‘Hirsch is one of my favourite characters. Day’s End is unmissable.’ Hayley Scrivenor, author of Dirt Town
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.
‘Peter Temple and Garry Disher will be identified as the crime writers who redefined Australian crime fiction.’ Sydney Morning Herald
Winner, Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction, 2021
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.
‘Utterly compelling… If you enjoyed Jane Harper’s The Lost Man, this novel is for you.’ Dervla McTiernan
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.
‘Smooth, assured mastery.’ New York Times Book Review
Shortlisted, Ned Kelly Awards, Best Crime Novel, 2014
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.