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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
slow-paced
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
‘He wondered if a life—or lives—could be boiled down to a house.’
A small beachside town named Menlo Beach about an hour out of Melbourne provides the setting for this novel. Twenty years ago, Charlie Deravin was a young policeman working on a missing child case when his mother went missing. His parents, Rose and Rhys Deravin, were in the process of divorcing, and his father was the main suspect although Rose Deravin’s body was never found. Rhys Deravin was also a policeman, a detective, and two of his colleagues Mark Valente and Noel Saltash also lived close by.
‘Gaps had opened in all their lives and the repairs were makeshift.’
Twenty years may have elapsed, but Charlie has never given up wondering about what happened to his mother and hoping to find answers. His marriage has broken down, he is on forced leave after assaulting his superior officer and has moved back to Menlo Beach. Charlie has plenty of time on his hands and tries to follow up some of the now cold leads from his mother’s disappearance.
Charlie is treading on some very thin ice: the police do not appreciate his unofficial involvement. His new girlfriend Anna, a juror he met on a trial that had to be abandoned, is harassed because she would not support an acquittal. Both Anna and Charlie are in danger.
On a vacant block next to where his mother was living, foundations are dug for a new house. Skeletal remains are found: a child and an adult. While Charlie will find the answers he is seeking, regret for actions taken and disappointment with others will both play a part.
I really enjoyed this novel. The tension builds: the small-town setting was well done, and the characters became real (flaws and all). Events in the past and issues in the present maintained the tension as I kept reading, keen to find the answers.
A terrific murder mystery.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
A small beachside town named Menlo Beach about an hour out of Melbourne provides the setting for this novel. Twenty years ago, Charlie Deravin was a young policeman working on a missing child case when his mother went missing. His parents, Rose and Rhys Deravin, were in the process of divorcing, and his father was the main suspect although Rose Deravin’s body was never found. Rhys Deravin was also a policeman, a detective, and two of his colleagues Mark Valente and Noel Saltash also lived close by.
‘Gaps had opened in all their lives and the repairs were makeshift.’
Twenty years may have elapsed, but Charlie has never given up wondering about what happened to his mother and hoping to find answers. His marriage has broken down, he is on forced leave after assaulting his superior officer and has moved back to Menlo Beach. Charlie has plenty of time on his hands and tries to follow up some of the now cold leads from his mother’s disappearance.
Charlie is treading on some very thin ice: the police do not appreciate his unofficial involvement. His new girlfriend Anna, a juror he met on a trial that had to be abandoned, is harassed because she would not support an acquittal. Both Anna and Charlie are in danger.
On a vacant block next to where his mother was living, foundations are dug for a new house. Skeletal remains are found: a child and an adult. While Charlie will find the answers he is seeking, regret for actions taken and disappointment with others will both play a part.
I really enjoyed this novel. The tension builds: the small-town setting was well done, and the characters became real (flaws and all). Events in the past and issues in the present maintained the tension as I kept reading, keen to find the answers.
A terrific murder mystery.
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The Way It Is Now is an engaging stand alone crime novel from Australian author Garry Disher.
After an assault on his venal boss, Detective Senior Constable Charlie Deravin has been suspended from duty. While waiting to learn his fate, he’s staying at his childhood home in Menlo Beach on the Mornington Peninsula, spending his mornings in the surf and his afternoons reinvestigating the disappearance of his mother twenty years earlier.
In what is a tightly plotted, absorbing police procedural, Charlie attempts to unravel the truth behind the disappearance of Rose Deravin and the nine year old boy who vanished during a school excursion on the same day, after their bodies are discovered buried in a vacant lot. For decades Charlie’s father, Senior Sergeant Rhys Deravin, has lived under a cloud of suspicion, thought to have killed his wife because Rose had left him, but unlike his brother, Liam, Charlie had never believed it could be true. The investigators are none too impressed by Charlie’s insistence that there were flaws in the original investigation, or his interference in the current one, believing his motives self-serving.
Their attitude towards Charlie isn’t improved by the rumours surrounding his assault on his commanding officer. Ostensibly, Charlie has the high ground as his Inspector has been interfering in a trial involving the rape of a young woman by a footballer, but Charlie’s actions in undermining the defence’s case have put many offside. As a result both he, and his new girlfriend, are targeted by someone determined to shut them up, and the failure of Charlie’s colleagues to take the threats seriously reinforces his growing disillusionment with the force.
Disher’s style of storytelling tends to be low-key rather than driven by action, but elegant plotting engages and maintains interest, as does strong characterisation. The Way It is Now is an gripping and entertaining novel.
After an assault on his venal boss, Detective Senior Constable Charlie Deravin has been suspended from duty. While waiting to learn his fate, he’s staying at his childhood home in Menlo Beach on the Mornington Peninsula, spending his mornings in the surf and his afternoons reinvestigating the disappearance of his mother twenty years earlier.
In what is a tightly plotted, absorbing police procedural, Charlie attempts to unravel the truth behind the disappearance of Rose Deravin and the nine year old boy who vanished during a school excursion on the same day, after their bodies are discovered buried in a vacant lot. For decades Charlie’s father, Senior Sergeant Rhys Deravin, has lived under a cloud of suspicion, thought to have killed his wife because Rose had left him, but unlike his brother, Liam, Charlie had never believed it could be true. The investigators are none too impressed by Charlie’s insistence that there were flaws in the original investigation, or his interference in the current one, believing his motives self-serving.
Their attitude towards Charlie isn’t improved by the rumours surrounding his assault on his commanding officer. Ostensibly, Charlie has the high ground as his Inspector has been interfering in a trial involving the rape of a young woman by a footballer, but Charlie’s actions in undermining the defence’s case have put many offside. As a result both he, and his new girlfriend, are targeted by someone determined to shut them up, and the failure of Charlie’s colleagues to take the threats seriously reinforces his growing disillusionment with the force.
Disher’s style of storytelling tends to be low-key rather than driven by action, but elegant plotting engages and maintains interest, as does strong characterisation. The Way It is Now is an gripping and entertaining novel.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
⚠️ TW: murder, xenophobia, rape, victim blaming, harassment, mental health ⚠️ Despite this being an easy read it just wasn't for me unfortunately. This book follows Charlie Deravin and his family whose mother, Rose, went missing 20 years ago and even though her body was never found she was believed to have been murdered. As this dark tragedy hung over the family things only got darker as people continued to throw suspicion on his father, Rhys. Now 20 years on that suspicion is still looming as strong as ever as Charlie returns to his coastal hometown in Australia whilst he is on disciplinary leave from his job with the police sex-crimes unit, and permanent leave from his marriage. And after two decades of examing the mystery of his mother, he's run out of leads. Then the skeletal remains of two people are found and the past comes crashing back. This book is an easy read, slow burner crime procedural novel that takes you on the journey of Charlie re-examing his mother's disappearance as he has to come to terms with unanswered questions and dead ends as well as new evidence and information that sends him on a rabbit hunt whilst also trying to keep his job and career intact. However, I didn't really enjoy it unfortunately for a number of reasons. Firstly, I struggled with the amount of characters because there were so many that in parts it got quite confusing. Also, I just found it to be too slow and it didn't feel like it had any big reveal moments to make it worthwhile. And finally, the main timeline of the story is set in late 2019 to early 2020 when c*vid was beginning to spread and I really hated that it was referred to as 'that Chinese virus' multiple times. Overall, this was an easy read but not for me unfortunately 🙈
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Xenophobia, Murder, Gaslighting
It was hard to put this book down. A well constructed crime/mystery set in a beachside town not far from Melbourne. Charlie is a cop, so was his father, his father’s colleagues were there all through his childhood particularly Mark Valente. Twenty years earlier Charlie’s Mum disappeared, his father the prime suspect as they were getting divorced but she was never found and of course Charlie can’t let it go, leading to his own divorce. All the action is from Charlie’s point of view and it’s well done, sets the time well, a backdrop of bushfires and the early days of the pandemic. Highly readable and enjoyable.
Spoiler
my only problem with it is why Charlie never suspected some sort of police corruption or malpractice being involved in his mothers death
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes