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It's nearly Christmas and small-town Australia definitely isn't the place to be. The weather is sweltering, the police are an unpopular bunch – and they don't seem to be able to stop young women being abducted on a remote country road. Inspector Hal Challis has the dubious honour of heading this motley crew of cops. He's a gloomy sort of chap, living out by himself and keeping clear of his neighbours where possible. We soon find out that it's quite reasonable for him to be a little less than chipper as his wife tried to have him killed – and she's now in prison and rings him somewhat too often for chats. His sergeant, Ellen Destry, isn't a bundle of laughs either. She's got a grumpy traffic cop husband who resents the fact his wife's career is advancing quicker than his, a sulky teenage daughter and a sweltering house. So that nice air-conditioning engineer looks attractive on several fronts! Meanwhile, Constable John 'Tank' Tankard enforces the law rather too enthusiastically, and now has the residents of the Peninsula baying for his blood. And dour sergeant Kees van Alphen finds himself in deep trouble with a mysterious femme fatale (or as near as you'll get to one in rural Oz!) The townspeople aren't what you'd call charmers either. There's the obligatory 'print and be damned' journalist, a sex offender, a snooty solicitor, some dregs of the gene pool arsonists and petty criminals, and a mysterious Kiwi woman with a new identity. THE DRAGON MAN – the title comes from Challis's sideline of restoring an old aeroplane – is high on atmosphere, if low on characters you'd want to spend any time with. Challis is an honest and persistent cop, but any sympathy for Ellen goes out of the window when she commits a stupid act at a crime scene. And spotting whodunit isn't exactly strenuous. But that said, THE DRAGON MAN is a tightly-written and engrossing book, with an intense and claustrophobic feel to it, and it's good to see that the series is finally available in the UK.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, May 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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