By Cameron Woodhead
Winter Traffic
Stephen Greenall
Text, $29.99
Stephen Greenall's Winter Traffic takes hardboiled crime and gives it a literary twist. This menacing dive into Sin City's underbelly is launched from the present – the novel begins with a short, arrestingly written murder scene – and uses inverted chronology (even the chapter numbers are in reverse order) to progressively bring all the blood and strife into sharper focus. Sounds like a gimmick, but in Greenall's capable hands, the smearing of time provides a genuine sense of mystery and foreboding. And, as this Sydney demimonde of rock stars and bikies, hidden vices and cops gone bad resolves into view, you can't help noticing Greenall's prose has real teeth. It's much more jagged and alive than most writing in the genre.