Showing results by author "Garry Disher" in All Categories

Hirsch is a whistle-blower. Formerly a promising metropolitan officer, now hated and despised. Exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia’s wheatbelt. Threats. Pistol cartridge in the mailbox. So when he heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate gunfire and finds himself cut off without backup, there are two possibilities. Either he’s found the fugitive killers thought to be in the area - or his ‘backup’ is about to put a bullet in him. He’s wrong on both counts. But the events that unfold turn out to be a lot more sinister.

Constable Paul Hirschhausen has a snowdropper on his patch. Someone is stealing women’s underwear and Hirsch knows enough about that kind of crime - how it can escalate - not to take it lightly. But the more immediate concerns are a call from the high school, a teacher worried about a student who may be in danger at home. Another call, a different school: a man enraged about the principal’s treatment of his daughter.

Constable Paul Hirschhausen runs a one-cop station in the dry farming country south of the Flinders Ranges. He’s still new in town but the community work - welfare checks and working bees - is starting to pay off. Now Christmas is here and, apart from a grass fire, two boys stealing a ute and Brenda Flann entering the front bar of the pub without exiting her car, Hirsch’s life has been peaceful. Until he’s called to a strange, vicious incident in Kitchener Street. Suddenly, it doesn’t look like a season of goodwill at all.

Summer on the Peninsula. The heat’s ramping up, the usual holiday madness building. D.I. Hal Challis is already recycling his shower water and starting to dread Christmas. But this year there’s something more. Women abducted and murdered on the Old Highway. A pall of fear over the scorched paddocks. The media are demanding answers - and Challis’s sleepy beat is set to explode.

Detective Alan Auhl does things his own way - and gets results. He works cold cases now. Like the death of John Elphick - his daughters are still convinced he was murdered, the coroner not so sure. Or the skeleton that’s just been found under a concrete slab. Or the doctor who killed two wives and a girlfriend and left no evidence at all.... 

DI Hal Challis is in trouble with the boss and missing his lover, Ellen Destry, who is overseas. But there’s plenty to keep his mind off his problems. A rapist in a police uniform stalks Challis’ Peninsula beat, there is a serial armed robber headed in his direction and a home invasion that’s a little too close to home. Not to mention a very clever, very mysterious female cat burglar who may or may not be planning something on Challis’ patch.

A dark and unsettling tale, set at the turn of the 20th century, that will stay with you long after you finish listening - from a master of Australian literature. Out in that country, the sun smeared the sky and nothing ever altered, except that one day a scrap man came by.... Her name is scarcely known or remembered. All in all, she is worth less than the nine shillings and sixpence counted into her father's hand. She bides her time. She does her work. Way back in the corner of her mind is a thought she is almost too frightened to shine a light on: one day she will run away.

Ten-year-old Katie Blasko is missing. Detective Sergeant Ellen Destry, alert to rumours of a paedophile ring operating on the Peninsula, is thinking abduction. Her colleagues are thinking bad family, truancy. Her boss is thinking about the media. Her partner, DI Hal Challis, is a thousand kilometres away, watching his father die, and everyone, including Ellen, is wondering whether she's good enough to handle this without him.

When hordes of 18-year-olds descend on the Mornington Peninsula to celebrate the end of exams, a brutal bashing attracts political attention. The victim is connected, and now DI Hal Challis is facing interference from on high. Newly embarked on a relationship with his Sergeant, Ellen Destry, Challis doesn't need the brass looking over his shoulder. Then a bludgeoned corpse is found outside town, and it's clear something much darker than adolescent craziness is going down.

An unidentified man is fished out of the sea with an anchor strapped to his waist. And for DI Hal Challis, this sparks the beginning of a chilling series of shotgun killings. As Challis investigates, a farmer on the peninsula erupts into violence and is the target of a massive manhunt. And then Challis finds some aerial photographs in the possession of his friend Kitty that link her to the murders....

Some people just work better alone. Wyatt’s one of them. He’s been getting by on nice quiet little burglaries - one-man jobs - when he gets wind of something bigger. A corporate crook, notorious Ponzi schemer, set to face court and certain jail time. He’s about to skip bail the old-fashioned way: on a luxury yacht with a million dollars in cash. Wyatt thinks it sounds like something he should get into. He’s not alone.

A small bushfire, but nasty enough for ice cooks to abandon their lab. Fatal, too. But when the bodies in the burnt-out Mercedes prove to be a pair of Sydney hitmen, DI Hal Challis' inquiries into a local ice epidemic take a darker turn. Meanwhile, Ellen Destry, head of the new sex crimes unit, finds herself not only juggling the personalities of her team but hunting a serial rapist who leaves no evidence behind.

In der Nähe von Tiverton, einer Kleinstadt in Australiens Nirgendwo, wird ein Mädchen tot am Straßenrand gefunden. Constable Paul Hirschhausen, genannt Hirsch, übernimmt den Fall. Er glaubt nicht an einen Unfall mit Fahrerflucht.

Tivertons sirrend heißer Sommer, der müde Steinmauern zermalmt und träge Windräder unter seiner Hitze in die Knie zwingt, wird von einem kalt grünen Winter abgelöst. Unentwegt fährt Constable Hirschhausen über die einsamen Landstraßen, um nach dem Rechten zu sehen.

Die Dezemberhitze brennt auf die trockenen Felder und den flimmernden Asphalt im australischen Tiverton. Constable Paul Hirschhausen leitet die Polizeistation der Kleinstadt im staubigen Niemandsland. Bagatelldiebstähle, Trunkenheit am Steuer - Hirsch hat nicht allzu viel zu tun. Bis ein Pferdemassaker die Anwohner erschüttert und dem Constable Rätsel aufwirft. Die Medien wittern eine Story und fallen in Tiverton ein. Hirsch muss die Gemüter beruhigen, doch als auch noch eine Leiche gefunden wird, überschlagen sich die Ereignisse.

Ein jahrealtes Skelett, ein ungeklärter Mordfall und vergessene Geheimnisse - ein Fall für Sergeant Alan Auhl. Im Garten der Wrights auf der Blackberry Hill Farm gleitet eine Schlange über den verdorrten Rasen und unter eine verwitterte Betonplatte. Die aufgeschreckte Familie lässt den Schlangenfänger kommen, doch der buddelt etwas ganz anderes aus: Unter der Platte kommt ein Skelett zum Vorschein. Ein Fall für die Abteilung für ungelöste Verbrechen, in der Sergeant Alan Auhl verstaubte Cold Cases bearbeitet.