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No Witness, No Case
No Witness, No Case is about dirty business and dirty politics, greed, corruption and a callous disregard for the environment, the law and the community. A black waste scam is concealed within a legitimate waste business; the business owner is in league with the Mafia; the owner's son is a corrupt and ruthless politician; and the Russians are trying to muscle their way in and oust the Mafia.
482 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2014
16 people want to read
About the author
Bill H. Robertson
2 books2 followersAuthor Bill Robertson retired from Victoria Police as an Assistant Commissioner after 36 years. Working beforehand at metropolitan and country stations, he held the portfolios of Research & Development and Personnel & Police Training.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 4, 2014
It's hard not to have certain expectations of crime fiction when it's written by a former Victorian Assistant Police Commissioner, as unreasonable or unfair as that may seem.
The first expectation is that the plot should have a strong sense of realism about it. NO WITNESS, NO CASE explores Mafia activities in a way that seemed uncommon in crime fiction. Looking at the machinations behind a Mafia boss attempting to turn an illegal, and dangerous business, into a legitimate activity. That needs influence from the bottom of the chain - the workers in a company through the company management, right into the centre of Victorian politics. It also requires a high level of ruthlessness, hence the awful death of a truck driver that first brings attention to the illegal side of the operation. Drawing these elements together is cleverly done in this novel, with a high, and somewhat sobering level of believability.
The second expectation is that the characters be believable. Here NO WITNESS, NO CASE takes a couple of people from very different backgrounds - one an ex-military widower, farming quietly on his block in Central Victoria. The other the trusted confidant of the Mafia boss. Then he manoeuvres them onto the same side. Which, despite a horribly predictable romantic element, worked reasonably well. Helped by a great surrounding cast though - from the country cop and his wife, through to the Mafia plants in the company, and a particularly slimy politician. There's a bit of heavy lifting in some of these elements - the romantic predictability and the pairing of what's essentially an amateur investigation and some official police work. That lifting is helped by the occasional dare-doing hero type actions that you'd expect in a thriller.
The only minor quibble is by far the most common encountered - dialogue. Way too formal, and often too wordy, there's something about some of the exchanges between characters that clanged.
Around the time of the Underbelly saga in Victoria, somebody somewhere said that the biggest problem with the downfall of the well known crime gangs is that it left a big window open for more ruthless, less obvious players. Given that this story explores a turf war between the Mafia and the new kids on the block - Russian gangsters, there's enough here to make this reader stop and think about the ramifications of that observation.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
The first expectation is that the plot should have a strong sense of realism about it. NO WITNESS, NO CASE explores Mafia activities in a way that seemed uncommon in crime fiction. Looking at the machinations behind a Mafia boss attempting to turn an illegal, and dangerous business, into a legitimate activity. That needs influence from the bottom of the chain - the workers in a company through the company management, right into the centre of Victorian politics. It also requires a high level of ruthlessness, hence the awful death of a truck driver that first brings attention to the illegal side of the operation. Drawing these elements together is cleverly done in this novel, with a high, and somewhat sobering level of believability.
The second expectation is that the characters be believable. Here NO WITNESS, NO CASE takes a couple of people from very different backgrounds - one an ex-military widower, farming quietly on his block in Central Victoria. The other the trusted confidant of the Mafia boss. Then he manoeuvres them onto the same side. Which, despite a horribly predictable romantic element, worked reasonably well. Helped by a great surrounding cast though - from the country cop and his wife, through to the Mafia plants in the company, and a particularly slimy politician. There's a bit of heavy lifting in some of these elements - the romantic predictability and the pairing of what's essentially an amateur investigation and some official police work. That lifting is helped by the occasional dare-doing hero type actions that you'd expect in a thriller.
The only minor quibble is by far the most common encountered - dialogue. Way too formal, and often too wordy, there's something about some of the exchanges between characters that clanged.
Around the time of the Underbelly saga in Victoria, somebody somewhere said that the biggest problem with the downfall of the well known crime gangs is that it left a big window open for more ruthless, less obvious players. Given that this story explores a turf war between the Mafia and the new kids on the block - Russian gangsters, there's enough here to make this reader stop and think about the ramifications of that observation.
http://www.austcrimefiction.org/revie...
January 13, 2014
Mafia Member Slain, Corrupt Politician Gaoled, Toxic Waste Scam Exposed, Is Justice Working?
Bill Robertson is a first time author, but has plenty of credentials for writing a crime novel having been the Assistant Police Commissioner in Victoria, where the novel is set, in another life. The book itself is a thrilling crime drama, full of political intrigue, the murky underworld of Victoria, corruption, murder and even toxic waste. Our hero is Andy Drummond, an ex-military cop who somehow finds himself in the middle of a dirty world he could only begin to guess at, all because there was a truck fire in a country road near his house. It gets intense fast, with the reader soon propelled in the underworld, corrupt politicians, pretty women, the Mafia and even the Russians. The book moves at a cracking pace, and I felt myself absorbed in the story,and far too tempted to binge read the whole thing, such that I forced myself to take it slow and let the captivating detail sink in as I read.
Along the way we meet a number of characters one can only hope stay in the world of fiction, from the slimy politician Ben Aldrittson, the Mafia Don, Pescaro and the ruthless Russian Mafiya, Chermanko. Your heart will be in your chest after twists and turns you can't anticipate, you can't help but finding yourself feeling for each of them, be they the hero, like Andy Drummond, or the villains like Aldrittson or Pescaro. The characters are explored in great depth, and with fantastic background knowledge, they feel real, like the story could have been pulled from the pages on your daily newspaper. Intertwined with the gripping story is Victoria, and the Victorian countryside in beautiful depth, as someone based in WA it built the story around me, and allowed me to find myself in a foreign state.
I loved this book, I enjoyed the grittiness of it all, the realism and the intensity of the story, it wasn't a crime novel that spoke down to you, nor was it one for which too easily allowed the ending to be determined. Right to the final pages I was guessing, and I greatly look forward to a next installment!
Bill Robertson is a first time author, but has plenty of credentials for writing a crime novel having been the Assistant Police Commissioner in Victoria, where the novel is set, in another life. The book itself is a thrilling crime drama, full of political intrigue, the murky underworld of Victoria, corruption, murder and even toxic waste. Our hero is Andy Drummond, an ex-military cop who somehow finds himself in the middle of a dirty world he could only begin to guess at, all because there was a truck fire in a country road near his house. It gets intense fast, with the reader soon propelled in the underworld, corrupt politicians, pretty women, the Mafia and even the Russians. The book moves at a cracking pace, and I felt myself absorbed in the story,and far too tempted to binge read the whole thing, such that I forced myself to take it slow and let the captivating detail sink in as I read.
Along the way we meet a number of characters one can only hope stay in the world of fiction, from the slimy politician Ben Aldrittson, the Mafia Don, Pescaro and the ruthless Russian Mafiya, Chermanko. Your heart will be in your chest after twists and turns you can't anticipate, you can't help but finding yourself feeling for each of them, be they the hero, like Andy Drummond, or the villains like Aldrittson or Pescaro. The characters are explored in great depth, and with fantastic background knowledge, they feel real, like the story could have been pulled from the pages on your daily newspaper. Intertwined with the gripping story is Victoria, and the Victorian countryside in beautiful depth, as someone based in WA it built the story around me, and allowed me to find myself in a foreign state.
I loved this book, I enjoyed the grittiness of it all, the realism and the intensity of the story, it wasn't a crime novel that spoke down to you, nor was it one for which too easily allowed the ending to be determined. Right to the final pages I was guessing, and I greatly look forward to a next installment!
January 4, 2014
“A black waste scam is concealed within a legitimate waste business; the business owner is in league with the Mafia; the owner's son is a corrupt and ruthless politician; and the Russians are trying to muscle their way in and oust the Mafia.”
It’s always exciting to read a book from a new local author, a former Assistant Police Commissioner whose career infuses realism into a thrilling story which I can only hope is grounded mainly in fiction. Set in Melbourne and country Victoria, this page-turner is all the more chilling because one of the villains lives only a few houses away down my street and some of the action takes place right outside my door! Many sections of the book read more like journalism than fiction, especially the more technical and investigative descriptions. His protagonists occasionally seem larger than life, having skills and endurance that surpass most humans, but they are very likeable and I look forward to reading more about them in the next installment.
It’s always exciting to read a book from a new local author, a former Assistant Police Commissioner whose career infuses realism into a thrilling story which I can only hope is grounded mainly in fiction. Set in Melbourne and country Victoria, this page-turner is all the more chilling because one of the villains lives only a few houses away down my street and some of the action takes place right outside my door! Many sections of the book read more like journalism than fiction, especially the more technical and investigative descriptions. His protagonists occasionally seem larger than life, having skills and endurance that surpass most humans, but they are very likeable and I look forward to reading more about them in the next installment.
September 28, 2016
As ex-police, the writer's facts are accurate, but it seems like a reader's game of ,'Can you identify the thinly disguised events or personalities?', rather than characterising them on the page. Although I enjoy reading locally set crime, 'No Witness, No Case' jumps around in viewpoint and scenes and is hard to follow. It has summarised chunks of research, rather than a blended and crafted story. The toxic waste scam has plot potential but it's reported rather than shaped into a involving story. Unrealistic dialogue which doesn't help in distinguishing the characters. Hard to be emotionally involved with any of the characters, because the reader is told rather than involved. Potentially a good story, with dramatic Mafia ingredients, but needed crafting.
May 29, 2018
Excellent read. Sorry to finish it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews