Review Archive for author's that start with ... Y

Angel Mine (Ainslie Yardley), A Certain Malice (Felicity Young), An Easeful Death (Felicity Young), Harum Scarum (Felicity Young),
 
 

While I had not previously encountered work from British publisher Creme de la Crime (although I have one more of their releases to be read immediately after this) I must say, I am very impressed with A CERTAIN MALICE, the book they picked up from Western Australian author Felicity Young.  I trust that the standard of other novels released by this publisher is up to the same standard exhibited by Young.  I shall definitely keep an eye out for further releases from them. Felicity is not Australian born - although, from her writing, one would never know this. Certainly, she has immersed herself in our culture to the extent that her idiom is never forced nor does she  make the sort of glaring errors I have noticed in the work of other British writers who have lived in this country. Her nursing experience imbues the wounds of her characters with an authenticity probably not available to those with less medical knowledge. Her experience with young wild animals (she has reared orphaned joey kangaroos) is put to good use in some scenes in this work and her understanding of police procedure is impeccable, possibly aided by the fact that she is related to a retired police superintendent. Her history as a volunteer firefighter, too, would have been  useful in constructing the scenes of  the several fires that form a necessary part of the action.

Senior Sergeant Cam Fraser has returned to his home town, Glenroyd, in country Western Australia, following the death of his wife and son during a case in which Fraser had worked undercover. He had been investigating the nefarious manufacturings and dealings of a group of bikies in New South Wales. His own life had been threatened but he had thought his family safe until he found his wife and son trapped in a burning house, a conflagration from which, despite extensive burns to his own body, he had been unable to save them. In order to protect both his teenaged daughter, Ruby, and himself he takes up the country position, thinking that the aspect of crime in the small town where he grew up could never be as malevolent as in a big city. Wrong. One of his first cases involves a murdered man whose body has been incompletely incinerated on the grounds of a ladies college where Cam hopes to send his daughter. He meets and interrogates the English teacher and the science teacher, friends who discover the broiled corpse but later seek solace in moonshine brewed in the science room by the doughty instructor.

Cam has a staff that is insufficient, to anyone's way of thinking. His senior constable is a filthy lout whom the sergeant fears is not above contaminating the crime scene then denying his actions; two rookies, only one of whom displays much sense, are not a great deal of help, while another staff member seems to go about his duties completely divorced from any notion of obligation to the public. Then there is another fire which appears to target Cam himself - and there are bikies in the vicinity. Fraser appears to be attempting to solve the case without active help from anyone but very distinct hindrance, not the least from his  daughter who seems to hate him, blaming him for the death of her mother and brother. Ruby is determined to thwart him in any attempts to make her content.

A CERTAIN MALICE is an admirable book. Felicity Young has carefully constructed her characters, producing a very believable cast. She has a gift for description which brings alive both the country landscape and the horrors of fire. Her plotting is suitably circuitous: I defy anyone to solve the mystery before the author is ready to unmask both the chief baddie and the understudy. The motive for the crimes remained completely mysterious to me until almost the end. Young does not fall into the trap which catches too many of her colleagues: ockerism piled upon ockerism to provide a notion of valid Australianisms. Indeed, her characters speak just as ordinary Australian country folk would. She displays a fine insight into the drives and motivations of real people.

Do give this promising author a try. Read A CERTAIN MALICE and you are guaranteed to be pleased with the careful construction of an excellent mystery.
                              AN EASEFUL DEATH
                                     by Felicity Young
                                  ISBN 9781920731137
                                             299 pages
                         FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE PRESS
                                            March 2007
                                               $22.95
                       reviewed by Denise Pickles
                                      February 7 2007

Western Australian author Felicity Young follows up her debut novel, A CERTAIN MALICE, with another suspenseful work in AN EASEFUL DEATH. The title comes from Keats' ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE and is, mystifyingly, carefully written on the bronzepainted corpse of a young girl, Linda Royce.

Detective Sergeant Stevie Hooper is a relatively new member of Perth's Serious Crime Squad. It's almost needless to say that she is motivated to achieve even more than her male colleagues in order to be regarded as their equal. She is assigned to the murder case.

Stevie's boss, Inspector Monty McGuire has requested the services of well regarded criminal profiler James De Vakey, despite the fact that his own boss shares the view of many of his colleagues that profiling is on a par with the medicine of a witchdoctor. He sends Stevie to the airport to meet the profiler and to work with him. The sergeant is intimidated when De Vakey deduces a great deal about her from small clues.

The investigation proceeds with not much to show for it. Two detectives interview the assistant who sold the bronze paint to the presumed malefactor and are told by him that the purchaser also bought cans of silver and gold paint. Could there be more murders in the offing?

Meanwhile. Stevie is unnerved when she finds herself greatly attracted to the profiler. She is saved from committing a grave indiscretion by the discovery of another body, this one painted in silver.

That corpse is also adorned with the Keats verse.

A set of unpleasant circumstances ensures that Monty is suspended but, contrary to orders, continues to investigate, then is forced to go into hiding at the threat of arrest for disobeying orders.

The author gives the reader a great many suspects from whom to choose the murderer. There is a sinister albino cleaner who is found in the flat belonging to the murdered journalist, the two thuggish police who eventually arrest Monty, Monty's Superintendent boss, the Super's son Justin, even the rather creepy De Vakey himself. Felicity Young attributes motives and opportunities to every suspect.

Monty is certain the current killings are linked to the so-called King's Park murders of a few years previously. His boss has forbidden him to investigate that cold case but Monty persists.

The book is a delightful pot pourri of police corruption, injustice, tangled emotions, treachery and misunderstanding on top of the literary murders. Of course, no contemporary mystery would be complete without a touch of almost obligatory paedophilia and Felicity Young does not disappoint. There must be some crime which does not enter into the mix but I would be hard put  to name it.

Stevie Hooper is a delightful protagonist even though at times the reader must be shrieking at her 'Don't do that!', from her eagerness to do the obligatory reenactment of the crime to the foreseeable walking into other dangers. From the time the police learn that a third corpse is inevitable, one covered in gold paint, the projected victim is obviously Stevie herself.

The book is very well plotted and the character of Stevie convincingly constructed. The red herrings are not easy to  sniff through and it is likely the reader will be mystified to the end.
HARUM SCARUM
by Felicity Young
ISBN 9781921361104
      288 pages
   Fremantle Press
     April 7 2008
         $22.95
reviewed by Denise Pickles
25 February 2008

Stevie Hooper returns in this episode of the fiction of up and coming Australian author Felicity Young. Stevie is now equipped with a young daughter, child of her one time boss Monty McGuire. Her domestic situation may strike some people as odd (one of the characters likens it to a broken home) as she and Monty keep their own separate residences. No doubt many married couples would see the advantages of such an arrangement.

There is an emphasis on modern technology in this novel. Undoubtedly most crime fiction readers are familiar with fan websites and websites where people can communicate with one another via chatrooms or fora.

The prologue opens the book with an impromptu murder, after three people emerge from a car in a deserted spot. The prologue ends with the two survivors assuring each other that each knows the identity of the other.

Chapter One has Stevie and her colleague Natasha arresting a paedophile. Tash's tactics could well be seen as unorthodox but it is obvious that she feels strongly about those malefactors and sees nothing wrong with subjecting them to devices which might be outside police guidelines.

Monty is investigating the murder of a little girl. He thinks it possible that the killing was unintentional, that the murderer only wished to immobilise and silence the child, but the gagging made it impossible for a child suffering from a cold to breathe. Stella Webster, mother of the girl, inevitably blames herself for her daughter becoming a victim.

Miranda Breightling runs a modelling agency. She is nervous of men who hang around at the close of the day. What if they approach one of the girls who work as models?

Emma, Miranda's daughter, obviously has all the right instincts. She sponsors a child in Morocco for World Vision and does without lunch every school day, preferring to put the money she saves toward Josef's upbringing. Emma is also responsible for ongoing adventures of Katy Enigma, a child superhero who entertains the Net savvy children who daily visit her website. Emma, when called upon to babysit Izzy, Stevie's daughter, entertains the child with further tales of Katy Enigma.

Felicity Young has the happy knack of concentrating on topical issues. Anyone with even a slight knowledge of the Internet is aware of chatrooms. Anyone with even a slight knowledge of the kind of criminal preying on society is also aware of how paedophiles are liable to use the Internet in order to meet their targets. Young is to be congratulated for bringing this particular danger to the attention of aficionados of crime fiction who may be parents and may, therefore, be warned of the dangers which face kids. Kids, after all, are notorious for wishing to keep their private lives private from their parents so are quite likely to be enthusiastic about meeting a cyber-friend in real life.

As always, Young's characterisation is particularly well done. Emma is such a vivid character that she practically leaps from the pages. I would hazard a guess that the author had great fun in creating her.

The police procedures are, as ever, well researched and informative for those of her audience who don't have the same resources as she to investigate just what happens behind the scenes of news stories.

It's always good for an Australian crime fiction audience to be able to read novels set in familiar territory, although some American cities have, over the years, become very familiar territory indeed for some readers.

It was very gratifying to see an Australian publisher pick up this excellent author rather than permitting her to remain with the British publisher who published Young's first novel. One trusts that Fremantle Press doesn't let this particular author slip through their fingers and into the hands of perhaps larger overseas concerns.