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Scavengers
Mike Crowe doesn't believe in ghosts, but it seems there's one ghost that believes in him. Can he escape the attention of a psychopath long enough to help her?
A not-exactly legal PI, Crowe is blackmailed into tracking down a serial killer known as The Scavenger. At the same time, he finds himself increasingly plagued by visions - and eventually visitations - of a young girl he failed to save from being murdered a decade before.
Are these things connected?
Crowe must scavenge through the debris of a world going to pieces around him - at first just to survive and then to find the answers to questions he'd rather hadn't been asked.
'Scavengers is smart, dark, riveting crime fiction at its best. This is Hood at the top of his game.' - Kaaron Warren, author of The Grief Hole, Into Bones Like Oil, and Tide of Stone.
A not-exactly legal PI, Crowe is blackmailed into tracking down a serial killer known as The Scavenger. At the same time, he finds himself increasingly plagued by visions - and eventually visitations - of a young girl he failed to save from being murdered a decade before.
Are these things connected?
Crowe must scavenge through the debris of a world going to pieces around him - at first just to survive and then to find the answers to questions he'd rather hadn't been asked.
'Scavengers is smart, dark, riveting crime fiction at its best. This is Hood at the top of his game.' - Kaaron Warren, author of The Grief Hole, Into Bones Like Oil, and Tide of Stone.
- GenresHorror
372 pages, Paperback
Published September 28, 2022
11 people want to read
About the author
Robert Hood
111 books36 followersRobert Hood has been a published writer for several decades, with a long list of short stories and a few novels to his name. Though focused on Australia, he publishes anywhere he can and currently has books and stories in the US and UK. His books include the short story collections Day-dreaming on Company Time, Immaterial Ghost Stories, Creeping in Reptile Flesh and the career-spanning ghost story collection Peripheral Visions: The Collected Ghost Stories. Novels include Backstreets and the epic dark fantasy novel Fragments of a Broken Land Valarl Undead. He also co-edited the award-winning anthology Daikaiju Giant Monster Tales and its sequels.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 8, 2023
Genreblending at its best. SCAVENGERS cleverly interweaves hardboiled crime, ghost story, and a retelling of Frankenstein in an Aussie setting. I loved how all the threads come together in a satisfying conclusion.
Disclaimer:
I am a judge for the 2022 Aurealis Awards. This review is my personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinators, or the Aurealis Awards management team.
Disclaimer:
I am a judge for the 2022 Aurealis Awards. This review is my personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinators, or the Aurealis Awards management team.
February 4, 2023
In Scavengers, noir crime meets the paranormal as a serial killer in New South Wales hacks up men to take body parts. Thoughtful and even halfway decent Mr Crowe, who does shady deeds for gangsters, is figuratively haunted but the murder of a teenager girl 10 years before, but the haunting becomes more literal as he becomes unwillingly involved in strange occult-inspired deals.
Crowe, his not-quite-girlfriend Gail, poor dead Lucy and criminal psychologist Meera Banerjee are all strong characters, and excellent foils for the collection of crooks, heavies, cops and the obsessed serial killer. It’s an excellent balancing act.
Robert Hood’s spare, punchy style also finds the perfect balance between the genres he’s pulling together. Frankenstein influences more than one aspect of the storytelling and leads to a splendidly grotesque finale.
Crowe, his not-quite-girlfriend Gail, poor dead Lucy and criminal psychologist Meera Banerjee are all strong characters, and excellent foils for the collection of crooks, heavies, cops and the obsessed serial killer. It’s an excellent balancing act.
Robert Hood’s spare, punchy style also finds the perfect balance between the genres he’s pulling together. Frankenstein influences more than one aspect of the storytelling and leads to a splendidly grotesque finale.
July 13, 2024
A vivid Aussie crime thriller with supernatural elements
Robert Hood is best known as a writer of horror and fantasy and he’s been described as ‘Aussie Horror’s wicked godfather’. But he began his publishing career in crime fiction and also commissioned and co-edited the anthology Crosstown Traffic, which featured a dozen crime stories blended with genres such as Westerns, Romance, Fantasy and Horror. All this is to say, Hood is a steady hand with a crime story and Scavengers proves that yet again.
Mike Crowe is a one-time private detective living in Wollongong and not above doing the odd job for local crime bosses. One such boss – Charles Pukalski – asks him to oversee a shady exchange of a ‘valuable artefact’ at Wollongong harbour in the dead of night. Things go pear-shaped when the local serial-killer-at-large – the Scavenger – intercedes in the deal, tussles with Mike and ends up leaving the bag-man bleeding out on the street minus his bag of money and the arm handcuffed to it.
Pukalski wants his cash back even if it means tracking down and confronting the Scavenger, but Mike begins to realise there’s more to the original exchange and it involves another former employer – millionaire Gregor Waldheim – whose daughter Lucy was brutally murdered years before on Crowe’s watch. Then Mike – who believes in solid facts and not a lot else – begins to receive messages from the dead Lucy…
Right from page one, Crowe presents as a fully-rounded, engaging and believable character, with the same heft as Peter Corris’s Cliff Hardy or Peter Temple’s Jack Irish. Hood has written about Crowe before in a couple of short stories and his long relationship with the detective shows in all the details about him and his life that accrete as the plot progresses. The other vivid character is Wollongong. I live just south of the city and seeing real places and locations become the setting for violent altercations – including a shooting in a particular up-market harbour restaurant – was an added treat. But even if you’re not familiar with the area, Hood’s descriptive powers will make you believe you are.
Another delight was Crowe’s struggles with the increasingly weird and potentially supernatural messages from the supposedly dead Lucy, counterpointed with the gritty and often grim reminders of life for those who live on the lawless side of the street. As the body count rises – due to serial killers or other criminal ne’er do wells – Mike begins to lose his grip on reality and the action builds to a cathartic and shocking conclusion.
Scavengers is a smart, propulsive ride that’s up there with the best that Aussie crime has to offer.
Robert Hood is best known as a writer of horror and fantasy and he’s been described as ‘Aussie Horror’s wicked godfather’. But he began his publishing career in crime fiction and also commissioned and co-edited the anthology Crosstown Traffic, which featured a dozen crime stories blended with genres such as Westerns, Romance, Fantasy and Horror. All this is to say, Hood is a steady hand with a crime story and Scavengers proves that yet again.
Mike Crowe is a one-time private detective living in Wollongong and not above doing the odd job for local crime bosses. One such boss – Charles Pukalski – asks him to oversee a shady exchange of a ‘valuable artefact’ at Wollongong harbour in the dead of night. Things go pear-shaped when the local serial-killer-at-large – the Scavenger – intercedes in the deal, tussles with Mike and ends up leaving the bag-man bleeding out on the street minus his bag of money and the arm handcuffed to it.
Pukalski wants his cash back even if it means tracking down and confronting the Scavenger, but Mike begins to realise there’s more to the original exchange and it involves another former employer – millionaire Gregor Waldheim – whose daughter Lucy was brutally murdered years before on Crowe’s watch. Then Mike – who believes in solid facts and not a lot else – begins to receive messages from the dead Lucy…
Right from page one, Crowe presents as a fully-rounded, engaging and believable character, with the same heft as Peter Corris’s Cliff Hardy or Peter Temple’s Jack Irish. Hood has written about Crowe before in a couple of short stories and his long relationship with the detective shows in all the details about him and his life that accrete as the plot progresses. The other vivid character is Wollongong. I live just south of the city and seeing real places and locations become the setting for violent altercations – including a shooting in a particular up-market harbour restaurant – was an added treat. But even if you’re not familiar with the area, Hood’s descriptive powers will make you believe you are.
Another delight was Crowe’s struggles with the increasingly weird and potentially supernatural messages from the supposedly dead Lucy, counterpointed with the gritty and often grim reminders of life for those who live on the lawless side of the street. As the body count rises – due to serial killers or other criminal ne’er do wells – Mike begins to lose his grip on reality and the action builds to a cathartic and shocking conclusion.
Scavengers is a smart, propulsive ride that’s up there with the best that Aussie crime has to offer.
February 20, 2023
‘Memory, but not a memory. There’d been a party, but it hadn’t happened like that. What was his mind trying to tell him?
