The fifth book in the DS Lucas
Walker series by Patricia Wolf, to be released later this month, is as good as
the earlier titles. Wolf has the gift of creating immersive and original narratives
that immediately pull me in. I raced through this one in a day.
Hero (Embla Books, May 2026) finds
Walker back in Queensland, after being caught up in an internal political
fracas within the Australian Federal Police. He ended up on the Queensland
force, in a tiny town called Katima, an easy drive from his hometown Caloodie,
where he spends his weekends with his family, something he couldn’t do in his
previous job.
The body of a young man
hanging from a tree was the first big case for Walker in his new job. Walker
was suspicious of the supposed suicide arrangement from the start and sure
enough the autopsy revealed the man had died of an overdose. Walker was
attempting to identify the victim when a retired member of the force mentioned
a cold case with strong similarities. The earlier victim was never identified
and it always worried the retiree. A call from the Conroy estate sent the two
cases from Walker’s mind, as Caden Conroy, the professional cricket player and
national hero, had been bloodily murdered in his drawing room. The killing set
off frantic demands for immediate arrests, and political strings were pulled at
all levels. Walker as part of the local police was considered incapable of
handling a major investigation. While he was forced to hand the Conroy case
over to the federal police, he still had the other two cases to work, which
began to show odd connections to the Conroy family and the cricket academy they
ran.
The craze for sports gambling
of all kinds and the potential for its abuse as well as the tendency to hold
sports figures up as objects of adulation are examined thoroughly in this
story. My knowledge of cricket, which is considered to be Australia’s national
sport, is unfortunately limited to a chapter in Murder Must Advertise by
Dorothy L. Sayers where Lord Peter Wimsey displays his skill at the game.
A thread about Walker’s niece
demonstrates his attachment to his family and his desire to stay close to them.
His late grandmother and her house remain deeply important to him, giving him a
depth of humanity not always seen in crime fiction protagonists.
The settings are exotic, the
characters are terrific, and the plots in this series are innovative and well
executed. Fans of outback noir and police procedurals should definitely add
these books to their TBR lists. Readers of the series will be delighted with
this new entry. Recommended!
- Publisher:
Embla Books
- Publication
date: May 20, 2026
- Language:
English
- Print
length: 432 pages
- ISBN-10:
1471422666
- ISBN-13:
978-1471422669
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4nv7Qkx
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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