little curios in places for Perthians. Reminds me of the kind of book you’d read on holidays because you found it in the caravan park library.
July 15, 2012
My paperback edition (was there ever a hardcover version?) has the following blurb on its cover: "A stunningly good thriller in the Forsyth class." Well, it's not everyone who has read Forsyth these days, yet one can't help agree that, yes, this is a stunner in its own right. In fact, and one draws breath and sighs here because one knows that no other similar works followed on from this one, it is outrageously good and should have been a portent of more good things to come.
Set in Western Australia in the 1980s, this is a whodunnit with an intriguing social background, one that highlights, even though it doesn't really examine, the issue of race relations. Most of the action takes place in remote locations, giving White an opportunity to paint lyrical descriptions of the Australia outback. At the same time, this is a text of great subtlety that keeps the reader thinking and wondering. The climax is fraught with a kind of tension that, yes, one might find in a good Forsyth. Yet the book never stoops to mere artifice. Each scene, no matter how dramatic, is contributing to the whole, leaving this particular reader immensely satisfied at the end. What a shame Osmar White didn't live long enough to write more in this line. Over the course of a long journalistic career, he did in fact publish numerous books and some of them are very fine indeed, particularly his book on the New Guinea campaign in WWII, "Green Armour," and his graphic reporting on Patton's race through Germany in early 1945, and the aftermath of the war, in "Conqueror's Road." While "Silent Reach" is altogether another kettle of fish, it nevertheless draws on this author's long exposure to what we might call the dark side of life.
Set in Western Australia in the 1980s, this is a whodunnit with an intriguing social background, one that highlights, even though it doesn't really examine, the issue of race relations. Most of the action takes place in remote locations, giving White an opportunity to paint lyrical descriptions of the Australia outback. At the same time, this is a text of great subtlety that keeps the reader thinking and wondering. The climax is fraught with a kind of tension that, yes, one might find in a good Forsyth. Yet the book never stoops to mere artifice. Each scene, no matter how dramatic, is contributing to the whole, leaving this particular reader immensely satisfied at the end. What a shame Osmar White didn't live long enough to write more in this line. Over the course of a long journalistic career, he did in fact publish numerous books and some of them are very fine indeed, particularly his book on the New Guinea campaign in WWII, "Green Armour," and his graphic reporting on Patton's race through Germany in early 1945, and the aftermath of the war, in "Conqueror's Road." While "Silent Reach" is altogether another kettle of fish, it nevertheless draws on this author's long exposure to what we might call the dark side of life.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews