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Wolf Pear

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Esther Crooke is a lonely woman, obsessed with her unique books and her home grown tomatoes – but she has a secret buried deep within her garden. JD Cusack is one of Australia's finest detectives. He has a mysterious gift for solving crimes that have been cold for years. When his brother is brutally murdered, he sets out in pursuit of a serial-killer and must follow the scent of the wolf pear.

275 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2011

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21 people want to read

About the author

Dianne F. Gray

6 books18 followers
I'm a writer and a dreamer. My latest short story was shortlisted in the top three of the 2016 Ruth Rendell Writing award, judged by Lynda La Plante. Some of my short stories have been published in Australian anthologies:

Harper Collins - "Enter"
Ginninderra Press - "The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet"
Harlequin/MIRA press - "Scarlet Stiletto - The First Cut".

...and some of my novels have won awards.

The Everything Theory - IP Picks 2009
Let Sleeping Gods Lie - IP Picks 2007
Soul's Child - YouWriteOn Book of the Year 2012

Feel free to leave a comment - even if it's just to drop by and say hello

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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Lynxie.
710 reviews78 followers
July 4, 2014
I did not expect that!

I stumbled across Dianne's books by accident, it wasn't even through Goodreads, but when I learnt that not only was she an Aussie, but a multi-award winning author, I had to give her work a try.

I was not disappointed!

The plot was intricate, but easy to understand, it had murder, mystery, paranormal themes and even a tiny bit of romance.

The characters were brilliantly written. I loved Esther, she was so thoroughly unique and not perfect it made the book perfect. JD was full of surprises. I didn't see some of the plot twists coming, but they worked!

I loved the truly Aussie flavours of this book, the outback, the personality of the locals, the weather, the laid-back style. It was country Australia at its best.

I hated Esther's parents and family, but it added to the story. I would have probably murdred them several times if they were my family.

The action in this book is constant, it has many different genre facets, but I don't think it could possibly fail to deliver a delightful read, no matter what your preferred genre of reading is.

Pick up Wolf Pear today! It was a fantastic, rollercoaster of a ride.
Author 15 books54 followers
July 27, 2015
Wolf Pear, by Dianne Gray, is a well-written, complex book about two lives that intersect through a murder. Esther Crookes is bullied by her family for being overweight and unmarried, yet she runs a successful eatery, Crooke’s Books & Cafe, in town, the one place she is respected.

She has a secret – there’s a body in her garden, and she buried it.

JD Cusak is a savvy police detective who has yet to move past a childhood ordeal, only to have to contend with the crushing blow of his brother’s murder.

He too carries a secret – he can see the dead.

Gray is brilliant at character development. There are many characters throughout the book, yet each one is vivid and individual from description to dialogue. I could easily picture these people in the real world, nothing seemed out of place to me, and I was never taken out of the story.

Gray tightens the tension, and the mystery, as she draws us through Esther’s and JD’s lonely and tormented lives. Not only are we feeling pity for the main characters, but we’re nervous too – if the murder is solved, what will it mean for the characters we’ve grown to care about and root for?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down. Truly. I read it while making dinner because I just had to know what happens next! This is the first book of Dianne Gray's that I have read, but I can assure you, it won't be the last!
Profile Image for Jacqui.
Author 65 books225 followers
January 1, 2017
We meet Esther Crooke, the heroine of Dianne Gray's Wolf Pear (Amazon Digital Services 2011) as she is burying a dead body in her backyard. As she finishes, her family arrives for a short visit and spends most of the time berating her for being overweight and single. This despite Esther's success at starting and running her own bakery. We quickly find out Esther is part of a very odd family.

"He promised to return it [something Esther's father borrowed] and must have driven by that afternoon and thrown it out of the car window on his way past because he couldn’t be bothered stopping. He always did things like that."

Her sister allows her baby to fountain urine into the air while she's changing him--and thinks it's cute. Her mother tries to match-make Esther wth an ex-con by inviting him to breakfast at Esther's house:

"Danny Thurlong scratched at his egg-shaped head. His hair was cut short at the top and stringy... Danny agreed as a piece of toast flicked from his mouth back onto his plate."

