Fallout

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 15 JUL 2013

At the start of Disher's fast-paced sixth Wyatt novel (after Port Vila Blues), the Australian career criminal slipping away from his police woman lover, Liz Redding, to sell some stolen jewelry, but the exchange goes sour and Wyatt barely escapes the police. When he crosses paths with nephew Raymond, likewise a criminal of some note, Wyatt reluctantly decides to team with Raymond, who has a well-founded reputation for unreliability. Hot-headed Raymond is also prone to poor decisions, as shown by his choice to provoke the violent ire of Steer, a hard man who already has a grudge against Wyatt. What should have been a quick score rapidly evolves into a struggle for survival. Disher's prose is as clean and straightforward as ever, though the plot amounts to a series of digressions as old history and human fallibility derail grand schemes, despite the best efforts of his coolly professional protagonist. Fans should note that the seventh entry, Wyatt, is already available in the U.S.