Mischance Creek

Hirsch is checking firearms. The regular police audit: all weapons secured, ammo stored separately, no unauthorised person with keys to the gun safe. He’s checking people, too. The drought is hitting hard in the mid-north, and Hirsch is responsible for the welfare of his scattered flock of battlers, bluebloods, loners and miscreants.

He isn’t usually called on for emergency roadside assistance. But with all the other services fully stretched, it’s Hirsch who has to grind his way out beyond the Mischance Creek ruins to where some clueless tourist has run into a ditch.

As it turns out, though, Annika Nordrum isn’t exactly a tourist. She’s searching for the body of her mother, who went missing seven years ago. And the only sense in which she’s clueless is the lack of information unearthed by the cops who phoned in the original investigation.

Hirsch owes it to Annika to help, doesn’t he? Not to mention that tackling a cold case beats the hell out of gun audits and admin…

Day's End

Hirsch’s rural beat is wide. Daybreak to day’s end, dirt roads and dust. In the time of the virus, Hirsch is seeing stresses heightened and social divisions cracking wide open; people getting close to the edge – himself included.Today he’s driving an international visitor around: Janne Van Sant, whose backpacker son went missing while the borders were closed. They’re checking out his last photo site, his last employer. A feeling that the stories don’t quite add up. Then a call comes in: a roadside fire. Nothing much—a suitcase soaked in diesel and set alight. But two noteworthy facts emerge. Janne knows more than Hirsch about forensic evidence. And the body in the suitcase is not her son’s.

Consolation

In Consolation, Tiverton’s only police officer Constable Paul Hirschhausen is dealing with a snowdropper. Someone is stealing women’s underwear, and Hirsch knows how that kind of crime can escalate. Then two calls come in: a teacher who thinks a child may be in danger at home. A father on the rampage over at the primary school.

Hirsch knows how things like that can escalate, too. Families under pressure. Financial problems. But it’s always a surprise when the killing starts.

Peace

Constable Paul Hirschhausen runs a one-cop station in a small, dusty South Australian town. He’s still new in town, but the community work—welfare checks,  working bees, playing Santa—is starting to pay off. Now Christmas is here and, apart from a grass fire, stolen utes and Brenda Flann entering the pub without exiting her car, Hirsch’s life has been peaceful. Until a strange, vicious incident sends a ripple of violence through the community. Suddenly, it doesn’t look like a season of goodwill at all.

Bitter Wash Road

Hirsch is a whistle-blower. Formerly a metropolitan officer, he’s been exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia’s wheatbelt. When he heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate gunfire, he’s 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.