Peace
By Garry Disher

1 Star

From the very first page, this book fails to grab or engage the reader.

When there is such a glut of book in this genre, a book to be successful needs to entice the reader’s attention early. Peace fails to do so, although I could only manage only 3 of 37 chapters.

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This title was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in return for an open and honest review.

#NetGalley

Great thriller which kept me turning the pages well into the night. Great characters and plot. Highly recommend to others!!

EXCERPT: Six-thirty. The sun was above the droughty hills and slanting through the trees now, promising another cloudless, windless, stifling day. Time for his shower and shave, his second breakfast. But first he passed by the shop, quickly confirming that it had been a good idea to bring the garbage bag. Bending, pushing against his aches and pains, he scooped up plastic bottles, scraps of wrapping paper, dead sparklers, paper hats, cigarette butts. He moved further up Kitchener Street, hunting and pecking, and came upon a significant pool of blood.

Hirsch froze for a moment, then knelt. Touched his forefinger to it. Still sticky; spilt recently then.

He gazed along the street. Kitchener was a short street, six homes on either side. He ran a mental checklist: who was capable of violence? Who was likely to be on the receiving end?

None of these people.

Movement alerted him. A shape behind a garden hedge, a disturbance in the sparse leaves. The house belonged to an elderly widower named Cromer. Calling, 'Mr. Cromer?' Hirsch approached the driveway entrance.

A cry, just as he stepped onto the footpath. A queer, soft, alien cry, not of warning but of distress. And more blood. Spooked now, Hirsch entered the front yard. Blood new and glistening on the couch-grass lawn. A panicked sound, high-pitched, and Hirsch jumped in fright as one of Nan Washburn's miniature ponies retreated, trembling, into the corner between the hedge and the side fence. He tried to make sense of what he was seeing.

ABOUT 'PEACE': Constable Paul Hirschhausen runs a one-cop station in the dry farming country south of the Flinders Ranges. He's still new in town but the community work-welfare checks and working bees-is starting to pay off. Now Christmas is here and, apart from a grass fire, two boys stealing a ute and Brenda Flann entering the front bar of the pub without exiting her car, Hirsch's life has been peaceful.

Until he's called to a strange, vicious incident in Kitchener Street. And Sydney police ask him to look in on a family living outside town on a forgotten back road.

Suddenly, it doesn't look like a season of goodwill at all.

MY THOUGHTS: 'That's all a cop wants at Christmas,' he thought. 'Not heavenly peace, just a general absence of mayhem.'

Eighteen months earlier, Hirsch had been unlucky enough to find himself in a corrupt CIB squad. It had been disbanded, but some of the shit had stuck and he was demoted and stationed in the remote one cop town of Tiverton. Sometimes, it seemed, that as a newcomer to the bush, his job was as much probing the landscape as probing the crimes committed in it. He does regular welfare check runs. Some of the people he calls on are lonely, others vulnerable. Some get into trouble through lack of foresight; a handful are actively dodgy. What he loves most is the variety, the different people, experiences, the fact that he never knows quite who or what he is going to encounter.

And he encounters a lot of the unexpected.

I read the first book in this series, Bitter Wash Road, voraciously. I was, when I started Peace, unsure if it would live up to its predecessor. I needn't have worried. Peace is every bit as good. Twelve months on, Hirsch has settled into his community, he knows people (some he wishes he didn't, like the overly officious Martin Gwynn), he has forged relationships. He has also found some old journals written by a landowner in the 1800s, and journal entries are interspersed with the text. WARNING: These journal entries contain racist comments. They need to be read in context of the time at which they were written. We cannot change the way people thought and acted at that time. We can learn from it and ensure it never happens again.

While Hirsch may be wishing for a Christmas free of mayhem, it's not what he is going to get. A local drunk drives into the pub, a ute is stolen, there are fires, burglaries, a missing dog, and a child left locked in a car in the extreme heat. Not to mention a massacre. These last two incidents kick off a media frenzy that results in tragic consequences.

I could never have foreseen where Garry Disher was heading at the beginning of this book, but it was one hell of a ride and I enjoyed every word, every moment of it. I have book #3, Consolation, ready to start.

This is a top crime series set in rural South Australia. It is atmospheric and beautifully written. Disher's style is descriptive; the smells, the tastes, the feel. His dialogue is natural, his characters exactly who I would expect to find out bush, often people who have been forced there by circumstance, those unable to leave due to family responsibilities, or those who choose to hide there. Disher has captured and conveyed the essence of a small remote Australian town and its inhabitants. I am keen to get back there.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#Peace #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Garry Disher was born in 1949 and grew up on his parents' farm in South Australia.

