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Paul Harrigan #2
The Tattooed Man
Exciting new crime from Alex Palmer, winner of the 2008 Canberra Critics Circle Award Paul Harrigan is a top cop who has survived the corruption and political manoeuvrings of the NSW Police. So far ...His partner Grace Riordan has left the Service and now works in the shadowy world of undercover intelligence - so she and Harrigan can't talk about work much.Harrigan is called to a grisly murder scene in Sydney's wealthy four guests are seated around the dinner table - all dead. One of them a Senator's ex-wife; one of them a missing corrupt NSW detective. And the mummified condition of the detective's body - identified by a distinctive tattoo - suggests he has been dead for quite some time ...While Harrigan is facing the demons of his past, Grace is drawn into the investigation through some very unofficial enquiries of her own. Enquiries which will lead to a flashpoint neither can predict.Politics, corruption, big business, espionage and illicit technology ... Alex Palmer weaves them all into a heart-stopping race for the truth.
466 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Alex Palmer
50 books6 followersAlex Palmer was born in London‚ and arrived in Sydney in the late 1960s. She studied English literature and language at Macquarie University and later gained a postgraduate diploma in information management at the University of New South Wales. Alex now writes full time. She is married and lives in Canberra.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 14, 2011
An OK Australian thriller with a complicated storyline that was probably longer than it needed to be, and ended in a somewhat anti-climactic fashion.
August 9, 2016
THE TATTOOED MAN is the second novel from Alex Palmer - Blood Redemption won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel in 2003.
This book certainly starts out with a bang - the grisly murder scene is bad enough with a man, a woman and a teenage boy - all shot once in the head. Brutal. The mummified body of the missing NSW policeman adds a more than surreal and grisly touch - it's totally inexplicable. He's been missing for quite some time, but what is his connection with these dinner guests?
What eventuates is a mysterious and very very complicated set of events around illicit biotechnology, corruption, big business, fraud and con schemes, politics and espionage. At the centre of this Harrigan, who is actually trying to take some time off, finds himself fighting internal police department politics and corruption at the same time as he tries to direct a team who are investigating the bizarre crime scene. He is also trying to build a relationship with Grace and hang onto his relationship with his severely disabled son Toby.
If all of that sounds complicated, then that is probably where the book fails to fully satisfy. After a good start, with the discovery of the scene, the initial parts of the investigation and the build up of Harrigan, Grace and Toby's life the investigation starts to take its course. Unfortunately it is pretty quickly overtaken by a very twisting and turning plot that rapidly becomes overly convoluted, with a cast of too many and too many threats on too many fronts to keep up the pace and intensity that is palpable in the early part of the book. The plot is certainly well constructed and maintained by the writer, but for this reader it all got a bit too much and attention started to wan dramatically. Finishing the whole book was made possible, however, by some accomplished pieces of writing and a genuine interest in where Harrigan's life would end up.
Worth a look, as this is only the second novel from this writer, THE TATTOOED MAN will possibly appeal to fans of the first book - BLOOD REDEMPTION.
This book certainly starts out with a bang - the grisly murder scene is bad enough with a man, a woman and a teenage boy - all shot once in the head. Brutal. The mummified body of the missing NSW policeman adds a more than surreal and grisly touch - it's totally inexplicable. He's been missing for quite some time, but what is his connection with these dinner guests?
What eventuates is a mysterious and very very complicated set of events around illicit biotechnology, corruption, big business, fraud and con schemes, politics and espionage. At the centre of this Harrigan, who is actually trying to take some time off, finds himself fighting internal police department politics and corruption at the same time as he tries to direct a team who are investigating the bizarre crime scene. He is also trying to build a relationship with Grace and hang onto his relationship with his severely disabled son Toby.
If all of that sounds complicated, then that is probably where the book fails to fully satisfy. After a good start, with the discovery of the scene, the initial parts of the investigation and the build up of Harrigan, Grace and Toby's life the investigation starts to take its course. Unfortunately it is pretty quickly overtaken by a very twisting and turning plot that rapidly becomes overly convoluted, with a cast of too many and too many threats on too many fronts to keep up the pace and intensity that is palpable in the early part of the book. The plot is certainly well constructed and maintained by the writer, but for this reader it all got a bit too much and attention started to wan dramatically. Finishing the whole book was made possible, however, by some accomplished pieces of writing and a genuine interest in where Harrigan's life would end up.
Worth a look, as this is only the second novel from this writer, THE TATTOOED MAN will possibly appeal to fans of the first book - BLOOD REDEMPTION.
February 10, 2019
New ideas
This book took me to a new country, along with new speech patterns,culture and police procedure. Even the police investigations and outcomes brought new ideas with the suspense. Interesting and fun to read.
This book took me to a new country, along with new speech patterns,culture and police procedure. Even the police investigations and outcomes brought new ideas with the suspense. Interesting and fun to read.
April 20, 2018
this is amazing
September 1, 2019
I would rate this book more a 2.5 after finishing it. After such a complex story, the ending was overly dramatic and completely pointless, with many questions unresolved - totally unsatisfying.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews