Eva's Angel

by Garry Disher

Eva Hicks has come to Italy for love and art. What she finds in the shifting light of Tuscany are gunshots along the terraced hillsides, the enigmatic painter Nye and a sense of her own misplaced faith.

Another student, Matt, is deeply suspicious of their mentor. Is Nye inappropriately involved with one of his students, and connected with the murders of tourists in the region? As Matt and Eva's relationship develops, they decide to find the truth, and discover much more than they bargained for.

'Tantalising... Part thriller, part rite of passage, part evocative journey'
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Garry 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.

Reviews

[Hermien · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and un-thrilling. I only finished it because I was stuck in a car with nothing else to listen to.

[Calzean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disher is a fine writer but this one is a mystery. In the acknowledgments the author points out that the book incorporates excerpts from two previously released short stories. And the book feels that it. A couple of well written passages hidden between a waffling story of a wannabe artist in Italy with other wannabe artists being mentored by a some big name artist who turns out to be not so nice.

[Sarah Thornton]

I love a book where the serial killer isn't the worst person in the book (I mean they probably were but who knows)

[Sarah Mayor Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

To review or not to review? There is much debate in the world of children’s and young adult literature about whether to write negative reviews, or to damn books with no review at all. With the distinct shortage of copy space for this genre in the mainstream print-media I am always tempted to take the second option and not review at all, lest people take my word for it and find other books to read. But Gary Disher is amongst Australia’s finest writers and so this title demands to be discussed. I only wish I could find more positive things to say about it.

Eva’s Angel is a title which falls into the Young Adult/cross-over genre. It seems to be aimed at people in their late teens and into their twenty somethings. Gary Disher is as well known for his adult novels as his ones for this age-group and maybe this is where the trouble comes from –it seems caught between being a character and setting driven book for young adults and a crime thriller for adults.

Eva finds herself in Italy, having followed her boyfriend, Aden who is there on a prestigious mentorship program. His mentor is Nye, an Australian artist who has connections in high places, and who casts a deliberately mysterious air about him. When Eva and Aden part company Eva is left to make her own way. Nye’s promises, said and unsaid, leave Eva curious, and eventually threaten her existence.

There are some great elements here: a marvellously exotic setting, which Disher, with his eye for detail, brings to life with real style, characters we can relate to – in situations we can only imagine. There is intrigue, suspense and murder. Unfortunately for me, this book which, in its superb jacket, promised so much left me wondering. I felt like I was reading the bare bones of a plot. I would have loved Disher to fill in more detail, instead of rushing us through what became more and more a rushed plot. As one of the first books about Australian students’ ‘gap year’ in Europe, it had such potential. Unfortunately for me, there were many elements such as Disher’s portrayal of Nye (who is a pivotal character) which either did not engage me enough, or frustrated me in their brevity.

However, having read a glowing review about Eva’s Angels by a uni student who said young adults love reading books about people doing things just ahead of where they are in life, I am hoping that it is just my age and stage in life that put me off this book. If you are about to leave school and undertake a ‘gap year’ I hope my comments won’t put you off reading Eva’s Angels. And if you do – I wish you a better ‘gap year’ than Eva had.