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Peninsula Crimes #1
The Dragon Man: Hal Challis Investigation 1
'A superb chronicler of cop culture' - SUNDAY TIMES
'Disher is the gold standard for rural noir' - CHRIS HAMMER
'The equal of Joseph Wambaugh and James Lee Burke' - THE TIMES
THERE'S DANGER ON THE OPEN ROAD
Summer is approaching on the Mornington Peninsula. The heat is ramping up, a draught has been forecast, and Detective Inspector Hal Challis is already recycling his shower water and dreading the upcoming holiday madness.
But then he's called to the sleepy town of Waterloo, where there's something more to fear. Women are being abducted, their bodies found along the Old Highway. The media demand answers, and with a team who cause as much trouble as they solve, Challis is under increasing pressure. But this killer's business is far from over...
From the multiple Ned Kelly Award-winning author of Consolation and Day's End comes the first Hal Challis investigation, for readers of Jane Harper, Ian Rankin and Chris Hammer.
'Disher is the gold standard for rural noir' - CHRIS HAMMER
'The equal of Joseph Wambaugh and James Lee Burke' - THE TIMES
THERE'S DANGER ON THE OPEN ROAD
Summer is approaching on the Mornington Peninsula. The heat is ramping up, a draught has been forecast, and Detective Inspector Hal Challis is already recycling his shower water and dreading the upcoming holiday madness.
But then he's called to the sleepy town of Waterloo, where there's something more to fear. Women are being abducted, their bodies found along the Old Highway. The media demand answers, and with a team who cause as much trouble as they solve, Challis is under increasing pressure. But this killer's business is far from over...
From the multiple Ned Kelly Award-winning author of Consolation and Day's End comes the first Hal Challis investigation, for readers of Jane Harper, Ian Rankin and Chris Hammer.
343 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1999
363 people are currently reading
1784 people want to read
About the author
Garry Disher
92 books717 followersGarry Disher was born in 1949 and grew up on his parents' farm in South Australia.
He gained post graduate degrees from Adelaide and Melbourne Universities. In 1978 he was awarded a creative writing fellowship to Stanford University, where he wrote his first short story collection. He travelled widely overseas, before returning to Australia, where he taught creative writing, finally becoming a full time writer in 1988. He has written more than 40 titles, including general and crime fiction, children's books, textbooks, and books about the craft of writing.
He gained post graduate degrees from Adelaide and Melbourne Universities. In 1978 he was awarded a creative writing fellowship to Stanford University, where he wrote his first short story collection. He travelled widely overseas, before returning to Australia, where he taught creative writing, finally becoming a full time writer in 1988. He has written more than 40 titles, including general and crime fiction, children's books, textbooks, and books about the craft of writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 281 reviews
December 6, 2017
This was my first book by Garry Disher and I enjoyed it very much.
I must admit to struggling a bit at the beginning as the author introduced numerous new characters one after the other. I was glad I was reading a paper book so I could page back every now and then and check who was who! As the book progressed though the characters developed and it became much easier to attach their names to them.
I enjoyed the main character, Hal Challis. He remained calm in difficult situations and he did not appear to have a drinking problem which is always a bonus for me in books like this. There were a couple of crooked police men who did not get found out in this book so I suppose they will provide more story lines in the next book of the series.
The mystery was okay and I guessed the culprit quite early on. The best aspect of the book though was the police procedure. There was a feeling of reality about it - no amazing bits of forensic science suddenly solving the whole crime, just lots of police leg work.
All in all a competent and interesting introduction to a new series which I fully intend to follow up.
I must admit to struggling a bit at the beginning as the author introduced numerous new characters one after the other. I was glad I was reading a paper book so I could page back every now and then and check who was who! As the book progressed though the characters developed and it became much easier to attach their names to them.
I enjoyed the main character, Hal Challis. He remained calm in difficult situations and he did not appear to have a drinking problem which is always a bonus for me in books like this. There were a couple of crooked police men who did not get found out in this book so I suppose they will provide more story lines in the next book of the series.
The mystery was okay and I guessed the culprit quite early on. The best aspect of the book though was the police procedure. There was a feeling of reality about it - no amazing bits of forensic science suddenly solving the whole crime, just lots of police leg work.
All in all a competent and interesting introduction to a new series which I fully intend to follow up.
November 29, 2020
This is a solid start to Garry Disher's Mornington Peninsula series and his likeable detective DI Hal Challis.
It's the height of Summer and the Peninsula is hot and dry when a young woman disappeared after calling for help when her car broke down on the Peninsula Highway. It's only a week since another young woman was found raped and murdered by the side of the highway so police are concerned they may have a serial killer in their area.
Challis is a very able detective with a team that respects him. He lives alone as his wife Angie is serving a prison term (for trying to have him killed) and his release from work and worry is restoring old planes. As well as a serial killer Challis is trying to track down whoever is carrying out aggravated burgarlies where the home occupants are being hurt and fears he has an arsonist on his patch. He has some ideas who the culprits for the burgarlies are but has to find the evidence. This is a well written police procedural with not too many surprises about who the perpetrators are and a promising to the series.
It's the height of Summer and the Peninsula is hot and dry when a young woman disappeared after calling for help when her car broke down on the Peninsula Highway. It's only a week since another young woman was found raped and murdered by the side of the highway so police are concerned they may have a serial killer in their area.
Challis is a very able detective with a team that respects him. He lives alone as his wife Angie is serving a prison term (for trying to have him killed) and his release from work and worry is restoring old planes. As well as a serial killer Challis is trying to track down whoever is carrying out aggravated burgarlies where the home occupants are being hurt and fears he has an arsonist on his patch. He has some ideas who the culprits for the burgarlies are but has to find the evidence. This is a well written police procedural with not too many surprises about who the perpetrators are and a promising to the series.
May 26, 2015
This first novel of the Hal Challis series by Garry Disher is disturbing. The setting is The Peninsula, a spit of land on the outskirts of Melbourne in Victoria State. It is described as dry, perhaps even a little barren, and susceptible to drought and fire. Paradoxically it is surrounded by water on three sides--the kind of environs that gives us, in this age of global warming and extreme weather, immediate pause and a sense of foreboding. It is near a major city but removed from its hustle. It is populated by those with great wealth and those who can barely scrape together the wherewithal to make a meal. There is an annual influx of campers and holiday-goers escaping the even greater heat of the farther north. In this setting we meet the officers of a constabulary struggling, to a man, to stave off poverty, ennui, petty professional jealousies, inappropriate love, and finally, crime. None of them succeed with all of these.
As I struggled to express my unease with the underlying story in this “crime” series, I came across an essay written by Stepan Talty for the New York Times called "Stranger Than Fiction on the Cop Beat" . Talty goes right to the heart of my unease by saying that the real cop stories are often funny and horrible at the same time: “how beautiful and sinister a thing the cop brotherhood can be” is how he puts it. Just so. By that standard, Disher must be writing something very close to the truth because his description of the men and women of law enforcement leaves us unsure of them, of the criminals among us, and even of ourselves (the curious, the gawkers, the next-door-neighbors). There is a serial killer on The Peninsula, but it is the police that hold our attention and engage our emotions. The sense of dread is amplified by watching them.
A reviewer for a different book once wrote that some readers must like the characters they read about, or approve of their choices, or sympathize with their point of view, but not all novels will give us that. Well, this one won't. But readers who pick up a crime novel should expect, in some small way, to come away unsettled. This series looks like it will deliver.
Garry Disher has a long string of novels to his name and has been awarded honors, awards and prizes, but this series has only been published in the United States beginning in 2004. There are now six books in the Challis series and U.S. publication is coming now at only a slight remove from publication in Australia. Disher discusses his books and provides an extract of the sixth Challis novel on his website. His female character Sergeant Ellen Destry began to take on a life of her own as the series progressed, so now the series can reasonably be called the Challis/Destry series.
Check it out. Australia without the bush has a different feel. Be prepared to be disconcerted.
