My Review: Chain Of Evidence by Garry Disher

My Review

This is the fourth of Garry Disher's crime fiction series featuring Police Officers, Detective Inspector Hal Challis and Detective Ellen Destry. Previously Challis has been the keynote character, but in this novel he has a more passive role. Challis is miles away at his father's deathbed in dry, dusty South Australia. Whilst there he investigates the sudden disappearance of his brother-in-law.

Meanwhile, back in the Victorian peninsula town of Waterloo, Ellen Destry is thrust into the limelight. Despite some sexist resentment, Ellen is acting as both jobsitter and housesitter for Challis whilst he is away. With this as the backdrop, a young girl is abducted and then found alive, and an active pedophile ring on the Mornington Peninsula is uncovered. Interwoven into the story are small town tensions, hidden alliances and police corruption.

Throughout the novel the two main plotlines run parallel to each other as the reader switches between South Australia and Victoria. Ultimately as both cases break open the despairing secrets of two small towns in two different states are revealed.

Overall a very enjoyable read. The plotlines were multi-layered, sophisticated, but slick and full of the kind of intrigue and tension that keeps the pages turning. I also really enjoyed the character development of Ellen Destry in this novel. She is going through a vulnerable stage of life both personally, and professionally. Her marriage is over, her relationship with her daughter is rocky, the police force is cutting corners and compromising forensics, and she doesn't know who she can trust. And bubbling away in the background is the romantic tension between herself and Challis that becomes apparent during their interstate phone conversations.

I would thoroughly recommend this title to all devotees of crime and police procedural fiction. With two more titles subsequently published making a total of six Challis and Destry novels (at the time of writing this), it is an enjoyable series of Australian crime fiction to get your teeth into and one which I will continue to read with interest.