Meet Mike Crowe, of Wollongong NSW. He is a sort of Private Investigator, with a sort of girlfriend named Gail who is haunted by a sort of ghost of a woman called Lucy, who has been dead for ten years. This is important background information, all relevant to the turmoil in which Crowe is about to find himself immersed. There’s a bloke called Charlie Pukalski ‘pillar of the community as far as the community was concerned, dodgy bastard to those in the know, an old frenemy.’ Pukalski wants the very unwilling Crowe to do a job for him. And, when asking doesn’t work, blackmail does. Sort of. Pukalski is after something bizarre and almost priceless.
There’s a serial killer at work, nicknamed ‘The Scavenger’ because he cuts up his victims. The Scavenger gets involved when Crowe is trying to meet Pukalski’s request, and things rapidly go downhill. Crowe, plagued by nightmares and seeming visitations about the death of Lucy (a case he had been unable to solve). Why is Lucy haunting Crowe, and what is the meaning of the message she is trying to share?
‘Don’t let him have it!’
Crowe is working with the police as well as with Pukalski (sort of). He is also being assisted (sort of) by a scruffy ex-journalist called ‘Blowie’. Hmm. Meanwhile his visions of Lucy are increasing, and her messages are becoming more urgent.
While Crowe is the main character, his is not the only perspective we see. Occasionally we are in the murderer’s mind (not an entirely comfortable place in which to dwell) and references to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ give us hints as to what he is about. But, be warned, there is also a touch of occult involving at least one demented character.
Horror often doesn’t work for me, but the crime fiction element of this novel captured and held my attention while (gulp) the horror worked its way insidiously into my consciousness. Here I was, towards the end of the novel when the light flickered. Could it be a sign? I mean, the first copy of this book sent to me didn’t arrive, which just made me more determined to read it.
And now I have finished, I thank Mr Hood for the ending which may (just) prevent me from having nightmares about body parts and electricity. Possibly.
My thanks to Clan Destine Press for being kind(!) enough to send me a second copy when the first copy mysteriously disappeared between Victoria and Canberra.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Meet Mike Crowe, of Wollongong NSW. He is a sort of Private Investigator, with a sort of girlfriend named Gail who is haunted by a sort of ghost of a woman called Lucy, who has been dead for ten years. This is important background information, all relevant to the turmoil in which Crowe is about to find himself immersed. There’s a bloke called Charlie Pukalski ‘pillar of the community as far as the community was concerned, dodgy bastard to those in the know, an old frenemy.’ Pukalski wants the very unwilling Crowe to do a job for him. And, when asking doesn’t work, blackmail does. Sort of. Pukalski is after something bizarre and almost priceless.
There’s a serial killer at work, nicknamed ‘The Scavenger’ because he cuts up his victims. The Scavenger gets involved when Crowe is trying to meet Pukalski’s request, and things rapidly go downhill. Crowe, plagued by nightmares and seeming visitations about the death of Lucy (a case he had been unable to solve). Why is Lucy haunting Crowe, and what is the meaning of the message she is trying to share?
‘Don’t let him have it!’
Crowe is working with the police as well as with Pukalski (sort of). He is also being assisted (sort of) by a scruffy ex-journalist called ‘Blowie’. Hmm. Meanwhile his visions of Lucy are increasing, and her messages are becoming more urgent.
While Crowe is the main character, his is not the only perspective we see. Occasionally we are in the murderer’s mind (not an entirely comfortable place in which to dwell) and references to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ give us hints as to what he is about. But, be warned, there is also a touch of occult involving at least one demented character.
Horror often doesn’t work for me, but the crime fiction element of this novel captured and held my attention while (gulp) the horror worked its way insidiously into my consciousness. Here I was, towards the end of the novel when the light flickered. Could it be a sign? I mean, the first copy of this book sent to me didn’t arrive, which just made me more determined to read it.
And now I have finished, I thank Mr Hood for the ending which may (just) prevent me from having nightmares about body parts and electricity. Possibly.
My thanks to Clan Destine Press for being kind(!) enough to send me a second copy when the first copy mysteriously disappeared between Victoria and Canberra.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
March 22, 2023
An excellent piece of Aussie noir here from Mr Hood. Rough and ready PI Mike Crowe, a sort of down under Harry Angel figure for me, tries to repay an old debt when he is blackmailed into tracking down a notorious serial killer. All the while being plagued by visions of a dead girl he failed to save many years earlier.
There's a touch of "The Lovely Bones" in the relationship between Crowe and the ghostly girl, but Rob makes it his own and gives it a specifically Aussie touch. No spoilers, but the peripatetic journey the PI undertakes involves a trail of red herrings until the antagonist reveals themself. Rob has created a great protagonist in Crowe, a character who has appeared in some of his earlier work, and who I'm sure we will see more of in future.
There's a touch of "The Lovely Bones" in the relationship between Crowe and the ghostly girl, but Rob makes it his own and gives it a specifically Aussie touch. No spoilers, but the peripatetic journey the PI undertakes involves a trail of red herrings until the antagonist reveals themself. Rob has created a great protagonist in Crowe, a character who has appeared in some of his earlier work, and who I'm sure we will see more of in future.
February 16, 2023
Reality was a slippery thing, prone to wild deviances from conventional logic and temporal consistency. It both fascinated and appalled him. He had dedicated his life to creating order, yet always he had to function within a framework of chaos…
A down and dirty crime novel with a spectral heart, Scavengers is the kind of noir that only comes out of Australia and the kind of supernatural weirdness that only comes out of Robert Hood.
On the south coast of New South Wales, the days are bright but the sea winds change on a cent, bringing fog to choke the Bulli pass. Here, the corruption goes back as far as the old coal mines and a man like Michael Crowe can sit and contemplate his regrets in peace. Until a series of gruesome murders - attributed to a serial killer nicknamed the Scavenger – shatter the status quo, sending everyone from career crooks to police scurrying for cover. A “Sam Spade Wannabe”, Crowe ekes out a living in the space between, but that space is suddenly crowded with journalists, psychologists, politicians, and so-called magicians. A bizarre artifact is missing, and it becomes clear that he and the Scavenger are on a collision course.
This is the first novel to feature Crowe, although he has appeared previously in Hood’s shorter work. An engaging mix of self-aware stereotype and guarded depths, cynicism and humanity, Crowe carries the story, through all its twists and turns, with ease. The pace never flags, with fights, chases, and betrayals aplenty. The plotting is as solid as the Escarpment, with no mystical handwaving, yet Crowe’s progress through the mystery generates an overpowering sense of uncanny forces at work. The reader occupies a privileged perspective, in this regard, but much of this is down to Hood’s ability to evoke atmosphere.
“The air had thickened into a liquid grain, dripping darkness across the matted foliage. A cockatoo flew overhead, a white spectre shrieking its harsh metallic warning against the blue-grey clouds.”
Milton and Shelley infiltrate the narrative, the gruntings of criminals and rantings of madmen take on an oracular quality. This is truly a place where the dead might rise and a man come face to face with what he thought lost forever.
At times, police psychologist Meera Banerjee takes over the point of view. She is a refreshing change, armed with her own expertise and reasons for daring the littoral. Crowe’s friend Gail Veitch is likewise a force to be reckoned with, aiding Crowe on her own terms and capable of standing toe to toe against the crooks and bullies they encounter. This is a good thing. Misogyny in its many disguises is a constant presence, running close to the theme of the book. For my money, that theme is the lies people tell themselves and the lengths they will go to to maintain themselves as the heroes of their own stories. Crowe may not be a conventional hero. As is clear from his name, he too is a scavenger. But his regret and self doubt prove powerful aids in exposing the truth at last.
With a streak of black humour and a truly electrifying climax, reading Scavengers is well worth the odd nightmare it may cause along the way.
A down and dirty crime novel with a spectral heart, Scavengers is the kind of noir that only comes out of Australia and the kind of supernatural weirdness that only comes out of Robert Hood.
On the south coast of New South Wales, the days are bright but the sea winds change on a cent, bringing fog to choke the Bulli pass. Here, the corruption goes back as far as the old coal mines and a man like Michael Crowe can sit and contemplate his regrets in peace. Until a series of gruesome murders - attributed to a serial killer nicknamed the Scavenger – shatter the status quo, sending everyone from career crooks to police scurrying for cover. A “Sam Spade Wannabe”, Crowe ekes out a living in the space between, but that space is suddenly crowded with journalists, psychologists, politicians, and so-called magicians. A bizarre artifact is missing, and it becomes clear that he and the Scavenger are on a collision course.