As I struggled to express my unease with the underlying story in this “crime” series, I came across an essay written by Stepan Talty for the New York Times called "Stranger Than Fiction on the Cop Beat" . Talty goes right to the heart of my unease by saying that the real cop stories are often funny and horrible at the same time: “how beautiful and sinister a thing the cop brotherhood can be” is how he puts it. Just so. By that standard, Disher must be writing something very close to the truth because his description of the men and women of law enforcement leaves us unsure of them, of the criminals among us, and even of ourselves (the curious, the gawkers, the next-door-neighbors). There is a serial killer on The Peninsula, but it is the police that hold our attention and engage our emotions. The sense of dread is amplified by watching them.
A reviewer for a different book once wrote that some readers must like the characters they read about, or approve of their choices, or sympathize with their point of view, but not all novels will give us that. Well, this one won't. But readers who pick up a crime novel should expect, in some small way, to come away unsettled. This series looks like it will deliver.
Garry Disher has a long string of novels to his name and has been awarded honors, awards and prizes, but this series has only been published in the United States beginning in 2004. There are now six books in the Challis series and U.S. publication is coming now at only a slight remove from publication in Australia. Disher discusses his books and provides an extract of the sixth Challis novel on his website. His female character Sergeant Ellen Destry began to take on a life of her own as the series progressed, so now the series can reasonably be called the Challis/Destry series.
Check it out. Australia without the bush has a different feel. Be prepared to be disconcerted.
January 17, 2024
There is a predator cruising the Old Peninsula Highway in southern Victoria around the Peninsula towns of Waterloo and Frankston looking for women stranded on the side of the road. He has already taken two, raped, strangled and dumped them, leaving behind very little evidence. Detective Inspector Hal Challis is sure of one thing, this guy is not about to stop at two victims.
Garry Disher author of the hardboiled Wyatt series, introduces a brand new protagonist, this time on the right side of the law. The Dragon Man is an intense police procedural that starts off with a frightening crime before digging deeply into the lives of the police who will attempt to solve it.
Christmas is drawing near and Victoria is baking under endless clear-skied days. The small town crimes that usually occupy the local police's attention, such as domestic disputes, joyriding kids, burglaries and the like have been vastly overshadowed this summer. The prospect of a serial killer snatching women off the streets has struck fear into the whole community.
Challis heads the investigation at Waterloo Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) and almost immediately finds himself under pressure from his Superintendent to close the case quickly. Meanwhile, his job isn't made any easier when the killer begins sending mocking letters to the local newspaper describing how he will proceed to his next victim. Although Challis asks the paper not to publish them, his request goes unheeded. The result is an even greater shudder of fear that passes through the locals.
While the Old Peninsula Highway murder investigation plods along with little progress, we are treated to a rich array of side stories that ensures that the interest level is kept high. In fact, it's the private lives of the officers of Waterloo CIB that take over the story, their own personal hardships and inter-relationships on the job. As well as giving these characters depth and appeal, these insights will prove crucial later on in the story.
Just when Challis needs his officers to keep their minds focused on the job they begin to fall apart, finding that their attention is being captured elsewhere. Sergeant Van Alphen is responsible for drugs going missing from the evidence locker, stolen to feed his new girlfriend's habit; Sergent Destry has started to fantasise about one of the local tradesman and has even resorted to lifting money from a crime scene; Scobie Sutton seems to be totally wrapped up in his 3 year old daughter. No-one can be said to have their minds wholly on the job and it's going to come back to hurt them.
Hal Challis is an interesting protagonist who puts on an outward appearance of calm, preferring to deal with his emotions internally, occasionally erupting only when he feels it necessary to get someone's attention. As one of his fellow officers notes to himself, Hal Challis is a "lean, hard-working man driven by private demons".
He jealously guards his solitude out on his property barely bringing himself to be civil to his neighbours, behaviour he remonstrates with himself over but rarely corrects. The most disturbing scenes involving Challis come when his wife calls him, virtually a daily occurrence, from prison. The reason for her incarceration is a real jaw-dropper.
From a heart-racing start in which the killer's second victim is snatched from the side of the road, the story settles into a more settled pace as we get a feel for the lay of the land. The Peninsula and the towns that comprise this part of southern Victoria are set out for us. Once we get a feel for where we are, we're then gradually introduced to the police whose lives are about to be laid bare before us.
Disher does an excellent job of controlling the opening few chapters before gradually dialling up the intensity as we head to a calamitous ending. In fact things become so frantic with numerous crimes taking place at once, we almost forget that the cloud of the serial killer still hangs over the community. That is, until we are very rudely reminded of his presence.
Garry Disher has written a tight, character-driven thriller that works extremely well. Although he has turned a normally quiet part of the world into a mini crime capital to keep things moving along, it makes for a very entertaining story and a terrific introduction to Hal Challis.
Garry Disher author of the hardboiled Wyatt series, introduces a brand new protagonist, this time on the right side of the law. The Dragon Man is an intense police procedural that starts off with a frightening crime before digging deeply into the lives of the police who will attempt to solve it.
Christmas is drawing near and Victoria is baking under endless clear-skied days. The small town crimes that usually occupy the local police's attention, such as domestic disputes, joyriding kids, burglaries and the like have been vastly overshadowed this summer. The prospect of a serial killer snatching women off the streets has struck fear into the whole community.
Challis heads the investigation at Waterloo Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) and almost immediately finds himself under pressure from his Superintendent to close the case quickly. Meanwhile, his job isn't made any easier when the killer begins sending mocking letters to the local newspaper describing how he will proceed to his next victim. Although Challis asks the paper not to publish them, his request goes unheeded. The result is an even greater shudder of fear that passes through the locals.
While the Old Peninsula Highway murder investigation plods along with little progress, we are treated to a rich array of side stories that ensures that the interest level is kept high. In fact, it's the private lives of the officers of Waterloo CIB that take over the story, their own personal hardships and inter-relationships on the job. As well as giving these characters depth and appeal, these insights will prove crucial later on in the story.
Just when Challis needs his officers to keep their minds focused on the job they begin to fall apart, finding that their attention is being captured elsewhere. Sergeant Van Alphen is responsible for drugs going missing from the evidence locker, stolen to feed his new girlfriend's habit; Sergent Destry has started to fantasise about one of the local tradesman and has even resorted to lifting money from a crime scene; Scobie Sutton seems to be totally wrapped up in his 3 year old daughter. No-one can be said to have their minds wholly on the job and it's going to come back to hurt them.
Hal Challis is an interesting protagonist who puts on an outward appearance of calm, preferring to deal with his emotions internally, occasionally erupting only when he feels it necessary to get someone's attention. As one of his fellow officers notes to himself, Hal Challis is a "lean, hard-working man driven by private demons".
He jealously guards his solitude out on his property barely bringing himself to be civil to his neighbours, behaviour he remonstrates with himself over but rarely corrects. The most disturbing scenes involving Challis come when his wife calls him, virtually a daily occurrence, from prison. The reason for her incarceration is a real jaw-dropper.
From a heart-racing start in which the killer's second victim is snatched from the side of the road, the story settles into a more settled pace as we get a feel for the lay of the land. The Peninsula and the towns that comprise this part of southern Victoria are set out for us. Once we get a feel for where we are, we're then gradually introduced to the police whose lives are about to be laid bare before us.
Disher does an excellent job of controlling the opening few chapters before gradually dialling up the intensity as we head to a calamitous ending. In fact things become so frantic with numerous crimes taking place at once, we almost forget that the cloud of the serial killer still hangs over the community. That is, until we are very rudely reminded of his presence.
Garry Disher has written a tight, character-driven thriller that works extremely well. Although he has turned a normally quiet part of the world into a mini crime capital to keep things moving along, it makes for a very entertaining story and a terrific introduction to Hal Challis.
March 12, 2020
I had not been aware of this popular and prolific writer of Australian crime thrillers. This was the first of seven books in author Garry Disher’s series featuring Inspector Hal Challis.
I admit that I had a struggle engaging in this book. There were too many characters introduced quickly. This included members of the police force, some townspeople, and suspects. The troubled lives of police officers was mentioned and this interfered with the flow of the crime investigation, making the story rather disjointed. It is a short book and I felt too much information was packed into a well plotted police procedural. The location, a small coastal town south of Melbourne was well described. Fans of the series write that the series improves in later books.
The title Dragon Man refers to Detective Challis’ hobby. He is restoring an antique Dragon aircraft in his spare time. He appears to be a morose loner, with reason to prefer a certain degree of solitude. His unfaithful wife conspired with her lover to murder him. She is now confined to a sanatorium and calls him frequently in hopes of restoring a relationship.
The members of the police force lead troubled lives of inappropriate personal relationships, petty and major theft, and work related jealousy. One officer has been stealing cocaine from the evidence vault to exchange for sex. A police woman pockets money she finds while searching a crime scene. Another policewoman is trying to engage in an affair to spite her inattentive husband. There are flyers circulating accusing another policeman of brutality and harassment.
The plot focuses on the murder of a young woman along a lonely stretch of highway. Now a second woman has vanished in similar circumstances. Challis suspects the two may be connected and they may be looking for a serial killer. This theory is confirmed when letters are sent taunting the police who have been unable to find the body of the second missing woman, and threatening to abduct a third.
The local woman are nervous. Also, in this once quiet town someone is breaking and entering homes to commit burglary. This culminates in the serious battery of a married couple who owned one of the homes. To add to the general unease, someone is setting fire to mailboxes. Finally, a house is set afire by an arsonist and a woman’s dead body discovered within the home. The police force is working overtime trying to solve the arson and the string of burglaries. Foremost is apprehending the serial killer before another young woman is taken and brutally murdered.
We get a description of the assigned tasks of the individual police officers and their parts in the investigations, along with a bit about their personal challenges. I felt most everything was concluded with a satisfying ending. I would definitely try a later book by this writer.
I admit that I had a struggle engaging in this book. There were too many characters introduced quickly. This included members of the police force, some townspeople, and suspects. The troubled lives of police officers was mentioned and this interfered with the flow of the crime investigation, making the story rather disjointed. It is a short book and I felt too much information was packed into a well plotted police procedural. The location, a small coastal town south of Melbourne was well described. Fans of the series write that the series improves in later books.
The title Dragon Man refers to Detective Challis’ hobby. He is restoring an antique Dragon aircraft in his spare time. He appears to be a morose loner, with reason to prefer a certain degree of solitude. His unfaithful wife conspired with her lover to murder him. She is now confined to a sanatorium and calls him frequently in hopes of restoring a relationship.
The members of the police force lead troubled lives of inappropriate personal relationships, petty and major theft, and work related jealousy. One officer has been stealing cocaine from the evidence vault to exchange for sex. A police woman pockets money she finds while searching a crime scene. Another policewoman is trying to engage in an affair to spite her inattentive husband. There are flyers circulating accusing another policeman of brutality and harassment.
The plot focuses on the murder of a young woman along a lonely stretch of highway. Now a second woman has vanished in similar circumstances. Challis suspects the two may be connected and they may be looking for a serial killer. This theory is confirmed when letters are sent taunting the police who have been unable to find the body of the second missing woman, and threatening to abduct a third.
The local woman are nervous. Also, in this once quiet town someone is breaking and entering homes to commit burglary. This culminates in the serious battery of a married couple who owned one of the homes. To add to the general unease, someone is setting fire to mailboxes. Finally, a house is set afire by an arsonist and a woman’s dead body discovered within the home. The police force is working overtime trying to solve the arson and the string of burglaries. Foremost is apprehending the serial killer before another young woman is taken and brutally murdered.
We get a description of the assigned tasks of the individual police officers and their parts in the investigations, along with a bit about their personal challenges. I felt most everything was concluded with a satisfying ending. I would definitely try a later book by this writer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2015
Detective Inspector Hal Challis was finding the drought tiring – not a lot of water left in his rainwater tanks, almost none in his underground tanks; he didn’t want to buy water again. But the musings on his water problems were soon drowned out by his concern over the latest abduction. A second young woman had been taken and his feeling was that there was a serial killer in their area – they hadn’t linked it to the first one yet, but he didn’t like coincidences…
His small town of Waterloo, not all that far from Melbourne was generally a quiet place – now though, the locals, especially the women, were nervous; and who could blame them. It seemed there was also an arsonist on the loose – setting fire to letterboxes at random. Plus the latest spate of aggravated burglaries – his team had their hands full with it all.
Leading the team with Challis was CIB sergeant Ellen Destry; he’d worked with her before and found her to be a good detective. But their frustration was evident in the lack of clues, the lack of information that was coming back in their investigation. Would they find the second victim alive? And was the killer taunting the police? Would he strike again?
The Dragon Man by Aussie author Garry Disher was an enjoyable police procedural novel; the first in the Inspector Challis series, and I’m looking forward to reading more. This one had a good amount of twists and turns and a great plot with a satisfying ending. I have no hesitation in recommending The Dragon Man to all lovers of crime novels.
His small town of Waterloo, not all that far from Melbourne was generally a quiet place – now though, the locals, especially the women, were nervous; and who could blame them. It seemed there was also an arsonist on the loose – setting fire to letterboxes at random. Plus the latest spate of aggravated burglaries – his team had their hands full with it all.
Leading the team with Challis was CIB sergeant Ellen Destry; he’d worked with her before and found her to be a good detective. But their frustration was evident in the lack of clues, the lack of information that was coming back in their investigation. Would they find the second victim alive? And was the killer taunting the police? Would he strike again?
The Dragon Man by Aussie author Garry Disher was an enjoyable police procedural novel; the first in the Inspector Challis series, and I’m looking forward to reading more. This one had a good amount of twists and turns and a great plot with a satisfying ending. I have no hesitation in recommending The Dragon Man to all lovers of crime novels.
June 6, 2017
The Dragon Man is book one in the Inspector Challis series by Garry Disher. When young women were starting to disappear on the way home and couple of days later turn up dead. Inspector Challis started to think their is a serial killer on the Penisula. The readers of Dragon Man will follow the Inspector Challis and his team investigation into who killing young girls. Also, the readers of The Dragon Man will follow the intertwine investigation into the murder of young women in a house fire.
I enjoy reading The Dragon Man. Also, I like the Garry Disher portrayal of his characters exspecially Inspector Challis. Garry Disher did a good job of intertwine two murder investigation and the way he ensure that the readers start to wonder if both investigations are link. However, only complaint I have with this book is Garry Disher did not explain to the readers of The Dragon Man about Inspector Challis wife Angela who rings him on a regular basics.
Readers of Dragon Man will learn about the problems that rural areas have when the area is in drought. Readers of Dragon Man will learnt about the problems and importance of law enforcement to have a good relationship with the press.
I recommend this book.
I enjoy reading The Dragon Man. Also, I like the Garry Disher portrayal of his characters exspecially Inspector Challis. Garry Disher did a good job of intertwine two murder investigation and the way he ensure that the readers start to wonder if both investigations are link. However, only complaint I have with this book is Garry Disher did not explain to the readers of The Dragon Man about Inspector Challis wife Angela who rings him on a regular basics.
Readers of Dragon Man will learn about the problems that rural areas have when the area is in drought. Readers of Dragon Man will learnt about the problems and importance of law enforcement to have a good relationship with the press.
I recommend this book.
December 5, 2022
Challis turned to the body. It lay on a patch of mud at the water’s edge. He wondered about the absence of grass. People regularly stood there. Birdwatchers, Peninsula Water engineers, kids skipping stones across the sluggish water, blackberry pickers later on in the New Year. People fishing. Anyone at all, really.
The Dragon Man, first in the Peninsula Crimes series set among the coastal towns, vineyards, hobby farms and weekenders south-east of Melbourne, introduces light aircraft enthusiast, DI Hal Challis, his wife serving a jail sentence for her role in trying to kill him; DS Ellen Destry – with a sulky teenage daughter and difficult husband, DC Scobie Sutton, father to a young daughter and uniformed officers Pam Murphy and John Tankard, amongst others, with regional superintendent McQuarrie, a political animal.
It is approaching Christmas: temperatures are high, tempers on edge, rainwater tanks depleted and the Peninsula experiencing a spate of break-ins, a fire bug and a sadistic killer of young women who taunts the police efforts to catch him through local journalist (and friend with benefits of Challis), Tessa Kane. These threads interweave - as they would in a relatively small area - and aside from law enforcement and law-breakers, there are a few of privileged backgrounds who see themselves as above the law.
With so much going on, I was glad that I had read other titles in the series before this one; as I knew the main characters well. Author Garry Disher has a fine sense of time and place: here we have early 2000’s technology with video shops and recorders yet to be overtaken by DVD’s, cameras predating their digital counterpart using film; landmarks like Pizza Hut now a memory; but the crackle of bushfires and the ringing calls of bellbirds remains constant.
Aside from the writing, the other factor that makes Disher one of the top Australian authors is that he never gets bogged down with a particular series. The Peninsula series, one of his earliest, ran for seven titles, the Wyatt series named for the art thief a few more, and more recently the South Australia based books featuring Paul Hirschhausen about five, plus many standalones, which leaves me with several more years of his books to catch up with.
The Dragon Man, first in the Peninsula Crimes series set among the coastal towns, vineyards, hobby farms and weekenders south-east of Melbourne, introduces light aircraft enthusiast, DI Hal Challis, his wife serving a jail sentence for her role in trying to kill him; DS Ellen Destry – with a sulky teenage daughter and difficult husband, DC Scobie Sutton, father to a young daughter and uniformed officers Pam Murphy and John Tankard, amongst others, with regional superintendent McQuarrie, a political animal.
It is approaching Christmas: temperatures are high, tempers on edge, rainwater tanks depleted and the Peninsula experiencing a spate of break-ins, a fire bug and a sadistic killer of young women who taunts the police efforts to catch him through local journalist (and friend with benefits of Challis), Tessa Kane. These threads interweave - as they would in a relatively small area - and aside from law enforcement and law-breakers, there are a few of privileged backgrounds who see themselves as above the law.
With so much going on, I was glad that I had read other titles in the series before this one; as I knew the main characters well. Author Garry Disher has a fine sense of time and place: here we have early 2000’s technology with video shops and recorders yet to be overtaken by DVD’s, cameras predating their digital counterpart using film; landmarks like Pizza Hut now a memory; but the crackle of bushfires and the ringing calls of bellbirds remains constant.
Aside from the writing, the other factor that makes Disher one of the top Australian authors is that he never gets bogged down with a particular series. The Peninsula series, one of his earliest, ran for seven titles, the Wyatt series named for the art thief a few more, and more recently the South Australia based books featuring Paul Hirschhausen about five, plus many standalones, which leaves me with several more years of his books to catch up with.
July 15, 2018
Up from 2.5 because there's something genuinely absorbing about this procedural. But gawdlemitey if the next book has eleventeen characters bumblestumbling around I will boot this series.
Challis needs something. He needs a humanizing hobby, like Montalbano. Plane restoring is dull and unappealing. Destry's a bit less blah, but not overmuch. Tankard's a nasty fucker and I hope he dies in a fire or something equally painful and unpleasant. The other bajillion characters didn't make an impression on me so I don't remember their names or qualities.
Anyway, better than ~meh~ but not by much. Book two, Kittyhawk Down, better be significantly more involving and intriguing or the series goes flooey with me.
Challis needs something. He needs a humanizing hobby, like Montalbano. Plane restoring is dull and unappealing. Destry's a bit less blah, but not overmuch. Tankard's a nasty fucker and I hope he dies in a fire or something equally painful and unpleasant. The other bajillion characters didn't make an impression on me so I don't remember their names or qualities.
Anyway, better than ~meh~ but not by much. Book two, Kittyhawk Down, better be significantly more involving and intriguing or the series goes flooey with me.
July 19, 2018
I anticipated enjoying, and very much wanted to enjoy, The Dragon Man. It came highly recommended from good friends. I hate being the outlier but there it is. One of the three stars is for guilt. Mine.
For all of Disher's considerable talent and experience, this first work in a series came across like a one-hour pilot for the Australian version of Broadchurch. It's not a cozy mystery. Disher introduces 15 - 20 characters, as well as two lead detectives - Hal Challis and Ellen Destry. Only the detectives seem to be principled and reliable. If it were an urban detective story, there would be a dozen or so characters who only figure in one scene or are useful to communicate one piece of evidence, and a reader would know that she/he doesn't need to pay attention to who they are, only what she/he learned from them, because they'd not re-enter the story. In The Dragon Man, though, these 15 - 20 characters come into the story at regular intervals and many of them blur together if you read this novel over a week's period, requiring the casual reader to flip back pages in order to re-orient herself on which of the many cops, or of the many random townspeople, this character is.
The Dragon Man excels at its sense of place. This is Australia, in the summer, in a community where lots of tourists flow in for their holidays, and there's a year-round community that has some issues, shall we say. You feel those cracks in the community. The frustration of several of the cops with the locals. The frustration of several of the women with the sexism of the men with whom they work. The tension between the police department and the media.
It also starts off great - worthy-of-Harlan-Coben great.
What The Dragon Man is less successful at is the detective/thriller/mystery plot, and the tangents and storylines that aren't red herrings - they simply get in the way of a reader's enjoyment and, ultimately, act as the equivalent of a pebble in one's shoe, in terms of their increasing annoyance. In the middle of what is presented as a crisis with 2 dead girls and one more threatened - and few if any leads, this police department doesn't seem to have a sense of urgency; Challis is hooking up with a local reporter, who is publishing letters from the girl-killing culprit; Destry has the hots for the A/C guy, notwithstanding the existence of her spouse and her teen daughter's high-read on her creep-meter with respect to said A/C guy. Another cop is spending great amounts of time hanging out with his latest "girlfriend" (if by girlfriend you mean someone he recently started sleeping with, but who isn't important to him) during work hours, and stealing drugs from the evidence locker to give to her. Disher also spends a great deal of real estate on one particular cop and her recovery from an accident, pain, rehab and crush on a surfing instructor -- all of which was irrelevant, didn't drive the action forward, and had nothing, zero, zip, zilch, nada to do with anything. We also learn of Hallis' interest in restoring an old airplane, several times. Writers of detective novels/thrillers whose storyline involves a race against an unknown killer to prevent another death typically try to keep up the tension, in part by being laser-focused on the investigation and search for clues. Disher apparently doesn't buy into that approach.
If you're looking for a new, well-written detective series, either in Austalia or simply somewhere other than America or the UK, are either tolerant of or amused by off-topic descriptions and characters, and willing to push through the first novel that tees up the setting and larger cast of characters, for a payoff in books two and beyond, The Dragon Man and its subsequent series-mates might be a good bet. I won't be along for that ride, but I wish you well.
For all of Disher's considerable talent and experience, this first work in a series came across like a one-hour pilot for the Australian version of Broadchurch. It's not a cozy mystery. Disher introduces 15 - 20 characters, as well as two lead detectives - Hal Challis and Ellen Destry. Only the detectives seem to be principled and reliable. If it were an urban detective story, there would be a dozen or so characters who only figure in one scene or are useful to communicate one piece of evidence, and a reader would know that she/he doesn't need to pay attention to who they are, only what she/he learned from them, because they'd not re-enter the story. In The Dragon Man, though, these 15 - 20 characters come into the story at regular intervals and many of them blur together if you read this novel over a week's period, requiring the casual reader to flip back pages in order to re-orient herself on which of the many cops, or of the many random townspeople, this character is.
The Dragon Man excels at its sense of place. This is Australia, in the summer, in a community where lots of tourists flow in for their holidays, and there's a year-round community that has some issues, shall we say. You feel those cracks in the community. The frustration of several of the cops with the locals. The frustration of several of the women with the sexism of the men with whom they work. The tension between the police department and the media.
It also starts off great - worthy-of-Harlan-Coben great.
What The Dragon Man is less successful at is the detective/thriller/mystery plot, and the tangents and storylines that aren't red herrings - they simply get in the way of a reader's enjoyment and, ultimately, act as the equivalent of a pebble in one's shoe, in terms of their increasing annoyance. In the middle of what is presented as a crisis with 2 dead girls and one more threatened - and few if any leads, this police department doesn't seem to have a sense of urgency; Challis is hooking up with a local reporter, who is publishing letters from the girl-killing culprit; Destry has the hots for the A/C guy, notwithstanding the existence of her spouse and her teen daughter's high-read on her creep-meter with respect to said A/C guy. Another cop is spending great amounts of time hanging out with his latest "girlfriend" (if by girlfriend you mean someone he recently started sleeping with, but who isn't important to him) during work hours, and stealing drugs from the evidence locker to give to her. Disher also spends a great deal of real estate on one particular cop and her recovery from an accident, pain, rehab and crush on a surfing instructor -- all of which was irrelevant, didn't drive the action forward, and had nothing, zero, zip, zilch, nada to do with anything. We also learn of Hallis' interest in restoring an old airplane, several times. Writers of detective novels/thrillers whose storyline involves a race against an unknown killer to prevent another death typically try to keep up the tension, in part by being laser-focused on the investigation and search for clues. Disher apparently doesn't buy into that approach.
If you're looking for a new, well-written detective series, either in Austalia or simply somewhere other than America or the UK, are either tolerant of or amused by off-topic descriptions and characters, and willing to push through the first novel that tees up the setting and larger cast of characters, for a payoff in books two and beyond, The Dragon Man and its subsequent series-mates might be a good bet. I won't be along for that ride, but I wish you well.
March 10, 2022
بسیار کتاب را دوست داشتم.
October 18, 2013
RATING: 4.5
Garry Disher is an extremely talented author who has not received nearly the acclaim that he should outside of his native Australia. Nominated for the Ned Kelly Award and the Booker Award, Disher has written 32 books. He is best known for the "Wyatt" crime fiction series. With the publication of THE DRAGON MAN, Disher may finally see his fine work acknowledged. The first in a new series, the book is a police procedural that completely engages the reader.
Detective Inspector Hal Challis is a senior homicide investigator who works in the Peninsula area southeast of Melbourne, Australia. He works with the local police departments in the area, where he can lend his expertise when they face a case that is outside of their normal repertoire of crimes. He's been called to Waterloo to assist in investigating the murder/rape of a young woman who had been traveling on the old Peninsular Highway. When a second woman is murdered under similar circumstances, it appears that a serial killer may be at work. Challis works with the members of the local CIB (Crime Investigation Bureau) and serves as the team leader. It is an interesting group of officers, from the personally conflicted sergeant, Ellen Destry, to a young female officer, Pam Murphy, who is very perceptive. There are two rogue detectives who are upsetting the locals, one through his thug-like actions and the other who is crossing the line of the law in his relationship with a local woman who has her own demons.
The strength of the book lies in watching each of these characters on and off the job, as well as observing the goings-on of the local populace, in particular, two young men who are heading for serious trouble. Although Challis is heading the unit for this investigation, each of the secondary police characters gets a lot of page time as well. The setting is wonderfully detailed, down to the daily nuances of managing things like an adequate water supply in a drought-ridden area. The plotting is the only area that shows weakness. The serial killer thread is not really fully developed in terms of the perpetrator (who I found absurdly easy to identify!), and the resolution is cobbled together a bit too quickly.
Hal is known as "the Dragon Man", not as a reference to anything having to do with his personality but rather because he likes to restore old airplanes as a hobby. The one he is working on now is the Dragon Rapide, and is likely to take him many years to rebuild. That kind of detail is provided for most of the characters, which serves to make them fully dimensional and memorable.
I hope that THE DRAGON MAN will meet with huge success so that Disher's work is more readily available outside of Australia. The premise that he uses here with Challis leading investigations in different local communities has tremendous possibilities for future books in a series. Add to that the fact that Disher's writing is wonderful: introspective, richly textured and nicely complex. Conclusion: THE DRAGON MAN is a winner, and I highly recommend it.
Garry Disher is an extremely talented author who has not received nearly the acclaim that he should outside of his native Australia. Nominated for the Ned Kelly Award and the Booker Award, Disher has written 32 books. He is best known for the "Wyatt" crime fiction series. With the publication of THE DRAGON MAN, Disher may finally see his fine work acknowledged. The first in a new series, the book is a police procedural that completely engages the reader.
Detective Inspector Hal Challis is a senior homicide investigator who works in the Peninsula area southeast of Melbourne, Australia. He works with the local police departments in the area, where he can lend his expertise when they face a case that is outside of their normal repertoire of crimes. He's been called to Waterloo to assist in investigating the murder/rape of a young woman who had been traveling on the old Peninsular Highway. When a second woman is murdered under similar circumstances, it appears that a serial killer may be at work. Challis works with the members of the local CIB (Crime Investigation Bureau) and serves as the team leader. It is an interesting group of officers, from the personally conflicted sergeant, Ellen Destry, to a young female officer, Pam Murphy, who is very perceptive. There are two rogue detectives who are upsetting the locals, one through his thug-like actions and the other who is crossing the line of the law in his relationship with a local woman who has her own demons.
The strength of the book lies in watching each of these characters on and off the job, as well as observing the goings-on of the local populace, in particular, two young men who are heading for serious trouble. Although Challis is heading the unit for this investigation, each of the secondary police characters gets a lot of page time as well. The setting is wonderfully detailed, down to the daily nuances of managing things like an adequate water supply in a drought-ridden area. The plotting is the only area that shows weakness. The serial killer thread is not really fully developed in terms of the perpetrator (who I found absurdly easy to identify!), and the resolution is cobbled together a bit too quickly.
Hal is known as "the Dragon Man", not as a reference to anything having to do with his personality but rather because he likes to restore old airplanes as a hobby. The one he is working on now is the Dragon Rapide, and is likely to take him many years to rebuild. That kind of detail is provided for most of the characters, which serves to make them fully dimensional and memorable.
I hope that THE DRAGON MAN will meet with huge success so that Disher's work is more readily available outside of Australia. The premise that he uses here with Challis leading investigations in different local communities has tremendous possibilities for future books in a series. Add to that the fact that Disher's writing is wonderful: introspective, richly textured and nicely complex. Conclusion: THE DRAGON MAN is a winner, and I highly recommend it.
November 10, 2019
Garry Disher gets a lot of high praise, so when I saw this book, I picked it up.
It's really a fairly average serial killer police procedural set in Australia. Not bad, but not a good as I was expecting.
Maybe his Wyatt series is better.
It's really a fairly average serial killer police procedural set in Australia. Not bad, but not a good as I was expecting.
Maybe his Wyatt series is better.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2023
1st in the DI Chalis series. Set on the Mornington Peninsula, a place of the rich, the wannabe’s and the not somdortunate. A mix of old places giving way to housing estates and more.
DI. Chalis unwinds by restoring an old 1930’s aircraft.
Here he’s occupied by two young women abducted and murdered, a spate of burglaries and some unexplained torching of letterboxes. The connection between everything is tenuous at best.
A lot going on but then it is Christmas in Australia, the heat is fierce, and holiday makers are everywhere.
A great start to the series
DI. Chalis unwinds by restoring an old 1930’s aircraft.
Here he’s occupied by two young women abducted and murdered, a spate of burglaries and some unexplained torching of letterboxes. The connection between everything is tenuous at best.
A lot going on but then it is Christmas in Australia, the heat is fierce, and holiday makers are everywhere.
A great start to the series
July 1, 2014
This book isn’t bad. The writing and mood are good.
The characters are very uninteresting however. It’s been there and done that.
I wish my local PBS would reshow Water Rats.
Crossposted at Booklikes.
The characters are very uninteresting however. It’s been there and done that.
I wish my local PBS would reshow Water Rats.
Crossposted at Booklikes.
June 30, 2015
Too many characters and I don't care about any of them. DNF
June 26, 2020
AROUND THE WORLD OF CRIME AND MYSTERY
1999 - Police Procedural - Challis #1
AROUND THE WORLD READ
"Garry Disher grew up in Burra, in rural South AUSTRALIA"
CAST - 5 stars: On one hand, almost every cast member is hot for at least one other cast member. On the other hand, yea, look around, this is the way of the world and probably every police force on the planet. Power and a search for truth opens eyes, everything is seen, and pretty much nothing surprises. If I were a big, handsome guy in uniform or a lovely, smart, intuitive, outwit-the-men lady in uniform and the authority to...oops, I'm straying into political incorrectness. (Or a pretty good fantasy, your choice, and if it's a 3-some, all the better.) But to the book: very good cast! Detective Inspector Hal Challis opens the story by showering "with a bucket at his feet"...see, steamy stuff. Then, Cop Tank, "...tall and big-boned...beefy-looking...young, the skin untested by time...Challis had an impression of acres of pink flesh," tries to ticket Challis for a cracked windscreeen. (I think I'm gonna be reading more Australian police procedurals.) Then Rhys Hartnett (A/C installer) says of Tank: "A real prick, that one." (Yes, more about Australian cops, please.) Okay, on to Chapter 2: Sergeant Ellen Destry appears, Challis says to her about Tank:"Built like a water tank, roll over you like an army tank." Good grief. Okay, on to Chapter 3, we know Kymbly Abbott has been raped and murdered, Jane Gideon is missing. Tank's partner, Pam Murphy, likes to take surfing lessons from a 17-y/0 guy and dreams of him, even though it'd be illegal and unethical...but really, you just know. Then there is Sergent Kees van Alphen hot for mystery citizen Clara. He wants her, she wants drugs. So they trade, often. Danny Holsinger's girl, Meg, always likes a gift before bedtime. So, okay, all normal. Then there is Lance Ledwick, the local registered sex offender...cause everyone else is just fine. Eventually, Tank and Challis and Ellen and Meg have this totally hot 4- way...no, that doesn't happen. Should have, it would have fitted right in. I found this cast fascinating and, yes, Disher is (uncomfortably) right: sex is what drives the world.
ATMOSPHERE - 4 stars: It's Christmas down under...oh get your mind out of the gutter...down under on the globe. It's a hot holiday. Tourist everywhere! A small town on the water is experiencing a real estate boom. Solid job here, but everyone seems to have some kind of locked shed on their property. Learned a new term: one guy likes to 'tug on his tackle' and feels that shorts, a T-shirt and sandals are "Poofter gear..." Funny stuff, rotten person.
CRIME - 2 stars: Rape and murder then a trope - you'll see it coming - not really needed.
INVESTIGATION - 4: Oh, do these cops have a lot to investigate amid the sexual longings. This story moves fast, though, Challis is smart, Ellen even smarter...
RESOLUTION - 4: Never saw it coming. Never saw 4 to 5 crimes/plots come together so nicely. But one cast member is in a witness protection program and a New Zealand cop says they wanted to "lull her into a false sense of security" at the end of the book, then nothing else. WTF?
Summary - 3.8. Great cast: the best element of this story. It's too bad the author resorts to a crime trope. And about that New Zealand cop: I already have Challis #2 here at home, I'd like to know more about that story line.
1999 - Police Procedural - Challis #1
AROUND THE WORLD READ
"Garry Disher grew up in Burra, in rural South AUSTRALIA"
CAST - 5 stars: On one hand, almost every cast member is hot for at least one other cast member. On the other hand, yea, look around, this is the way of the world and probably every police force on the planet. Power and a search for truth opens eyes, everything is seen, and pretty much nothing surprises. If I were a big, handsome guy in uniform or a lovely, smart, intuitive, outwit-the-men lady in uniform and the authority to...oops, I'm straying into political incorrectness. (Or a pretty good fantasy, your choice, and if it's a 3-some, all the better.) But to the book: very good cast! Detective Inspector Hal Challis opens the story by showering "with a bucket at his feet"...see, steamy stuff. Then, Cop Tank, "...tall and big-boned...beefy-looking...young, the skin untested by time...Challis had an impression of acres of pink flesh," tries to ticket Challis for a cracked windscreeen. (I think I'm gonna be reading more Australian police procedurals.) Then Rhys Hartnett (A/C installer) says of Tank: "A real prick, that one." (Yes, more about Australian cops, please.) Okay, on to Chapter 2: Sergeant Ellen Destry appears, Challis says to her about Tank:"Built like a water tank, roll over you like an army tank." Good grief. Okay, on to Chapter 3, we know Kymbly Abbott has been raped and murdered, Jane Gideon is missing. Tank's partner, Pam Murphy, likes to take surfing lessons from a 17-y/0 guy and dreams of him, even though it'd be illegal and unethical...but really, you just know. Then there is Sergent Kees van Alphen hot for mystery citizen Clara. He wants her, she wants drugs. So they trade, often. Danny Holsinger's girl, Meg, always likes a gift before bedtime. So, okay, all normal. Then there is Lance Ledwick, the local registered sex offender...cause everyone else is just fine. Eventually, Tank and Challis and Ellen and Meg have this totally hot 4- way...no, that doesn't happen. Should have, it would have fitted right in. I found this cast fascinating and, yes, Disher is (uncomfortably) right: sex is what drives the world.
ATMOSPHERE - 4 stars: It's Christmas down under...oh get your mind out of the gutter...down under on the globe. It's a hot holiday. Tourist everywhere! A small town on the water is experiencing a real estate boom. Solid job here, but everyone seems to have some kind of locked shed on their property. Learned a new term: one guy likes to 'tug on his tackle' and feels that shorts, a T-shirt and sandals are "Poofter gear..." Funny stuff, rotten person.
CRIME - 2 stars: Rape and murder then a trope - you'll see it coming - not really needed.
INVESTIGATION - 4: Oh, do these cops have a lot to investigate amid the sexual longings. This story moves fast, though, Challis is smart, Ellen even smarter...
RESOLUTION - 4: Never saw it coming. Never saw 4 to 5 crimes/plots come together so nicely. But one cast member is in a witness protection program and a New Zealand cop says they wanted to "lull her into a false sense of security" at the end of the book, then nothing else. WTF?
Summary - 3.8. Great cast: the best element of this story. It's too bad the author resorts to a crime trope. And about that New Zealand cop: I already have Challis #2 here at home, I'd like to know more about that story line.
May 4, 2020
The Dragon Man by Garry Disher is the first novel in the Australian Inspector Hal Challis series and it is a good one.
The Dragon Man is a pure, dogged police procedural of the pursuit of a serial killer. Typically, I shy away from serial killer novels due to too many writers' reliance upon the mythical, brilliant and diabolical killer that is vastly overused in crime novels. Disher's The Dragon Man is not like that and to this reader, that is one thing that makes his writing so enjoyable.
Let me be upfront - this opening novel by Disher is as good as any Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly and maybe even more so.
Disher not only introduces us to Hal Challis but in the opening novel throws a number of new characters at the reader that may take some dancing to keep them straight, and these characters are as layered as the main character.
Challis is tasked with investigating a string of abductions and murders of young women along a local highway. At the same time, multiple other crimes are also being pursued with investigators not knowing if they are related or not.
The storylines are then portrayed in a way that provides a logical conclusion to the plots in the novel by characters that actually investigate.
The Dragon Man is highly recommended to those that enjoy police procedurals, with excellent character development.
The Dragon Man is a pure, dogged police procedural of the pursuit of a serial killer. Typically, I shy away from serial killer novels due to too many writers' reliance upon the mythical, brilliant and diabolical killer that is vastly overused in crime novels. Disher's The Dragon Man is not like that and to this reader, that is one thing that makes his writing so enjoyable.
Let me be upfront - this opening novel by Disher is as good as any Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly and maybe even more so.
Disher not only introduces us to Hal Challis but in the opening novel throws a number of new characters at the reader that may take some dancing to keep them straight, and these characters are as layered as the main character.
Challis is tasked with investigating a string of abductions and murders of young women along a local highway. At the same time, multiple other crimes are also being pursued with investigators not knowing if they are related or not.
