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Sep 09, 2013
Vicki Tyley
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
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australian-author
“We turn right onto Farrel Street, a stretch of run-down weatherboard homes and blocks of flats that smell of urine and all seem to slump against each other like penguins in the Antarctic. The ones that have gardens really only have weeds that seep into the cracks in the concrete paths and across abandoned playthings and up to the windows, threatening to breach the walls and ravage the people inside. The dogs that bark at us from behind torn wire fences rattle their chains and demand to know how
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An entertaining read working within a fairly formulaic noir genre - the main character is a cynical small-time detective who gradually descends into a mess of drinking and bad choices over ten grim cases. It's good fun to read, but it felt like a bit of a retread of ground that's been well covered even in my fairly limited crime fiction reading. The interesting structure - each chapter is a distinct case linked up so that the book as a whole maintains a reasonably linear narrative - was a neat w
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This is a collection of stories about private inquiry agent John Dorn, each story dealing with a case he has taken on, many of them linked to each other. It's written in the first person and the voice is pitch perfect - cynical, vulnerable, brave, self recriminating. John is far from an angel, yet has a strong sense of morality. Each story is a gem in itself - some are complete, with a twist at the end, others are unresolved. The last story, Troy, which is also the longest, is heart-breaking.
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