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Tony Cavanaugh

Författare till Promise

12 verk 95 medlemmar 14 recensioner

Serier

Verk av Tony Cavanaugh

Promise (2012) 28 exemplar
Blood River (2019) 17 exemplar
Dead Girl Sing (2013) 12 exemplar
La Promesse (2018) 6 exemplar
L'Affaire Isobel Vine (2017) 5 exemplar
L'Affaire Isobel Vine (2017) 3 exemplar
Requiem (2019) 3 exemplar
The Soft Touch (2013) 2 exemplar
L'affaire Isobel Vine (2017) 1 exemplar
Promise (2014) 1 exemplar
The Trian Rider 1 exemplar

Taggad

Allmänna fakta

Kön
male
Nationalitet
Australia
Land (för karta)
Australia

Medlemmar

Recensioner

Un (ex) policier qui nous offre une (nouvelle) série. Prometteur mais imparfait.
½
 
Flaggad
Nikoz | 3 andra recensioner | Jun 22, 2023 |
I thought this was such a cleverly constructed novel with themes that resonated in the Australian setting: Queensland weather, rise of the Brisbane river and flooding of the city, corruption in the Queensland police force, corruption in government, the glass ceiling both for women and for women of mixed race.

A culture of corruption leads to the decision to look for a quick resolution and conviction in the Vampire Slayer case. The story begins on the eve of 2YK, with 3 seemingly ritualised killings of middle-aged men, and the tracking down of the killer on the basis of what other teenagers and her teacher said about her. The culprit is quickly brought to trial, and sentenced to life amid public jubilation.

The plot directions often took me by surprise. I certainly hadn't expected the plot to cover 20 years, nor had I expected Billy Waterson to become essentially a "reformed" character. I thought it got under the skin of the main characters, and it kept my interest throughout.
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
smik | 2 andra recensioner | Mar 31, 2020 |
There are plenty of books around that read a bit like a script in the making, and a lot of them don't work. And then there's BLOOD RIVER that reads like a script in the making, a most unusual crime fiction novel that works. Oh boy does it work. Tony Cavanaugh is the author of the stonkingly good Darian Richards novels so it shouldn't come as much surprise that BLOOD RIVER is good, but it came as considerable surprise just how damn good it is.

Set in different time zones, centred, in the main around the stories of two very different women, the novel starts out in 1999 when Lara Ocean is the youngest detective in Brisbane's murder squad, a twenty-something year old part Asian woman with dyed blonde hair to boot. She's had a chequered history until joining the police force, and past encounters come back to haunt her when a number of men are discovered around the city, horrendously and violently murdered. Jennifer White is the 17 year old schoolgirl found guilty of these murders, on the flimsiest evidence, with the possibility that Lara's old partner, Billy, coincidentally the oldest detective in the squad at the time providing a helping hand to the investigation.

Move forward nearly 20 years and Lara is now the Police Commissioner, Billy has retired from the force, and Jennifer is finally paroled and the case that has never sat well with Lara gets even more complicated. Jennifer struggles on the outside mostly because of the publicity around her conviction, and the grotesque and gruesome nature of the crimes she was found guilty of. Never mind that she has been denied parole multiple times because of her constant assertions of innocence, there's been plenty of pressure on the parole board by a right-wing power hungry, unscrupulous politician along the way.

The different time lines, and the backgrounds of Lara, Billy and Jennifer are all drawn out against the worst fear that Jennifer has - that once she's out, the real killer will strike again, using her freedom as the perfect cover. This is a big part of what is so compelling about BLOOD RIVER, it's nothing new to explore the past and present of characters, but in this example we have Jennifer with no opportunity for much of a past, who is such a big part of the other character's lives, and continues to be so. Both Lara and Billy have had difficult upbringings, difficult paths to the police force, and much different outcomes once there. Lara, as her current role of Commissioner shows, rose to that position through hard work and perseverance. Billy was more old-school, just as likely to thump a suspect to force a confession as play by the rule book, he nonetheless had a long career and taught Lara a lot about investigative technique and thinking.