The storylines are then portrayed in a way that provides a logical conclusion to the plots in the novel by characters that actually investigate.
The Dragon Man is highly recommended to those that enjoy police procedurals, with excellent character development.
September 16, 2017
From BBC Radio 4:
By Garry Disher, dramatised by D.J.Britton.
It's hot, it's nearly Christmas, and Hal Challis has a serial killer to catch. On the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne, young women are being targeted and murdered and the perpetrator leaves no clues. A series of recorded messages taunting the police, along with a spate of deliberate fire-setting, increase the pressure on the team to make an arrest before the holiday. But they can't find anything to connect the crimes with their only suspect.
Crime Down Under showcases the best crime fiction from contemporary Australia. The Dragon Man is the first in Garry Disher's series of novels featuring detective duo Challis & Destry. It won the Deutsche Krimi Preis (German Crime Fiction Prize) and Disher has also twice won the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing.
BBC Cymru Wales production
Richard Dillane's multiple credits include recent appearances in Peaky Blinders, Poldark and Wolf Hall. Penny Downie is a leading actress for the RSC, including paying Gertrude to David Tennant's Hamlet. As a child, she appeared in The Sullivans, which was the last time she worked with fellow-Australian Mark Little. Mark is known as Joe Mangel from Neighbours as well as appearing in Emmerdale and as a presenter for The Big Breakfast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0930dvl
By Garry Disher, dramatised by D.J.Britton.
It's hot, it's nearly Christmas, and Hal Challis has a serial killer to catch. On the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne, young women are being targeted and murdered and the perpetrator leaves no clues. A series of recorded messages taunting the police, along with a spate of deliberate fire-setting, increase the pressure on the team to make an arrest before the holiday. But they can't find anything to connect the crimes with their only suspect.
Crime Down Under showcases the best crime fiction from contemporary Australia. The Dragon Man is the first in Garry Disher's series of novels featuring detective duo Challis & Destry. It won the Deutsche Krimi Preis (German Crime Fiction Prize) and Disher has also twice won the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing.
BBC Cymru Wales production
Richard Dillane's multiple credits include recent appearances in Peaky Blinders, Poldark and Wolf Hall. Penny Downie is a leading actress for the RSC, including paying Gertrude to David Tennant's Hamlet. As a child, she appeared in The Sullivans, which was the last time she worked with fellow-Australian Mark Little. Mark is known as Joe Mangel from Neighbours as well as appearing in Emmerdale and as a presenter for The Big Breakfast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0930dvl
June 26, 2024
A terrific police procedural set in my home town (in fact my own suburb!) of Melbourne.
These books are crying out to be made into an Oz TV show in my opinion.
These books are crying out to be made into an Oz TV show in my opinion.
April 2, 2015
I've been stocking up on Aussie mystery/crime novels in order to get a different feel. I've read so many American and English that I almost know where they're going before they get there. So the other countries' writers are alluring. And since I have a couple of Aussie mates, my current focus is there.
Gary Disher is one Aussie author that is readily available in the US. There were seven of this Hal Challis series at the bookstore I bought this one at. And I'm really glad they are (and that I bought most of them at the time!)
We're dealing with a police force here and it's a REAL police force. In other words, the focus is not really on the sensational crime but all the crimes the force has to handle at the same time. Are they connected? Are they separate? Are "the usual suspects" involved or have new ones evolved? Why, oh WHY, can't the Superintendent leave us to do our work and quit asking questions we don't know the answers to yet? What part does politics play in it all? Can a "bad" cop pull a "good" arrest?
The people are regular blokes, also. Inspector Challis spends much of his spare time working on an old plane he is refurbishing. He would love to know more of its history. Pam Murphy is a young policewoman who wants to advance (and has caught the eye of her superiors because of her abilities) but doesn't particularly want to rock the boat, especially with her partner, Tank. Tank is a tank. He acts like one, too. No crime, no matter how small, should not be prosecuted according to him. So he madly writes tickets for cracked windshields, broken taillights, everything he can find. AND he tries to solicit bribes (or sex!) from his "victims." There is a campaign against him in the town and flyers have been put up comparing him to a Nazi. Scobie Sutton is obsessed with his toddler daughter and wants to talk to everyone about her. He is constantly worried that something will happen to her and that he doesn't see her enough. CIB Sergeant Ellen Destry is married to another cop but she outranks him and he is jealous enough to make the marriage very rocky. AND they have the typical sulky teen-age daughter.
Enough to make you interested? I hope so. Disher is definitely an author to add to your crime fiction list.
Gary Disher is one Aussie author that is readily available in the US. There were seven of this Hal Challis series at the bookstore I bought this one at. And I'm really glad they are (and that I bought most of them at the time!)
We're dealing with a police force here and it's a REAL police force. In other words, the focus is not really on the sensational crime but all the crimes the force has to handle at the same time. Are they connected? Are they separate? Are "the usual suspects" involved or have new ones evolved? Why, oh WHY, can't the Superintendent leave us to do our work and quit asking questions we don't know the answers to yet? What part does politics play in it all? Can a "bad" cop pull a "good" arrest?
The people are regular blokes, also. Inspector Challis spends much of his spare time working on an old plane he is refurbishing. He would love to know more of its history. Pam Murphy is a young policewoman who wants to advance (and has caught the eye of her superiors because of her abilities) but doesn't particularly want to rock the boat, especially with her partner, Tank. Tank is a tank. He acts like one, too. No crime, no matter how small, should not be prosecuted according to him. So he madly writes tickets for cracked windshields, broken taillights, everything he can find. AND he tries to solicit bribes (or sex!) from his "victims." There is a campaign against him in the town and flyers have been put up comparing him to a Nazi. Scobie Sutton is obsessed with his toddler daughter and wants to talk to everyone about her. He is constantly worried that something will happen to her and that he doesn't see her enough. CIB Sergeant Ellen Destry is married to another cop but she outranks him and he is jealous enough to make the marriage very rocky. AND they have the typical sulky teen-age daughter.
Enough to make you interested? I hope so. Disher is definitely an author to add to your crime fiction list.
March 23, 2016
After having read "Bitter Wash Road" I have started Disher's earlier series based in the Mornington Peninsular. He writes a good crime story and spent a lot of this book in building the characters that I suspect will be the main players in the rest of the series.
The story is about a series of women being murdered, a local couple of violent criminals who are committing a series of burglaries, arson and attacks. Easy to read and a good page turner.
This book was written in 1999 and has a couple of minor story lines that also appear in "Bitter Wash Road" - a drunk driver swapping seats with their passenger, the local criminal who robs houses when people are preoccupied elsewhere, a corrupt lawyer and local police superintendent.
The story is about a series of women being murdered, a local couple of violent criminals who are committing a series of burglaries, arson and attacks. Easy to read and a good page turner.
This book was written in 1999 and has a couple of minor story lines that also appear in "Bitter Wash Road" - a drunk driver swapping seats with their passenger, the local criminal who robs houses when people are preoccupied elsewhere, a corrupt lawyer and local police superintendent.
October 22, 2020
I made it to 45% of the audio version narrated by Colin McPhillamy before giving up.
I didn't find the story engaging, and being introduced to so many characters up front didn't help.
The narrator took some getting used to - and I wasn't a huge fan in general - but what also didn't help was the poor production. There are pauses midway through scenes, while at other times, new scenes start immediately.
It was all quite confusing and left me not caring one jot about the characters or the story.
I didn't find the story engaging, and being introduced to so many characters up front didn't help.
The narrator took some getting used to - and I wasn't a huge fan in general - but what also didn't help was the poor production. There are pauses midway through scenes, while at other times, new scenes start immediately.
It was all quite confusing and left me not caring one jot about the characters or the story.
Read
August 20, 2025#TheDragonMan – Garry Disher
#Viper
#JonathanBall
The Dragon was the most beautiful flying creature Hal Challis has ever seen. Not the mythological fire-breathing reptile, though; as an avid restorer of classical aircraft, Hal’s object of admiration, and the source of him being nicknamed the dragon man, is the red and white airplane of the 1930’s, the Dragon.
His day job is a far cry from his hobby. As a detective inspector he is summonsed to the sleepy town of Waterloo on the Mornington Peninsula when reports of a serial killer abducting and murdering women on the Old Highway, surface just before Christmas during a hot, dry Australian summer.
“Picture the highway at night. Almost midnight. No street lighting, cloudy moon, very few cars about, no sense of humankind out there except for a farmhouse porch light on a different hillside.” (14)
The Dragon Man is the first in the Peninsula Crimes series, featuring Hal Challis, first published in 1999, and followed by six other titles. This is the 2025 reprint. The author is one of Australia’s best-known novelists and has published more than 40 books in a range of genres.
A word of caution: The dramatis personae is extensive and perspective shifts are utilized often throughout the text. Apart from Challis, several other police officers, each with a back story, are introduced. Ellen Destry battles marital challenges and a rebellious teenage daughter, Scobie Sutton is a devoted family man and father to a toddler, John Tankard has a violent streak and suffers from delusions of grandeur, Kees van Alphen is corrupt, and Pam Murphy is the ugly duckling in a family of intellectuals.
In addition to these characters, two petty criminals, an air conditioning expert, a con artist, a lawyer-estate agent, a sex offender, a fugitive in a witness protection program, and a curious reporter are also thrown into the mix, and the armchair sleuth is challenged to figure out which one – if any – is the murderer.
Challis is hampered by asthma, as well as constant phone calls from his ex-wife sanctioned to an institution for conspiracy to murder, after she had attempted to have him shot by her new lover.
The overwhelming cast of characters were not essential to the crux of the novel, namely, to solve the murders, and the inclusion of several peripheral storylines, in combination with alternating focalizations, result in a stop-and-go reading experience. There identity of the murderer was not too hard to figure out, which is not problematic in a character driven novel, but the multitude of characters was an obstacle in the creation of the latter.
The novel might have been intended to be an introduction to the rest of the series, but as a standalone it was not particularly impressive.
#Uitdieperdsebek
#Viper
#JonathanBall
The Dragon was the most beautiful flying creature Hal Challis has ever seen. Not the mythological fire-breathing reptile, though; as an avid restorer of classical aircraft, Hal’s object of admiration, and the source of him being nicknamed the dragon man, is the red and white airplane of the 1930’s, the Dragon.
His day job is a far cry from his hobby. As a detective inspector he is summonsed to the sleepy town of Waterloo on the Mornington Peninsula when reports of a serial killer abducting and murdering women on the Old Highway, surface just before Christmas during a hot, dry Australian summer.
“Picture the highway at night. Almost midnight. No street lighting, cloudy moon, very few cars about, no sense of humankind out there except for a farmhouse porch light on a different hillside.” (14)
The Dragon Man is the first in the Peninsula Crimes series, featuring Hal Challis, first published in 1999, and followed by six other titles. This is the 2025 reprint. The author is one of Australia’s best-known novelists and has published more than 40 books in a range of genres.
A word of caution: The dramatis personae is extensive and perspective shifts are utilized often throughout the text. Apart from Challis, several other police officers, each with a back story, are introduced. Ellen Destry battles marital challenges and a rebellious teenage daughter, Scobie Sutton is a devoted family man and father to a toddler, John Tankard has a violent streak and suffers from delusions of grandeur, Kees van Alphen is corrupt, and Pam Murphy is the ugly duckling in a family of intellectuals.
In addition to these characters, two petty criminals, an air conditioning expert, a con artist, a lawyer-estate agent, a sex offender, a fugitive in a witness protection program, and a curious reporter are also thrown into the mix, and the armchair sleuth is challenged to figure out which one – if any – is the murderer.
Challis is hampered by asthma, as well as constant phone calls from his ex-wife sanctioned to an institution for conspiracy to murder, after she had attempted to have him shot by her new lover.
The overwhelming cast of characters were not essential to the crux of the novel, namely, to solve the murders, and the inclusion of several peripheral storylines, in combination with alternating focalizations, result in a stop-and-go reading experience. There identity of the murderer was not too hard to figure out, which is not problematic in a character driven novel, but the multitude of characters was an obstacle in the creation of the latter.
The novel might have been intended to be an introduction to the rest of the series, but as a standalone it was not particularly impressive.
#Uitdieperdsebek
July 9, 2017
This series was recommended to me by Goodreads. I am a fan of police procedurals and I like reading them set in different countries. This one is set in Australia in and around the small town of Waterloo, and it introduces Inspector Hal Challis. He's a hands-on copper who likes to restore old airplanes in his spare time. Hal's past life is revealed a bit in this book and we find out he has a very sad story to tell. His wife is in prison for attempted murder (his own). In spite of this, his investigative skills are still sharply honed. In this book he's trying to find our who is raping and killing young women along the Peninsula highway near Waterloo Also, there are a serries of aggravated burglaries and arson instances in his patch. At first he's not sure if the series of crimes are connected or not. As Hal and his team dig deeper they uncover two vicious killers operating in their small district. This is a noir mystery with lots of hardboiled action. The plot moves along quite quickly, and the character development is pretty good. I like the damaged Hal Challis, and I like his team - especially young Constable Pam Murphy. The book also delves into the fine line between good and bad cops and how easy it can be to fall off the straight path to justice. You may find if you decide to read this book, that you will not like all the police officers in Hal's team. A couple of them will make you stop and think about how prevalent this type of rogue behaviour is in our real-life forces. I recommend this series for anyone who enjoys police procedurals with a hardboiled edge. I will certainly be reading more in the series.
April 4, 2019
I “read” the audiobook version and found the narrator somewhat irritating at first, especially when he badly mispronounced some place names. However, I got over that and really enjoyed the story. I know the Mornington Peninsula quite well, so it was interesting reading about familiar places. Some are real but others were fictional or thinly disguised. I am quite sure that Waterloo is really Hastings! Both were battles after all!
I did guess the villain, but not till close to the end. There were a couple of loose ends that weren’t tied up, but that’s OK. It also felt slightly old fashioned at times, but it was written 20 years ago, about 10 years before the release of the iPhone. We forget how recent smart phones are.
I’ve given it 4 stars rather than 5 due to the narrator. I will be reading more of Gary Disher’s books though.
I did guess the villain, but not till close to the end. There were a couple of loose ends that weren’t tied up, but that’s OK. It also felt slightly old fashioned at times, but it was written 20 years ago, about 10 years before the release of the iPhone. We forget how recent smart phones are.
I’ve given it 4 stars rather than 5 due to the narrator. I will be reading more of Gary Disher’s books though.
January 21, 2020
This is my third Garry Disher novel in as many weeks and I'm familiar enough with his style now to see the end a mile away.
The Dragon Man left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I didn't warm to any of the characters, the red herrings were too obvious, and the ending was brutally rushed. Disher wastes far too much time on random events, and suddenly has a shift in gear like he's grown bored of his own tapestry. 10 pages later, everything is neatly wrapped up. The end.
I don't know if I'll read another Disher novel. There's far too much else out there I'd rather read.
The Dragon Man left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I didn't warm to any of the characters, the red herrings were too obvious, and the ending was brutally rushed. Disher wastes far too much time on random events, and suddenly has a shift in gear like he's grown bored of his own tapestry. 10 pages later, everything is neatly wrapped up. The end.
I don't know if I'll read another Disher novel. There's far too much else out there I'd rather read.
May 31, 2018
Maybe closer to 3.5 stars. It starts off terribly slow for a procedural. But stick with it. All of the sudden it gets very interesting in a way that Elmore Leonard draws everything together. If you're into crime novels and want to read a little about living in Australia, it might be worth it. Otherwise ...
August 16, 2018
I want to read all in this series so I was, luckily, able to start with the first one. Garry Disher gets it right....the language, the description of the landscapes and the Aussie ways of life as well as providing an insight into the much flawed lives of the police he introduces in the story. This book really sets the scene for the ones to come by introducing quite a number of characters. I look forward to more!
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