Saturday, November 2, 2019

#56: Under the Cold Bright Lights by Barry Disher

A retired cop comes back to the Cold Case Squad, and uses some unorthodox methods to close some files, in Barry Disher's Under the Cold Bright Lights.

Disher is a well-established Australian crime writer, but this is the first of his novels I have come across.  I enjoyed the characters especially, and the storytelling was interesting. 

Our lead detective has complex relationships with his ex-wife and daughter, and has a big, rambling old house where several people from all walks of life have ended up, and interact.

The cases include an old body found under a concrete slab, a doctor who may or may not have killed several ex-wives, and an accident which might have been a murder.  Another storyline follows a lodger at the cop's house who has an abusive husband. 

And more than one of these storylines are resolved in surprising ways.

This was a very solid police procedural with above-average characterization and plotting.  I would look for more from Disher.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and read it quickly.

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