Whilst these personal stories are playing out, it's never possible to forget there is a real killer out there, and the occasional glimpse into their mind is informative without being voyeuristic, working more as a reminder, than revelling.

Which leads us into the question of the cinematic nature of BLOOD RIVER. Possibly because it's such an unusual idea, but mostly because this is a novel dripping with visual clues and leads, there is much in BLOOD RIVER that screams script. The characters are brilliant, unusual and conflicting. The "murderer" is a source of considerable compassion and sympathy, whilst the police, normally the good guys, are questionable and flawed. The weather provides a closed in, dark and brooding menace as the constant lurking flooding threatens to wipe away everything, and the different time lines provide all sorts of opportunities to consider how acceptable standards change over time.

Having said that, BLOOD RIVER works as a novel first and foremost. It's compelling, creepy, compulsive reading. It's one of those ones where you're going to think you know what's going on so often, only to wonder what on earth you could have been thinking a few pages on. It's utterly brilliant, and the reveal, when it arrives, is more than enough to make you wonder about people all over again.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/blood-river-tony-cavanaugh
… (mer)
 
Flaggad
austcrimefiction | 2 andra recensioner | Sep 12, 2019 |
Blood River is a discomforting yet compelling crime novel which unfolds over two decades from multiple perspectives.

It’s 1999 In Brisbane when “Lara, the youngest detective in the Squad, ever, a twentysomething Asian woman with dyed blonde hair and Billy, the oldest detective in the Squad, with the fiercest reputation in the state of Queensland, ever, an old school copper who would smash a suspect over the head, dangle him from a balcony or just forge a confession from him.” are called to the scene of a horrific murder.

Over a three week period, two more bodies are discovered with signature injuries, including the symbol of Taranus, the Celtic God of Thunder, carved into their flesh. Lara and Billy come up with three suspects, one of them Lara’s violent ex boyfriend, but under pressure from the media and officials, 17 year old Jennifer White is accused and eventually convicted of the three murders, despite the flimsiest of evidence.

Meanwhile, the real killer goes free.

“Fear is His word for man. Aoife is His word for woman. I am going to do it again. Another fear kill. I am going to do it again. Soon.”

Nineteen years later, Lara is the police commissioner, Billy has retired, and Jennifer, despite the objection of the state’s Attorney General, is finally paroled.

“There was also something else, something that had bothered me as I prepared to be paroled. I kept this to myself, my own private fear. That the real killer would take advantage of my release and kill again. I am no longer him. I am now his perfect alibi.”

Cavanaugh’s complex characters are fully realised portraits that add depth and interest to the story. Lara in particular is a fascinating personality with a rich backstory. What I also found of interest were the insights Cavanaugh offers into some of the characters who could be said to be only tangentially related to the main thrust of the plot, but nevertheless less impact it, or the main characters, in significant ways.

The shifts in narrative perspective are stimulating, moving between an omniscient viewpoint and individual characters. It can be difficult, on occasion, to immediately identify each ‘voice’, though I think that may have been in large part because of the poor formatting of my advance reader copy.

Blood River is quite different from Cavanaugh’s series featuring Darian Richards, which I loved, though they do share some similar themes, such as police corruption, women in policing, and the failings of the justice system.

With a final reveal I didn’t see coming at all (a rare event I must note), Blood River is a clever, gritty and engrossing story. This is another impressive crime novel from Australian author, Tony Cavanaugh.
… (mer)
½
 
Flaggad
shelleyraec | 2 andra recensioner | Apr 21, 2019 |

Priser

Statistik

Verk
12
Medlemmar
95
Popularitet
#197,646
Betyg
4.0
Recensioner
14
ISBN
30
Språk
2

Tabeller & diagram