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Blood Sunset (Jarad Henry, Arena, $29.95 pb, ISBN 9781741754209, May) ****

Blood Sunset is the second novel from Melbourne author and criminologist Jarad Henry, and reintroduces Detective Rubens McCauley, the physically and emotionally scarred anti-hero from his first offering, Head Shot. When a supposedly reformed drug addict is found dead among the wheelie bins in a dingy St Kilda back alley, the case is quickly marked ‘accidental overdose’. But McCauley is uneasy and re-opens the investigation. Using an excellent blend of both police procedural and forensic crime genres, with a dash of social criticism, the author quickly drags the reader into the murky underbelly of the St. Kilda milieu—junkies, petty criminals, drug dealers, under-age hookers, pedophiles, and worse. More murders follow as the relentless summer heatwave worsens, until McCauley himself is the victim of internal police politics and is taken off the case. But the case has now become personal for the detective, and the story accelerates into a gripping noir tale of secrets, kidnapping, blackmail, and retribution. The plot is satisfyingly complex without being confusing, and has an excellent old-fashioned and uncontrived surprise ending. But the real hero of this book is St Kilda, which could now be renamed Kings Cross by the Sea.

Graeme Moore is an online bookseller, and freelance writer

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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