Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Opal by Patricia Wolf

The third thriller with Detective Sergeant Lucas Walker of the Australian Federal Police by Patricia Wolf is due to be released at the end of September.

This adventure finds Walker with his half-sister Grace from Boston showing her the sights of the outback where Walker’s family lives and where he escapes at every opportunity. Their cousin Blair has been working in an opal mining operation even further inland. Blair wants to leave the job early and Walker volunteers to make the long drive to pick him up. He takes Grace with him, expecting to be gone no more than 48 hours at most. But a torrential downpour creates a massive flood, washing away crops, livestock, and bridges and closing roads. Walker, Grace, and Blair are stranded in a small town that suddenly turns violent.

A philandering couple is murdered in her bed and her jealous and brutal husband is the immediate suspect, then when he is ruled out Blair becomes the target of the investigating officer. A double murder is a great way to create doubt as to the motive since it is never clear who the intended victim was and Wolf maximizes the benefit of this plot device. The flooding means the killer can not have escaped and the fear among the townspeople becomes palpable.

As always the detail about rural Australia is fascinating. (I didn’t know there was a large inland sea within Australia at one time.) Plus the description of the mechanics of opal mining adds to the rich local color Wolf brings to this series. Apparently Australian opals are considered more valuable than others because of their high quality.

Walker’s single-mindedness about his work can be annoying. He brought his naïve city slicker sister with him to the rural outback and then more or less left her to the care of strangers while he investigated murders he had been told to stay away from. This intense focus seems to be typical, though I can see how it could backfire in some situations.

I have noticed how some books are fast reads and others require me to look at every single word in order not to miss anything. This series definitely falls into the latter category. The depth of detail cannot be skimmed and the text is dense with it.

A good entry in a really good series about the Australian outback. I am hoping this author is developing a strong following so that more books follow.

 

Aubrey's April 2023 review of the first book in the series, Outback, can be found here

 

·       Publisher: ‎Embla Books (September 30, 2024)

·       Language: ‎English

·       Paperback: ‎320 pages

·       ISBN-10: ‎1471416550

·       ISBN-13: ‎978-1471416552

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/47DEZm7

  

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night. 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Outback by Patricia Wolf

Patricia Wolf is a journalist, a regular contributor to The Guardian, the Financial Times, The Independent, The Telegraph, and other newspapers. She grew up in a mining town called Mount Isa in far north-west Queensland and left Australia after university to travel. She now lives in Berlin, Germany, but she calls the outback home. Her debut novel introduces DI Lucas Walker of the organized crime unit of the Australian Federal Police in Canberra.

In Outback (Embla Book, 2022) Walker is on compassionate leave to visit his dying grandmother in his home town of Caloodie in remote Queensland. His grandmother raised him and her approaching death is hitting him hard. He’s grateful for the distraction when his supervisor calls and asks him to help the local police in their search for a pair of tourists from Germany who have disappeared. Rita Guerra and Berndt Meyer were backpacking through Asia and Australia, taking short-term jobs as they went. The owner of a tiny ranch near Caloodie reported them missing when they did not show up to work as scheduled.

Careful not to step on sensitive toes, Walker represents himself to the town constable as a liaison for the Foreign Service and the families in Germany. They both know that tourists often underestimate the heat in central Australia during the summer and the distances between towns. They assume the two had car trouble and begin tracing their driving routes. When that doesn’t pan out, Walker begins searching for them in earnest.

Rita Guerra’s older sister Barbara is a Detective Sergeant in the Berlin State Criminal Police Office or Landeskriminalamt (LKA). She telephones Walker a few times and recognizes the platitudes she herself has used in talking to worried families. After a few days she flies to Australia to help with the search, which becomes unexpectedly complicated when Walker learns a major drug dealer is hiding in the region.

This is an outstanding read with a strong setting. The often-used theme of the illicit drug trade gets a fresh spin here. Walker and Guerra are rounded characters and the supporting cast are also realistic. The local innkeepers and the naïve tourists are especially good. Wolfe conveys the beauty and the danger of Queensland clearly and convincingly. The next book in the series is scheduled for publication in May 2023 and I am looking forward to it. Recommended.

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3BaN1qJ

 

·         Publisher: ‎Embla Books (November 8, 2022)

·         Language: ‎English

·         Paperback: ‎320 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎1471411702

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1471411700

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2023

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.