He gained post graduate degrees from Adelaide and Melbourne Universities. In 1978 he was awarded a creative writing fellowship to Stanford University, where he wrote his first short story collection. He travelled widely overseas, before returning to Australia, where he taught creative writing, finally becoming a full time writer in 1988

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Serpent's Tail/Profile Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Peace by Garry Disher for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

While several fresh antipodean voices have recently garnered global attention and accolades for their outstanding tales set in rural Australia - from the CWA Dagger-winning novels of Jane Harper and Chris Hammer to even more recently the likes of Gabriel Bergmoser with THE HUNTED - Garry Disher shows once again in PEACE why he’s the master who paved the way.

Put simply - this is a superb tale where the violence simmers in a small community and the heat haze shimmers from the page. Right from the opening lines its clear you’re in the hands of a consummate storyteller.

A couple of years ago Disher received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award, just recognition of a rich crime writing resume, and PEACE shows he ain’t resting on his laurels. It marks the return of likable police constable Paul ‘Hirsch’ Hirschhausen from 2013’s terrific BITTER WASH ROAD, which won the German Crime Prize.

Exiled from Adelaide to tiny Tiverton, Hirsch’s beat involves a lot of long drives, welfare calls, and dealing with drunken shenanigans. At times his biggest stress may be playing Santa or doing his share at a community work bee. But things take a far nastier turn when someone brutally attacks Nan Washburn’s horses, and then a secretive family on the outskirts of town suffers violence that brings big-city detectives to town.

Disher delivers dirt-caked authenticity with both the countryside setting and its eclectic inhabitants. Hirsch is an engaging hero full of humanity, juggling small-town politics and trying to handle the nastiest of crimes while being marginalised by colleagues who still blame him for the fall of other cops, corrupt or not. Disher has produced another classic.

First came across Garry Disher via ‘Bitter Wash Road’ which was an enjoyable read. I’d say ‘Peace’ possibly shades that being another page turner with a few twists and red herrings in the plot.

The key to Garry Disher’s readability is that he immerses his readers into the small town characters and how their lives impact on one another. At times the book goes along at a gentle pace, almost as if the searing heat described within the pages slows life right down. However, just when you are getting into a steady flow the book takes a twist and the pace ups.

If you see one of his books in your local bookshop grab a copy as he is the king of rural crime noir. That may sound very niche but I guarantee lovers of well written and concisely plotted crime fiction will love this one.

This book is the second in the series but works well as a stand alone. A really gripping novel and one I would recommend.

I made it a resolution of lockdown to enjoy more Australian noir fiction. As an Aussie who is currently based (and trapped!) overseas, it's amazing when an author can really capture the Australian voice and Gary Disher does that. It's saying something that this book made me feel homesick, even though its subject matter is dark. Even the descriptions of the heat and sweat of Tiverton's Christmas were evocative.

Shamefaced, I must admit this is the first I've read of Disher's work and I hadn't realised this was the second in a series. It absolutely works as a standalone novel, though I will now have to go back to read about Hirch's background. I found this work to be as enthralling as Jane Harper's (with a slightly slower start) and more cerebral than Chris Hammer's.

Looking forward to more by Garry Disher!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Viper Press and Garry Disher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Set in a rural town in South Australia, this book just failed to grip me. It was very slow, not much action and too long. I enjoyed the first book but really, this just did not hit the mark as a crime thriller. I failed to have any enthusiasm for the best Christmas lights in Tiverton. The book reads well as a stand alone, as it is the second to feature detective Hirsch, although it came to an abrupt end. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

This was another strong instalment in Garry Disher's Paul Hirschhausen series, set in a small rural South Australian town, Tiverton.
Disher captures the essence of small-town country Australia, both as a setting and in terms of characters. Constable Hirschhausen's travels to carry out "welfare checks" and investigate minor criminal matters throughout his wide jurisdiction bring him into contact with all sorts - farming families struggling to maintain a livelihood, juvenile delinquents, charming ratbags, lost tourists, the list goes on. As the book opens, "Hirsch" attends a small scrub fire and finds a cache of stolen copper wire. He finds and returns a prize sheepdog, missing for several days. A drunk local woman drives her already battered car into the verandah of the local pub. He rescues a toddler, left locked in an overheated car while a nervous newcomer visits the doctor. He locates a stolen and abandoned ute and lets the teenage miscreants responsible off with a warning and an apology to the owner. Doing his best to forge links in the community, Hirsch plays Santa for the local kids, judges Tiverton's Christmas lights competition and takes part in a working bee at the local tennis club. His relationship with high-school teacher Wendy continues on from the previous book, Bitter Wash Road, and he enjoys spending time with her and her precocious daughter, Katie - whenever his being on-call 24 hours a day doesn't spoil their plans.
But in the days before Christmas, things turn darker... Several miniature horses owned by local personality Nancy "Nan" Washburn are attacked for reasons unknown. Then Hirsch carries out a welfare check on an isolated property on Christmas morning and finds two bodies. It becomes apparent that two young girls are unaccounted for. As local and interstate police descend on Tiverton, Hirsch's judgment and capabilities are repeatedly questioned and undermined.
Again, I found Disher's plotting and character development really high-quality. There are plenty of twists and turns in the story, and second-guessing of various characters' bona fides. Hirsch is a flawed but engaging character, and I can't wait for the next instalment in the series, Consolation, to become available!
My thanks to the author Garry Disher, UK publisher Serpent's Tail / Profile Books and Viper and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication.

This author is new to me and I really enjoyed this novel. I found it an interesting take on the people and grievances that can found in a small town. The crimes were interesting, although some graphic in description. I'll definitely look out for the first book and look forward the 3rd in the series.

I read the first book in this series Bitter Wash Road, and loved the main character Hirsch, and the little town setting. I was really pleased to get a copy of this book to read, and really enjoyed being back in the town with its quirky residents, and to find out what Hirsch was up to. For me it perfectly captures what I imagine a dusty little Australian town in the middle of no where would be like. The pace of the book is for me as an impatient reader on the slow side, but that fits in perfectly with the feel of the place it wouldn't work if everyone was rushing around. I do like this series There is always plenty going on, and it all comes together really well. I received a free review copy from the publishers for my honest unedited feed back.

After blowing the whistle on some corrupt detectives, Paul Hirschhausen's own career as a detective in Sydney ended when he was demoted and transferred to a one cop station in the small South Australian outback town of Tiverton. Now a year later, after a rocky start, Hirsch is becoming accepted and even respected by the community. His relationship with teacher Wendy is going well and he has been invited to play Santa for the town's kids and to judge the best Christmas light display.

With a new boss in the regional station at Redruth, Hirsch's policing has settled down to routine matters of breaking up pub fights, booking speeding drivers and regular welfare checks on elderly or isolated people in the far flung areas of his beat. That all changes just before Christmas when some ponies are brutally injured and killed and a welfare check request from Sydney leads Hirsch to discover a grisly murder scene and two missing children. Now detectives from Sydney and the media have descended on the town and Hirsch's already long days have become even longer.

Disher has a very fine sense of small town Australia and the hot, dry landscape and the people who live in it are superbly described. His characters cover the range of personalities found in such places from hard working, drought bitten farmers to people on the margins with drug and alcohol and mental health problems, as well as the town busy body who stores up grievances. Hirsch is a wonderful invention, warm-hearted and a believer in dispensing justice as needed, with a good sense of humour and an even temper. The plot is complex with multiple strands but it all comes together wonderfully well. Disher remains one of Australia's finest crime writers and I hope he has a few more sequels in this series to publish soon.

Peace is the 2nd book in the Constable Paul ‘Hirsch’ Hirschhausen series.

Hirsch is a one man cop shop out in a rural backwater in Australia, sent there as punishment for busting a corrupt ring of cops in Sydney where he was detective.

This story is set in the sweltering Aussie Xmas time and is a great addition to the series

Whilst there are many story strings running, the main story centres around a visit Hirsch makes when he is sent to check on the well being of a family living out in an isolated area, a place no one was even aware they were..

Garry Disher writes top quality crime, it’s gritty and brooding, much like Hirsch himself. The way Disher portrays the rural town and its inhabitants feels real and authentic.

It’s a tense, Moody and slow moving tale, much like the town it’s set, but you become immersed in this almost cosy mystery and Hirsch is a very intersection protagonist who will grow on you the more you read of him.

This is an outstanding Crime Thriller

I love nothing better than a compelling, gritty Australian thriller with an atmospheric setting, and I am happy to report that – TA DA! – this fitted that description to a T. An average rating of above 4 on Goodreads of the Paul Hirschhausen series should give you a good indication that this was a great read, and I am even more excited that there are already two more books out in this series!

Set in a remote, rural South Australian town, it doesn’t get more atmospheric than this. Farms affected by drought and its many repercussions, small town politics and a cop who has been posted there as a punishment all set the stage perfectly. Hirsch was an enigmatic character I liked immediately, and I don’t think that anything could really ruffle his feathers too much as he always keeps a calm and composed demeanour even in circumstances that made my blood boil just reading about them. Starting off slowly with descriptions of the one-cop town Hirsch has been stationed in, and brimming with interesting hardy Aussie characters like you only find in the bush, the book inexorably wove its spell over me. By the time the book released its true grittiness, I was well and truly hooked and could not put it down!

Seeing how much I love rural Aussie crime, I cannot believe that I have never read any other books by Garry Disher before! It is obvious that he has an innate understanding of the bush and what makes people in rural areas of this vast land tick, because each and every character literally leapt off the pages. Some were so authentic that I was sure I had met them at some point during our own stints of living in remote Australia, which made it even more intriguing. But even if you have never set foot on Australian soil, Disher’s vivid descriptions of his setting and his cleverly constructed plot will soon catch you in their intricately woven web. For fans of more hyped up books, such as THE DRY or SCRUBLANDS, this is a must read! Am willing to bet that you will enjoy this gritty tale equally as much.

All in all, PEACE should be on every bookshelf of readers who love rural noir or who appreciate a great atmospheric small town setting. Don’t be fooled by the book’s innocuous start, because the gritty bits will soon be washed in by the tide and you will be swept up by the story and dumped back to shore, emotionally wrung out and probably tired from reading all night! I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t wait to read the other books in the series.

I really enjoyed this small town set Australian mystery, featuring a policeman recently demoted and sent to the country. Greatly interesting details of his daily routines, the locals and their problems. Almost a cozy mystery, despite the violence/death/abuse due to the likability of many of the characters. Well written, will read more of this series by the very well established Disher - lots to choose from!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Serpent’s Tail/Profile Books for an advance copy of Peace, the second novel to feature Constable Paul “Hirsch” Hirschhausen of the South Australia Police.

Hirsch is attending to the myriad of tasks that comprise a rural policeman’s job, stolen vehicles, drunk and disorderlies, vandalism, when he he discovers a brutal, heinous crime. The district force is investigating this when a welfare check requested by the Sydney Police uncovers another crime.

I thoroughly enjoyed Peace which has a bombshell storyline told in an unsensational tone. The novel opens with a fire and the discovery of large amounts of probably stolen copper. As a crime fiction reader I am used to the investigators swinging into action with a forensic team and a plan but here in the countryside there is a bit of a shrug and a promise of a forensic team at some point. This sets the tone, Hirsch is on his own until he isn’t when the big boys turn up for the more serious crimes.

I’m not really quite sure what to say about the novel. I found it compulsive for the picture it paints of rural policing, including the boredom and loneliness but also for the plot, which, always understated, is masterly. It builds up gradually with a series of apparently unrelated incidents, pulls the reader in certain directions with clever misdirection and produces a resolution that is unexpected but fully in line with the setting. I’m very impressed.

The novel is told from Hirsch’s point of view so the reader has the information he has but he sees it much more clearly than I do. Of course, Hirsch is not your regular rural bobby. He is In Tiverton as a punishment for reporting the corrupt detectives he formerly worked with. As a result, outside help is a poisoned chalice with some officers seeing him as corrupt as his former colleagues, others viewing him as a grass and the odd ones appreciating him for his skills. It all adds to the uneasy atmosphere and produces a further layer of nuance.

Peace is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

** spoiler alert ** This is the second in the Paul Hirschhausen series,and it's firmly cemented for me,that I'll be buying all the books featuring him without reading the blurb.
As a brit city dweller,small town Australia is like an alien landscape... the vast open spaces,the wild and untamed wildlife,the oops I tripped over a snake and it bit me and I might die,the freedom with guns.
But with Hirsch I feel in safe hands,he seems to have settled in well and genuinely care about the community.
This book is a good mix of small town crimes and much bigger ones.
There's still some antagonism from other police due to his whistle blowing,but this part of Australia does seem over run with corrupt cops.
It was a great way to spend a few hours.... except for wanting to strangle Martin myself!!

Having adored Garry Disher's first in his brilliant Aussie crime series featuring the demoted Constable Paul 'Hirsch' Hirschhausen, I was avidly looking forward to this, the next in the series. It's the Christmas period, and after a year, Hirsch has settled down to what is mostly a community policing role, his one-cop shop in small town Tiverton, covering a vast area. However, there is little in the way of peace as Hirsch is hit by one thing after another, including the obstreperous drunk, Brenda Flann driving into the pub, a stolen ute, fires, burglaries, a child left locked in a car in the sweltering heat, and a missing dog. It often involves Hirsch exercising his judgement, rather than instigating criminal proceedings, in the hope of good community-police relations and his sincere desire to not ruin lives.

However, matters escalate with the posting of a video of an incident, the harrowing killing of miniature ponies, and the grim circumstances that Hirsch comes across in the process of carrying out a welfare check request from Sydney police on a family living in a isolated area. This brings an increasing media focus to Tiverton and Redruth, the arrival of outside police teams as a search for two missing sisters is triggered, their mother and brother brutally murdered. After previous events, Hirsch has a new Redruth boss in Sergeant Brandl, a marked improvement from before. Hirsch is still viewed with disdain and suspicion by many other police officers, and once again is hauled to Sydney for another Internal Affairs interrogation interview over his actions in what are deemed to be minor infractions and is duly warned. Then, there is the overly keen civic minded Martin Gwynne constantly pushing Hirsch to come for dinner.

Disher writes quality Aussie crime, with his sparse prose, a winning blend of ordinary policing with the more extraordinary and harrowing, providing a wonderful insight into and sense of small town Aussie communities. Where he really hits pay dirt is in his depiction of everyday bushwhackery, and in his diverse range of offbeat characters, many with mental health issues, some neglected, others with alcohol issues and more. Then there is Hirsch, working all the hours, facing pressures from all sides, professional and personal, with his relationship with teacher Wendy Street coming under strain. This is a wonderful addition to what is shaping up to be a stellar crime series, and I cannot wait to read the next in the series. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Serpent's Tail/Profile Books for an ARC.

Bitter Wash Road, the first in this series,was one of my favourite reads of last year and here is book two which I also adored. Garry Disher writes beautifully with a quietly addictive style that pulls you into the story and you simply dont want to stop reading it until you are done.

The setting is so wonderful I kind of want to live there..although maybe minus the death and blood that occasionally happens - I'm such a huge fan of small town drama and aussie fiction currently that this was a pure joy to read first page to last.

The mix of the mundane and the more horrendous is cleverly achieved, all the characters pop from the page, especially our man Hirsch, local and often only copper, who seems to travel a lifetime every day, never knowing quite what will happen. He takes the reader on all those journeys with him, as he tries to leave the past behind him.

I won't give any plot away but the mystery element is pitch perfectly done and they have a differing sort of twist on your crime fiction tropes as Hirsch might be trying to find a killer but could just as easily be trying to track down a missing dog. Either way it is compelling and you'll be glued to the page.

Highly recommended.

Mr Disher can write! I have to be honest and say the start of this book was really quite pedestrian but I persevered because Mr Disher’s writing is so evocative. I live in rural Australia so I can really relate to his superb descriptions of both life in a small country town and the harsh but beautiful landscape. And then of course you are slowly drawn into a very interesting and tragic story.

Constable Paul Hirschhausen (Hirsch) has been sent to the one man cop shop at Tiverton in the wilds of South Australia in a bit of disgrace - tarred with the stench of corruption but not personally guilty. His role is mainly one of community policing, writing a few traffic fines and maybe breaking up the odd bar fight. He has a massive area to patrol. The townsfolk and the people living on remote properties are a diverse bunch. But Hirsch’s comfortable routine is suddenly interrupted shortly before Christmas when mayhem visits his sleepy domain. A random intervention to rescue a stricken young child from inside a roasting vehicle sets thing off. The mother overreacts, a physical altercation ensues and the results are posted on You Tube. This sets off a chain reaction of violence and murder that no one could have predicted. Events spiral out of control, children are missing and the big guns, police from Sydney, are called in. Little does anyone know the far reaching consequences this will have.

Trigger warning: some ponies are killed and injured although this is not described and it is relevant to the story. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and Garry Disher for providing a copy a of the book. All opinions are my own.