The Dragon Man
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3.9 • 168 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Peninsula Crimes, Book One
That first one, last week, she hadn't been a challenge at all. Drunk, half-drugged, hitchhiking, she'd been too easy. At least he'd got to use his head a little tonight. His headlights probed the darkness as he carried her away, high above the rottenness that was always there under the light of the sun.
Summer on the Peninsula. The heat's ramping up, the usual holiday madness building. D.I. Hal Challis is already recycling his shower water and starting to dread Christmas. But this year there's something more. Women abducted and murdered on the Old Highway, a pall of fear over the scorched paddocks. The media are demanding answers-and Challis's sleepy beat is set to explode.
'An intelligent, atmospheric police procedural...Fans of such gritty yet cerebral crime novelists such as Ian Rankin and Jack Harvey should be well pleased.' Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian author Disher delivers an intelligent, atmospheric police procedural, the first of a new series. A serial killer targeting young women along the isolated Old Peninsula Highway has baffled Detective Inspector Hal Challis and his staff. Himself a resident of the Peninsula, as the locals call the sleepy "comma of land hooking into the sea south-east of Melbourne," Challis leads a solitary life. We soon learn that his wife Angela has spent the last seven years in prison for conspiring with her lover to murder him. Nicknamed "the dragon man," Challis in his spare time obsessively restores a vintage airplane, a Dragon Rapide. Indeed, as we meet the other police officers, it becomes clear that they're as interesting, not to mention as complex and morally ambiguous, as any of the criminals they seek. Pam Murphy, for instance, is an idealistic young constable recovering from a car crash and a nervous breakdown, and Sergeant Kees van Alphen raids the evidence locker for cocaine, which he trades for sex. Fans of such gritty yet cerebral crime novelists as Ian Rankin and Jack Harvey should be well pleased.
Customer Reviews
The Dragon Man
Excellent read. Thoroughly enjoyed this one. A hard to put down tale of abduction and murder laced with personal back stories of the police team working it against the glorious backdrop of a favourite Australian holiday destination. I will look for more books by this author.