Reviewed by Craig Sisterson
Western Australia, 1988. After betraying the Knights bikie gang, seventeen-year-old Lee Southern flees to the city with nothing left to lose.
Working as a rogue tow truck driver in Perth, he is captured by right-wing extremists whose combination of seduction and blackmail keeps him on the wrong side of the law and under their control.
As the true nature of what drives his captors unfolds, Lee becomes an unwilling participant in a breathtakingly ambitious plot – and a cold-blooded crime that will show just how much he, and everyone else, still has to lose.
I've been writing about Australian and New Zealand crime writers for a dozen years or so now - for magazines, newspapers, and websites - in amongst all the crime fiction related stuff I do with authors from all over the globe. It's noticeable that in recent years I'm getting asked more and more for recommendations not just of great crime writers to try in general, but Aussie & Kiwi crime writers in particular. Sure, me writing a book like SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME has had some effect, but it was happening even before that. There's a growing global interest in Downunder, and an author that I really rate - who hasn't been as easily available in the UK and US due to the idiosyncrasies of international publishing - is Western Australian author David Whish-Wilson.
Whish-Wilson is just one of those really good storytellers who crafts really good stories that have a fresh edge, without seeming to try too hard to 'upturn the genre' or be so very different to what else is out there in a 'look at me, look at how distinctive this book is' way you sometimes see in publishing.
He writes great crime novels that have familiarity and freshness, that delve into important real-life issues via a page-turning story but don't bash you over the head or soapbox. Nuanced characters in a rich setting, with some great writing (eg just some cool sentences and descriptions).
Whish-Wilson came to crime writing notice thanks to his excellent Frank Swann series set in 1970s and 1980s Western Australia. An era of graft and corruption where politics, police, and criminals seemed entwined at times. Four books thusfar: the latest being this year's SHORE LEAVE. Well worth reading.
While TRUE WEST is a standalone, it definitely operates in that same world as the later Frank Swann books, with Whish-Wilson continuing to explore the grimy underbelly of his home state. It's a raw and powerful tale of a young man who lives the old phrase "out of the frying pan, into the fire".
The son of biker gang royalty, Lee Southern has burned his past associations to the ground, quite literally. With a target on his back, he looks to survive and find a new life in the big city of Perth, scraping together cash as a freelance tow truck driver. Now sooner has he arrived than he's put himself on the wrong side of some bad people. But his pedigree intrigues them - they want to recruit Lee to their cause: a white nationalist organisation that's looking to earn votes as well as cracking skulls.
Whish-Wilson has crafted an absolutely sublime novel that takes readers into some dark and disturbing places, while retaining a flame of hope so as not to become unremittingly bleak. The motivations, actions, and justifications of Lee's new pals are unsettling, not to mention troublingly relevant or apparent in our modern world thirty years later. The more things change, as they say ...
Lee is a fascinating protagonist. A young, tough bloke who has quite a bit more to him than on first glance. He can handle himself - a fact that's harnessed and manipulated by others at times.
TRUE WEST is a brutal and brilliant slice of Australian crime fiction. Shades of Romper Stomper and American History X, it has plenty of heart amongst the hate. Whish-Wilson has a masterful touch for action and violence, yet the real genius is the nuance and complexity of this page-turning tale that explores the insidious nature of prejudice and xenophobia throughout society.
Tense, pacy, intricate: a great crime novel from a great writer.
Craig Sisterson is a lapsed Kiwi lawyer who now lives in London and writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. Craig's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, McIlvanney Prize, is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment