Australian rural Noir!

Consolation (Paul Hirschhause #3) by Garry Disher       

*****

First up I've been a Garry Disher fan forever.  This third tale of a country / outback cop in Tiverton, South Australia near Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound (fabulous country) is taut and vivid. Constable Paul Hirschhausen or rather Hirsch could be a small town cop anywhere where spaces are wide and open, from Canada to the US. The play between the big city cops and the homegrown patrols who know their charges and the lay of the land are brilliantly depicted.

The people are familiar. I loved Hirsch's concern for the elderly helping them in small and big ways. Concerned that the elderly females are being targeted by a snowdropper. I didn't know what this meant until now. Being nice sometimes doesn't pay off. Suddenly Hirsch becomes the target for a stalker.

So there's  a lot happening here, all more or less connected.

Plenty of drama, downplayed and yet it smacks you in the face as large as life. 

Rural Australian noir that joins with other locations of Noir, like the frozen landscapes of Nordic Noir, where harsh and unforgiving climates nurture distinctive crime odysseys. 

I loved Disher's descriptions of the land, the patrol rites, like Thursday's long patrol, giving a sense of the immense spaces the local police have to care for.

Did I say how much I loved this!

A Text Publications ARC via NetGalley