Garry Disher Libros

'A scorchingly good novel' MICHAEL ROBOTHAM 'Disher is the gold standard for rural noir' CHRIS HAMMER 'An utterly compelling mystery with rare heart and humanity' DERVLA MCTIERNAN AN ACT OF INEXPLICABLE CRUELTY. A FAMILY DESTROYED. Constable Paul Hirschhausen runs a one-cop station in the dry farming country south of the Flinders Ranges. He's still new in town but his community work - welfare checks and a light touch - is starting to pay off. Now Christmas is here and, apart from a grass fire, two boys stealing a vehicle, and Brenda Flann entering the front bar of the pub without exiting her car, Hirsch's life has been peaceful. Until he's called to an incident on Kitchener Street, a strange and vicious attack that sickens the community. And when the Sydney police ask him to look in on a family living on a forgotten back road, it doesn't look like a season of goodwill at all... 'In this brilliant novel, Disher takes his readers on a harrowing journey' JOCK SERONG 'There has been a lot of fuss about Australian rural noir in recent years, but few, if any, do it better than Disher' Canberra Weekly 'Peter Temple and Garry Disher will be identified as the crime writers who redefined Australian crime fiction' Sydney Morning Herald

Hal Challis is 1000 kilometres away from the Peninsula, watching his father die. Ellen Destry is left to mind his house for a month. And his job. Katie Blasko, aged nine, has disappeared. Ellen fears abduction-the Peninsula is sleepy, picturesque, prosperous, but she suspects the existence of a paedophile ring. Superintendent McQuarrie scoffs: the girl came from the Seaview Estate, notorious for broken homes and truancy. Ellen's team investigates. They find suspects, but an officer is murdered and his witness discredited. They find DNA evidence, but the sample is contaminated. Who can Ellen trust, when lawyers, judges and police officers might be involved? Meanwhile, Challis feels out of time and place in the remote outback town of his youth. Past failures haunt him; his father is dying slowly and bitterly; and Homicide Squad detectives have arrived from the city to question his sister about a murder. Challis can cope with being warned off. He can cope with his father. But soon the past catches with him.

Hirsch's rural beat is wide. Daybreak to day's end, dirt roads and dust. Every problem that besets small towns and isolated properties, from unlicensed driving to arson. In the time of the virus, Hirsch is seeing stresses heightened and social divisions cracking wide open. His own tolerance under strain; people getting close to the edge. Today he's driving an international visitor around: Janne Van Sant, whose backpacker son went missing while the borders were closed. They're checking out his last photo site, his last employer. A feeling that the stories don't quite add up. Then a call comes in: a roadside fire. Nothing much - a suitcase soaked in diesel and set alight. But two noteworthy facts emerge. Janne knows more than Hirsch about forensic evidence. And the body in the suitcase is not her son's.

Winter in Tiverton, and Constable Paul Hirschhausen has a snowdropper on his patch. Someone is stealing women's underwear, and Hirsch knows how that kind of crime can escalate. Then two calls come in: a child abandoned in a caravan, filthy and starving. And a man on the rampage at the primary school. Hirsch knows how things like that can escalate, too. An absent father who isn't where he's supposed to be; another who flees to the back country armed with a rifle. Families under pressure can break. But it's always a surprise when the killing starts.

Set in Australia during the Great Depression, 15-year-old Neil and his family seek fortune as gold miners amidst outlaws. A mysterious couple, Ivan and Kitty, arrives, leading to a murder. The story features an exciting plot, exotic setting, and memorable characters. Unabridged edition with translations of difficult words and additional notes.

When Hirsch heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate the gunfire he finds himself cut off without back-up. A pair of thrill killers has been targeting isolated farmhouses on lonely backroads, but Hirsch's first thought is that 'back-up' is nearby - and about to put a bullet in him. That's because Hirsch is a whistleblower. Formerly a promising metropolitan officer, now demoted and exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia's wheatbelt. Called a dog by his brother officers. Threats; pistol cartridge in the mailbox. But the shots on Bitter Wash Road don't tally with Hirsch's assumptions. The truth turns out to be a lot more mundane. And the events that unfold subsequently, a hell of a lot more sinister.

Twenty years ago, Charlie Deravin's mother went missing near the family beach shack - believed murdered. Her body never found. His father has lived under a cloud of suspicion ever since. Now Charlie's back living in the shack in Menlo Beach, on disciplinary leave from his job with the police sex-crimes unit, and permanent leave from his marriage. After two decades worrying away at the mystery of his mother's disappearance, he's run out of leads. Then the skeletal remains of two people are found in the excavation of a new building site - and the past comes crashing in on Charlie.

Set against the bleak backdrop of the Mornington Peninsula, the narrative unfolds with a series of unsettling events, including an unidentified corpse and a missing child, leaving the local police in a state of despair. Detective Inspector Hal Challis, facing mounting pressure, receives a distressing call from aerial photographer Kitty Casement, whose damaged plane raises urgent questions. This gripping tale promises a blend of rural noir and intricate investigation, appealing to fans of acclaimed authors like Jane Harper and Ian Rankin.

The gripping new standalone mystery from one of Australia's most celebrated crime writers

Summer on the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne. The heat's ramping up, the ususal holiday madness building. Detective Inspector 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.