Busy, busyHavelock
In the stable of Australasian crime writers, Alan Carter is a piebald. He “divides his time between his house near the beach in Fremantle, and a hobby farm up a remote valley in New Zealand”. Royalties must be flowing; well done, that author. He’s been praised for his Cato Kwang stories, with their Austro- Asian copper. But this is a stand- alone, set in the sophisticated surrounds of Havelock, the green mussel mecca with its herons, marinas, fence of shoes.
It’s a lovely place, except for unemployment and rapacious landscrapers. Police sergeant Nick knows that claws are reaching for him from the past. Plus he’s got major relationship issues. Don’t they all? It would be really original to have a contented cop.
A serial slayer called the Pied Piper is abducting and killing small boys. Creepy; compelling. In between flicking back to the UKand the origins of his apprehensions, Nick gets involved in his own irregular way.
A lot happens. Two itinerants drift in; a paedophile is persecuted; there’s vigilante arson and pet- shooting. Various genre tropes appear — feisty ethnic female officer, discord with superiors, false directions, one- line paragraphs, detailed local geography, a monster who muses in italics — and Carter handles them all deftly.
Bodies accumulate. The arrogant rich appear as do a white convertible and some pre- packaged Maori issues. A shuttle of scenes builds to a skilfully scary resolution with multiple abductions, mocking mobile messages, a derelict visionary and a rotting bush hut.
Multiple plot strands, which Carter threads neatly. The dialogue often reads like recitation but that’s par for the genre. A springy present tense and some pleasing irreverent comedy ( you’ll like the rotisserie chicken theft) keep it striding along.
There’s a curious tendency in some crime fiction to strive for philosophical/ literary significance. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, why try to turn it into a swan? The result is usually clunky moralising and swollen metaphors and Carter lapses into these a few times.
Overall, it’s professional, packed and pacy. I’ll look for his next but I won’t mind if it’s a little less portentous.