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A review by jennifer_c_s
Crucifixion Creek by Barry Maitland
3.0
‘In south-western Sydney, on a chilly winter’s night, a siege is in progress.’
Welcome to a day in the life of Sydney Detective Harry Belltree: a meth-addicted bikie shoots a woman during a police siege; an elderly couple commit suicide sitting outside their favourite café; and an unidentified white man is stabbed to death in the street. When the stabbing victim is identified as his brother-in-law Greg, his life becomes even more complicated. Especially after journalist Kelly Pool suggests that the three incidents may – somehow – be linked. Harry is still coming to terms with a car accident that killed his parents and blinded his wife, and while he can’t officially get involved in investigating Greg’s murder, that isn’t going to stop him. And when he finds that Greg and the elderly couple have links to a crooked moneylender, he’s determined to find out what really happened. Harry soon suspects that there may be a link to the death of his parents, which drives him (and Kelly Pool) into some dangerous and risky behaviour.
Crucifixion Creek is the first book of the Belltree trilogy, and Harry Belltree is a very different detective from both of Mr Maitland’s London based detectives, David Brock and Kathy Kolla. He’s impulsive, and not afraid of cutting corners to find out what he needs to know. Will the ends always justify the means?
There’s a lot of action in this novel, and plenty of tension, as Harry Belltree – with some help from Kelly Pool, his wife and others - sets out to find the truth behind the killers. There’s a fair amount of coincidence and good luck as well, but that didn’t affect my reading of the story, just my assessment of the probability of Harry Belltrees’s actions.
I’m not sure whether I’ll enjoy the Belltrees Trilogy as much as I enjoy the Brock and Kolla series, but I’m very keen to see where the next novel takes the characters.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Welcome to a day in the life of Sydney Detective Harry Belltree: a meth-addicted bikie shoots a woman during a police siege; an elderly couple commit suicide sitting outside their favourite café; and an unidentified white man is stabbed to death in the street. When the stabbing victim is identified as his brother-in-law Greg, his life becomes even more complicated. Especially after journalist Kelly Pool suggests that the three incidents may – somehow – be linked. Harry is still coming to terms with a car accident that killed his parents and blinded his wife, and while he can’t officially get involved in investigating Greg’s murder, that isn’t going to stop him. And when he finds that Greg and the elderly couple have links to a crooked moneylender, he’s determined to find out what really happened. Harry soon suspects that there may be a link to the death of his parents, which drives him (and Kelly Pool) into some dangerous and risky behaviour.
Crucifixion Creek is the first book of the Belltree trilogy, and Harry Belltree is a very different detective from both of Mr Maitland’s London based detectives, David Brock and Kathy Kolla. He’s impulsive, and not afraid of cutting corners to find out what he needs to know. Will the ends always justify the means?
There’s a lot of action in this novel, and plenty of tension, as Harry Belltree – with some help from Kelly Pool, his wife and others - sets out to find the truth behind the killers. There’s a fair amount of coincidence and good luck as well, but that didn’t affect my reading of the story, just my assessment of the probability of Harry Belltrees’s actions.
I’m not sure whether I’ll enjoy the Belltrees Trilogy as much as I enjoy the Brock and Kolla series, but I’m very keen to see where the next novel takes the characters.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith