By Kerryn Goldsworthy
PICK OF THE WEEK
Old Scores
Author David Whish-Wilson.
David Whish-Wilson
Fremantle Press, $29.99
The Whip Hand by Nadine Browne and Mihaela Nicolescu.
It's the early 1980s, the WA mining boom is under way, and ex-police detective turned private investigator Frank Swann is hired by the new Premier's fixer who "needed a fixer for himself". The daily sweep of the Premier's office for bugs is the tamest part of Swann's job, while the most difficult part is juggling various old loyalties and enmities and trying not to get killed. This is the third Frank Swann book in the series and the character develops with each instalment. One aspect of Swann's life makes him almost unique among crime fiction detectives: he's a happily married man. The most impressive thing about this highly readable novel is Whish-Wilson's insight into the way crime permeates the social structure. Our society of lawmakers, law-breakers, law-abiders and law-enforcers is not so much a layer cake as a marble cake, with each category swirled through all the others.