Chain of Evidence

Last updated

Chain of Evidence
Chain of Evidence.jpg
First edition
Author Garry Disher
Language English
SeriesChallis/Destry
GenreCrime fiction
Publisher Text Publishing
Publication date
2007
Publication place Australia
Media typePrint Hardback & Paperback
Pages375 pp
ISBN 1-86508-619-3
OCLC 51500273
LC Class PR9619.3.M469 J68 2002
Preceded bySnapshot 
Followed by Blood Moon  

Chain of Evidence is a 2007 Ned Kelly Award-winning novel by the Australian author Garry Disher. [1]

Contents

Story outline

Hal Challis is head of a crime investigation unit for Victoria Police, based on the Mornington Peninsula. He has traveled back to his hometown of Mawsons Bluff in South Australia to be with his father who is dying. While there he investigates the disappearance of his sister's husband, missing for five years.

Back in Mornington Ellen Destry is filling in for Challis and house-sitting for him. She is investigating the disappearance of a child walking home from school.

Awards

Notes

This is the fourth novel in the author's "Challis/Destry" series of crime novels, following The Dragon Man (1999), Kittyhawk Down (2003), and Snapshot (2005).

Reviews

Jeff Glorfeld, in The Age, noted the police procedural nature of the novel: "Down on the Mornington Peninsula, Garry Disher has again stripped away the pretty scenery to reveal the often grim lives of people on the fringes. Through the eyes of the men and women staffing the Waterloo police station we see the violence and desperation, and the anger - of the citizens in their homes and on the streets, and in their own lives in particular. There's nothing glamorous or even particularly fulfilling about this kind of police work...It is a triumph for Disher that such a bleak scenario becomes an enthralling piece of entertainment. It's all about the people, of course. Newcomers can certainly start here - and this is by far Disher's best yet in the series - but there's no denying that having come this far with Challis and Co adds a lot to the experience. But taken as a whole, this instalment puts Disher up on the world stage among the best in the business at this style of crime fiction." [2]

In The Sydney Morning Herald Sue Turnbull was impressed with the work: "Multilayered and multistranded, Chain of Evidence is written in vivid and uncompromising prose. A writer of both literary fiction and prize-winning children's books, Disher never skimps on his craft. Most impressive are the descriptions of landscape and place written with the precision of a social anthropologist and the vision of a poet." [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Temple</span> Australian crime fiction writer

Peter Temple was an Australian crime fiction writer, mainly known for his Jack Irish novel series. He won several awards for his writing, including the Gold Dagger in 2007, the first for an Australian. He was also an international magazine and newspaper journalist and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Doyle (writer)</span> Australian author, musician, and visual artist

Peter Doyle is an Australian author, musician, and visual artist. He lives in Newtown, New South Wales, and works for Macquarie University where he teaches Print Media Production and as a part-time curator of Sydney’s Justice and Police Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerry Greenwood</span> Australian author and lawyer (born 1954)

Kerry Isabelle Greenwood is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, children's stories, and plays. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction Davitt Award in 2002 for her young adult novel The Three-Pronged Dagger.

Garry Disher is an Australian author of crime fiction and children's literature. He is a three-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian McKinty</span> Irish crime novelist and critic

Adrian McKinty is a Northern Irish writer of crime and mystery novels and young adult fiction, best known for his 2020 award-winning thriller, The Chain, and the Sean Duffy novels set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. He is a winner of the Edgar Award, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, the Macavity Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Barry Award, the Audie Award, the Anthony Award and the International Thriller Writers Award. He has been shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière.

<i>Lost</i> (Robotham novel) 2005 novel by Michael Robotham

Lost, also known as The Drowning Man, is a 2005 Ned Kelly Award-winning novel by the Australian author Michael Robotham, and is the second of his novels to feature the protagonists Dr Joseph O'Loughlin and DI Vincent Ruiz.

<i>The Dragon Man</i> 1999 novel by Garry Disher

The Dragon Man is a 1999 crime novel by the Australian author Garry Disher.

<i>White Dog</i> (Temple novel) Novel by Peter Temple

White Dog is a 2003 Australian novel by Peter Temple. The fourth novel in the "Jack Irish" series, it won the 2003 Ned Kelly Awards Best Novel for Crime Writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Browne</span> Australian writer

Marshall Browne was an Australian crime fiction writer.

Geoffrey McGeachin is an Australian photographer and author of crime fiction. He spent a period of time in the US in the 1970s as a commercial photographer, before returning to Melbourne where he now lives.

Kel Robertson is an Australian novelist who was born in the 1950s on the south coast of New South Wales. His novel Smoke & Mirrors shared the 2009 Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel, with Deep Water by Peter Corris.

Adrian Hyland is an Australian writer of non-fiction and crime fiction.

<i>Wyatt</i> (novel) 2010 novel by Garry Disher

Wyatt is a 2010 crime novel by Australian novelist Garry Disher which won the 2010 Ned Kelly Award. It is the seventh novel in the author's series of novels featuring the recurring character of Wyatt, a professional thief and burglar.

<i>Diamond Dove</i> (novel) Book by Adrian Hyland

Diamond Dove (2006) is a crime novel by Australian author Adrian Hyland. It is the first in the author's series of novels featuring the recurring character Emily Tempest. It won the Best First Novel category of the 2007 Ned Kelly Awards.

<i>Eden</i> (Fox novel) Book by Candice Fox

Eden (2014) is a crime novel by Australian author Candice Fox. It won the Ned Kelly Award in 2015 for Best Novel. The novel follows Eden Archer, a policewoman and serial killer who is on the trail of a killer targeting prostitutes.

<i>The Night Ferry</i> Book by Michael Robotham

The Night Ferry is Michael Robotham's third novel. Like the previous two, it features ex-Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz, only this time in a supporting role to the main character.

Derek Ernest Percy was an Australian serial killer and convicted child killer who was also a person of interest linked to the mysterious deaths and disappearances of multiple children in the 1960s, including the Beaumont disappearances and the Wanda Beach murders.

Jane Harper is a British–Australian author known for her crime novels The Dry, Force of Nature and The Lost Man, all set in rural Australia.

<i>Exiles</i> (novel) 2022 crime novel by Australian writer Jane Harper

Exiles (2022) is a crime novel by Australian writer Jane Harper. It was originally published by Pan Macmillan in Australia in 2022.

Blood Moon is a 2009 crime novel by the Australian author Garry Disher.

References