This is the first novel to feature Crowe, although he has appeared previously in Hood’s shorter work. An engaging mix of self-aware stereotype and guarded depths, cynicism and humanity, Crowe carries the story, through all its twists and turns, with ease. The pace never flags, with fights, chases, and betrayals aplenty. The plotting is as solid as the Escarpment, with no mystical handwaving, yet Crowe’s progress through the mystery generates an overpowering sense of uncanny forces at work. The reader occupies a privileged perspective, in this regard, but much of this is down to Hood’s ability to evoke atmosphere.
“The air had thickened into a liquid grain, dripping darkness across the matted foliage. A cockatoo flew overhead, a white spectre shrieking its harsh metallic warning against the blue-grey clouds.”
Milton and Shelley infiltrate the narrative, the gruntings of criminals and rantings of madmen take on an oracular quality. This is truly a place where the dead might rise and a man come face to face with what he thought lost forever.
At times, police psychologist Meera Banerjee takes over the point of view. She is a refreshing change, armed with her own expertise and reasons for daring the littoral. Crowe’s friend Gail Veitch is likewise a force to be reckoned with, aiding Crowe on her own terms and capable of standing toe to toe against the crooks and bullies they encounter. This is a good thing. Misogyny in its many disguises is a constant presence, running close to the theme of the book. For my money, that theme is the lies people tell themselves and the lengths they will go to to maintain themselves as the heroes of their own stories. Crowe may not be a conventional hero. As is clear from his name, he too is a scavenger. But his regret and self doubt prove powerful aids in exposing the truth at last.
With a streak of black humour and a truly electrifying climax, reading Scavengers is well worth the odd nightmare it may cause along the way.
August 1, 2024
Unquestionably one of the most enjoyable and compelling reads I’ve had in the past year. An excellent protagonist and intriguing plot make this novel a true testament to the craft of the author. Read it.
January 22, 2023
Aussie private detective fiction.
March 20, 2023
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Noir crime. Paranormal. Horror. Crime fiction. Genres that at first glance usually wouldn't mesh well together, but Robert Hood's punchy writing style blends them all perfectly.
Mike Crowe was new to me, yet the information given was enough to get an understanding of him with the layers added on the further you got in the book.
The differing background information was woven throughout nicely to not take away from the 'now' storyline and instead add even more depth to why Crowe is even bothering with this case.
The crime itself, with the serial killer dubbed 'the Scavenger', read like a popular TV show not just a book, with the descriptions easily imagined as you read.
Spectral aspects usually make me dismiss a book without reading it, yet Robert has added just the right amount to dip into the Paranormal genre without going completely off script.
Superb meshing of genres and writing that kept me turning pages and leaving me wanting to read more of Mike Crowe and the direction Robert Hood takes him.
© 2023. A Book Escape. All Rights Reserved.
Noir crime. Paranormal. Horror. Crime fiction. Genres that at first glance usually wouldn't mesh well together, but Robert Hood's punchy writing style blends them all perfectly.
Mike Crowe was new to me, yet the information given was enough to get an understanding of him with the layers added on the further you got in the book.
The differing background information was woven throughout nicely to not take away from the 'now' storyline and instead add even more depth to why Crowe is even bothering with this case.
The crime itself, with the serial killer dubbed 'the Scavenger', read like a popular TV show not just a book, with the descriptions easily imagined as you read.
Spectral aspects usually make me dismiss a book without reading it, yet Robert has added just the right amount to dip into the Paranormal genre without going completely off script.
Superb meshing of genres and writing that kept me turning pages and leaving me wanting to read more of Mike Crowe and the direction Robert Hood takes him.
© 2023. A Book Escape. All Rights Reserved.
September 1, 2024
A truly taut and creepy novel that grips the reader from the very first page, starting off as what appears to be a noir private-eye crime tale, and slowly morphing into an exploration of supernatural horror. I read this book in a single sitting, unable to put it down.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews