More from my “Killer Fiction” Review Archives
Posted on July 27th, 2009
My review of this book appeared originally in another publication and is reprinted here:
Black Tide by Peter Temple
Publisher: MacAdam/Cage. ISBN: 1-59692-130-7
Jack Irish, the tough and complicated but somewhat flawed Australian lawyer (who seems to have given up practicing law), is now principally employed in Melbourne as a private investigator (of sorts) who specializes in collecting debts (from very reluctant deadbeats) and finding (or even occasionally inventing) witnesses for clients who need a little extra unorthodox help with their cases. And when he’s not employing some rather questionable ethics on difficult cases for his troubled clients—usually with unimpeachable results—Jack splits the remainder of his time at the horseracing track (with a small circle of friends eager to secure the “inside track” through rather creative ways for their wagering advantages) and at Taub’s Cabinetmaking (where he works as a somewhat belated and not completely dedicated apprentice for a cynical master craftsman).
One day, though, Jack—a widower who intentionally overloads his schedule so that he does not have to spend too much time dwelling upon his lonely existence—is retained to find a missing person, Gary Connors. Gary’s father, the elderly Des Connors has retained Jack and is eager to draft a will and put his legal and financial affairs in order, but there is the small matter of a considerable amount of money that Des’s son had fraudulently obtained from him. Now the elder Connors wants his money back, but the younger Connors, a man of questionable character and spotty past, is nowhere to be found. At first it seems to be a routine case, but when Jack begins making inquiries, he quickly runs into problems. Nearly everyone that Jack talks to seems deadly serious about privacy and secrecy, and as Jack soon discovers, Gary Connors was apparently involved in some sort of questionable business enterprise. Jack suspects that it was a complicated, corrupt, and hazardous business, and—as quite a few people are now warning Jack—it involved something about which Jack should simply stop making inquiries. In response to the threatening tone of the warnings, most people would simply walk away, but Jack, of course, just cannot leave it alone. After all, he is working for a client who deserves quality service. And what follows for Jack is a harrowing adventure filled with excitement and danger—with some pleasurable diversions every now and then—and a complicated case dominated by some surprising twists and turns.
Peter Temple, one of Australia’s most successful crime novelists, delivers an exciting tale of corruption, deceit, and violence in Black Tide which was previously published in 1999 in Australia. Other Jack Irish books, published previously in Australia, include Bad Debts (which is also currently available in U.S. markets through MacAdam/Cage), Dead Point (2000), and White Dog (2003); Temple’s other stand-alone thrillers include An Iron Rose (1998), Shooting Star (2002), and In the Evil Day (2002). Readers will enjoy Temple’s crisp prose, complex characterizations, and crafty plotting in Black Tide and will most assuredly, like me, look forward to reading Temple’s other works.
Tags: Australian Lawyer, Black Tide, Business Enterprise, Cabinetmaking, Deadbeats, Financial Affairs, Horseracing Track, Killer Fiction, Lonely Existence, Master Craftsman, Missing Person, Peter Temple, Private Investigator, Questionable Business, Questionable Character, Questionable Ethics, Routine Case, Small Circle Of Friends, Time Dwelling, Widower
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