I cheered when Esther rejected Danny:

"‘It’s been nice meeting you, but it’s time to leave and please don’t come back.’ His mouth hung open like a cave. ‘But, I fought…’ ‘Don’t think. Just leave.’"

Luckily, she does get relief from this odious family while working, though the dead body buried in her garden continues to haunt her.

But Esther isn't the whole story. There's JD, the troubled policemen taking a compassionate leave in an effort to make peace with the murder of his brother. JD, who can't stand human touch but can talk to dead people, voices that seek him out, begging him to bring justice to their murderers. Despite being on vacation from work, he quickly realizes that the man who killed his brother is a serial killer and it's up to JD to stop him.

Both JD and Esther are appealing multidimensional characters. They have guts and humility despite their inter-personal problems. Besides creative plotting and strong storytelling skills, what sets Gray's writing apart is her rich descriptions, like few I've read:

"Mossy rocks and bird-catching spider-webs marred his path. Parrots exploded from the trees like green and red fireworks. The only narrow corner he could find wasn’t as narrow as he expected. It was deep and traversed by a dirt road used by anglers to launch small dinghies."

"...trees like tired soldiers tranquilly watched him pass without a breath of wind."

Highly recommended for those who like understanding the people behind the story.
Profile Image for Dannie Hill.
Author 4 books23 followers
October 13, 2014
First let me say I thoroughly enjoyed read Wolf Pear by Dianne Gray. She took two almost completely different stories and let them converge into a wonderful complete book.

One thing that amazed me was how the author used so many characters, kept them separated and gave each a distinct personality that I could relate to. I also liked the use of main characters that don’t fit the norm for today’s writing.

The story kept the tension and anticipation of the outcome in question until then end. The two main characters JD Cusack and Esther Crookes are completely different but each filled with past secrets and the Wolf Pear drew them closer and closer together.

I would highly recommend this book to readers of mysteries, suspense and those that enjoy a good story. I will be reading more of Dianne Gray’s works.
Profile Image for Charissa.
Author 19 books81 followers
January 21, 2013
4.5 - Suspenseful criminal thriller. Esther is an emotionally abused single woman who has been caught up in something bigger than herself. JD is a detective that has paranormal gifts to see the dead...kind of like The Sixth Sense. Yikes! He is looking for the serial killer that killed his brother, and it leads him to Esther, the girl who grows huge, abnormal tomatoes in her eerie garden. The author gave just enough detail in each chapter to pull you along in the mystery without giving away the killer's identity. I loved the grim mood and the insights into the characters with each new chapter.
9 reviews
March 1, 2018
What an odd story - it was like someone had half a dozen ideas for a book and just decided to cobble them together in a quick hash. I finished it as I was curious how all the threads would come together but it was disappointing and a bit of a waste of time.
Profile Image for Francis Guenette.
Author 11 books46 followers
April 9, 2014
One of the most unlikely and satisfying love stories I’ve ever read.

Wolf Pear is, hands down, an absolute delight – like sinking one’s teeth into a ripe and luscious tomato fresh off the vine. For that is what a wolf pear is – a tomato. And this novel is about as juicy and tasty as its title suggests.

Now you might ask yourself – how can anyone call a book about a poor woman who has been bullied, pushed, shoved, and taken advantage of all her life and a grief-stricken, haunted police detective on the trail of a serial killer, a delight? I guess you had to be there because delightful it is.

From the opening pages, as Esther Crooke scrambles to bury a body in the soil of her garden, through Detective JD Cusack’s cross country chase, always steps behind a killer, Gray hooks the reader into the story with effortless ease.

To hide the makeshift grave, Esther puts in a crop of tomato plants given to her off the back of a truck headed for an experimental farm. And boy or boy, do those tomatoes grow, achieving exactly the opposite of what Esther had hoped – her attempts at camouflage shine a spotlight on her makeshift grave.

As JD Cusack’s past secrets and special ability brings him closer and closer to the killer, Gray neatly winds in all the loose ends of the story like an expert knitter finishing off a scarf.

This book abounds with location and character details that cause the reader to chuckle out loud or sigh with sadness.

Esther owns and runs the Crooke Books & Café, a converted house out on the highway. “Its roof pitched like a witch’s hat slashed with orange rust.” A startling juxtaposition of description tells all in a handful of words. The café is filled with books Esther has collected, none of which are for sale. Sit down, have a coffee, some of Esther’s famous carrot cake or her sticky date pudding and read a book. Patrons choose their tables based on the reading material nearby. Aren’t you dying to go to this place? Books for Esther are precious, “Miniature cameos of the world.”

At one point, Esther confronts a picture of herself in the local newspaper as she fends off a reporter and photographer who have come poking their nose into her tomato crop. “She had seen her real self in the newspaper – an ugly monster with claws and teeth and a chin like Jabba the Hut.” Oh my – read that and try not to sigh.

The place names are another source of delight – the town of Boonup, taking a trip up to Woorumbilly and the Jabiru Hotel.

Wolf Pear is a finely crafted story that pulls no punches when describing how the innocent suffer and yet the reader is forced to laugh at the incongruity of life while coming to see that always redemption awaits, growing wild and free like the wolf pears in Esther’s garden/graveyard.
Profile Image for Jacqui.
Author 65 books225 followers
January 1, 2017
We meet Esther Crooke, the heroine of Dianne Gray's Wolf Pear (Amazon Digital Services 2011) as she is burying a dead body in her backyard. As she finishes, her family arrives for a short visit and spends most of the time berating her for being overweight and single. This despite Esther's success at starting and running her own bakery. We quickly find out Esther is part of a very odd family.

"He promised to return it [something Esther's father borrowed] and must have driven by that afternoon and thrown it out of the car window on his way past because he couldn’t be bothered stopping. He always did things like that."

Her sister allows her baby to fountain urine into the air while she's changing him--and thinks it's cute. Her mother tries to match-make Esther wth an ex-con by inviting him to breakfast at Esther's house:

"Danny Thurlong scratched at his egg-shaped head. His hair was cut short at the top and stringy... Danny agreed as a piece of toast flicked from his mouth back onto his plate."

I cheered when Esther rejected Danny:

"‘It’s been nice meeting you, but it’s time to leave and please don’t come back.’ His mouth hung open like a cave. ‘But, I fought…’ ‘Don’t think. Just leave.’"

Luckily, she does get relief from this odious family while working, though the dead body buried in her garden continues to haunt her.

But Esther isn't the whole story. There's JD, the troubled policemen taking a compassionate leave in an effort to make peace with the murder of his brother. JD, who can't stand human touch but can talk to dead people, voices that seek him out, begging him to bring justice to their murderers. Despite being on vacation from work, he quickly realizes that the man who killed his brother is a serial killer and it's up to JD to stop him.

Both JD and Esther are appealing multidimensional characters. They have guts and humility despite their inter-personal problems. Besides creative plotting and strong storytelling skills, what sets Gray's writing apart is her rich descriptions, like few I've read:

"Mossy rocks and bird-catching spider-webs marred his path. Parrots exploded from the trees like green and red fireworks. The only narrow corner he could find wasn’t as narrow as he expected. It was deep and traversed by a dirt road used by anglers to launch small dinghies."

"...trees like tired soldiers tranquilly watched him pass without a breath of wind."

Highly recommended for those who like understanding the people behind the story.
Profile Image for Tiffany Loves Books.
131 reviews13 followers
November 8, 2012
With a novel like this it is apparent to me why your writing has won so many awards, Dianne. I absolutely love this novel. It is captivating, enthralling, has great pacing, relatable narrators, intrigue, suspense and an amazing storyline.

Wolf Pear has two narrators: Esther and JD.
* Esther is someone who has been emotionally abused all of her life. She is just a fat waste of space that will never amount to anything as far as her family is concerned. She tries to live her life in spite of their abuse and has done well for herself. Yet all they do is belittle her achievements and point out all of her wrongs. They walk all over her and she rarely stands up for herself. But even with all of this, she is a strong person and I loved that about her. I love the survivor in her and her strength and perseverance. She is truly a great person who is lonely and in need of love.
* JD is an accomplished police officer who is on "vacation" after his brothers death. However this vacation is actually his journey to track down his brother's killer. He is determined to find this person and bring him to justice. He is gifted and pulls off Sherlock Holmes like scenes. He puts things together that no one else sees. It is exciting and pretty darn impressive. He also has a troubled past that he can't remember but begins to have flashbacks of it on this journey.

It becomes pretty clear that these two are going to meet. The reader is anticipating this and unsure as to what will happen when they do. At the end of it all, it is pretty great but not at all what I was expecting. Uhum... Allow me to correct myself. It did not end the way I wanted it to. It was a happily ever after just not of the flower and hearts variety that the romantic in me was hoping for.

Wolf Pear has left me impressed and yearning to read more of Gray's work. It is a novel anyone can enjoy. It has its action, comedy, drama, paranormal appearances and suspense. Gray keeps you tethered to this novel. When not in your hands it will be on your mind. This is truly an amazing read.

*I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review
Profile Image for Carrie.
701 reviews12 followers
July 17, 2015
The book starts with a woman burying a body in her yard, and the intrigue doesn't let up from there. The chapters alternate between two point-of-view characters. First there's Esther Crookes, a lonely woman, unattractive by society's standards, who is ridiculed by her family and longs for something more. Complicating her life is the body she just buried in her yard. Next is JD Cusack, a well-respected police detective with his own secret, one that gives him a special skill that acts as both a gift and a curse. Each chapter hooked me in by revealing just enough in each of these two characters' lives to keep me turning the pages long after I should have moved on to something else. Really hard to put down! At the climax, these two interesting characters finally cross paths for a satisfying and well-drafted ending. I really enjoyed this book and very much recommend it.
Profile Image for Rick Mallery.
Author 13 books73 followers
September 6, 2012
Read this book! The opening scene sets the tone of mystery and suspense that pervades the rest of the book. Esther buries a body, and our discovery of how this corpse found its final resting place in the garden of a frumpy but gritty bookshop owner is interwoven with the story of JD, a psychic detective, who is on the trail of a serial killer.

This well-crafted book explores the dark recesses of the dual protagonist's lives as they interact with a world of crazy family members, oblivious law enforcement officers, and restless spirits of the dead.

The ending ties everything together in a most unexpected but satisfying way.

I repeat: Read this book!
Profile Image for Dale.
273 reviews
July 31, 2013
I feel like I've been on a trip but no, I've just read Wolf Pear. Many times when I go on holidays I fall in love with the place and think oh, it would be so good to just stay. Reading Dianne Gray's novel, it's the same, I fell in love and made new friends, enjoyed the miles & twists & turns of the journey, and despite the deaths and Esther's horrible family I wanted to move to Boonup. I knew I was going to enjoy this read, but I didn't realise how much.
Profile Image for Kath Unsworth.
70 reviews
September 1, 2014
I have just finished Wolf Pear and the last couple of chapters of this book I could not stop reading. Dianne Gray has a unique Australian style all of her own. The characters jump off the page and I feel like I have met them all before somewhere. If you like a serious adult murder mystery with a slight paranormal edge. You will enjoy this read. I am going back for more, as Dianne has many other novels to choose from and Im am hooked.
Profile Image for P.A. Wilson.
Author 63 books39 followers
October 11, 2014
In Wolf Pear, Dianne Gray gives us a fascinating story of family dynamics, horticulture, the paranormal and murder. She makes us love the quirkiness of all the characters while still keeping a grim tone to the entire story. I liked it so much I bought the other books listed at the end.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

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