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

Following accusations his fellow officers were guilty of police misconduct former Adelaide police officer Paul Hirschhausen ("Hirsch") has been demoted to Constable, and sent to back-of-beyond South Australia where he's mistrusted and rebuked by his "fellow" officers. This is the third novel featuring Herschel and it continues the path of his very well written atmospheric novels. The setting is so well described that as the various story lines unfold you almost feel the setting is another character. There are many twists and turns in the plot and an interesting conclusion. Award winning Garry Disher provides very good backstory on Hirsch so this book can be read as a stand alone but I recommend you read all the books in the series.

This is the first story I have read about Constable Paul Hirschhausen (Hirsch) but I believe it is the third in the series so far. I loved Garry Disher's rural police thriller set in South Australia. I will definitely be going back to read the first few books. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy.

4.5★
“When had he realised he was looking not for a dog but a dead husband? Where would you begin to find a body here anyway, in the country of the unseen and the unheard? Country he barely felt tethered to, sometimes. And why was he thinking the husband was dead and buried? Because his ABC of policing said: assume nothing, believe nothing, challenge everything.”

Constable Paul Hirschhausen is still in the small South Australian town of Tiverton, pretty much a one-man band trying to police a geographically large area with just enough people to cause trouble. He’s become used to his demotion (don’t ask), made friends with some of the locals, and even has an almost-family of Wendy and her daughter, Katie.

His stories are told from his point of view in the third person, which gives the author scope to use his descriptive powers that I so much admire. You will know what I mean if you’ve lived or travelled on unsealed roads across countryside where you’re not seeing any signs of life. and you start wondering if you’ve wandered completely off the map. It can be unnerving.

“It didn’t matter that it was touch-and-go country; it was a living landscape. He’d been formed by a city, its exact delineations of asphalt streets and bricks in orderly rows, but out here the angles were unpredictable. Roads shot off in unlikely directions, buildings decayed at a lean and the endless flatland was neither endless nor flat, throwing up stone reef patches or plunging into gullies. And it was a landscape charged with unheard testimony: an ochre hand stencil in a cave; a stick figure carved into a rockface; a grinding tool laid bare after a flash flood. Not empty, not even sparse. But still, there were long stretches between the side roads, farm gates and driveways.”

The ochre hand stencil, the stick figure. I am pleased that he always gives a nod to the dispossessed Traditional Owners, as the local aboriginal groups around Australia are referred to. Now that Hirsch is this removed from city lights, it’s easy for him to stumble across things that remind him how old the place really is.

He’s up against some of the town’s influential people, the men (it’s always men) who wear the uniform of the landed gentry and who used to hold the debts of landowners. It seems some may have ventured outside their area of expertise and are being called to account. I know this man and have seen him at livestock sales, lording it over us peasants.

“Sixties, portly, flushed in the face. Liked to dress up as a pastoralist—moleskin pants, R. M. Williams boots, tweed jacket, Akubra hat—the works. Donated to the hospital and to local schools and sporting clubs; drove a Range Rover Evoque; lived in a lovely 1920s homestead on a hillslope overlooking Redruth; and ran a small fleet of cars, utes and trucks … A big, warm, back-slapping, hand-pumping, grinning man, exactly the kind of guy to make Hirsch’s soul retreat. Although, being Hirsch, he assumed the inadequacy was with him, not the backslappers.”

Newsflash (but not a spoiler) – it’s not Hirsch’s inadequacy.

There are always a few threads running through our visits with the good constable, and this one includes not only the town elders up to mischief but also a child protection case and a woman who’s fixated on Hirsch’s singing voice. Well, that’s her excuse, anyway, and it’s an interesting, if sometimes worrying, diversion.

I am very fond of this series and I hope Disher continues writing it. It’s Hirsch’s story but it’s not “a” story. His trips twice a week to the far-flung boundaries of his domain are sometimes exhausting, but I love meeting the lonely, the disadvantaged, the old but proud people trying desperately to stay put at home and who offer Hirsch cups of tea and homemade bikkies as some kind of evidence of their capabilities.

And it’s cold. Ever so cold – did I mention that?

“… this frosty Wednesday morning in late August, frost dusting the grass, blades of ice reaching down from dripping garden taps, frost and ice splitting into prisms and diamonds as the sun struck. A bright, still, freezing day ahead. Snow reported on the Razorback yesterday, and Hirsch was prepared to believe it, his eyes watering right now, his cheeks and toes frozen. “

Thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for the preview copy of Disher’s latest book. I wait impatiently for the next!

CONSOLATION (PolProc-Const. Paul Hirschhausen-South Australia-Contemp) – VG
Disher, Garry – 3rd in series
Text Publishing, Nov 2020, 399 pp

First Sentence: Did Hirsch own the town?

Hirsch's territory covers a large area of not much in Tiverton, South Australia. It is up to him to keep the peace. Someone is stealing women's underwear. Although that seems a small thing, it is the sort of thing that can escalate. As the winter heat rises, so does the severity of the cases, exacerbated by a woman who has developed an obsession about Hirsch.

A very good introduction presents Constable Paul Hirschhausen "Hirsch" and the scope of his job, which is impressive in its scope and diversity. Issues range from the seemingly innocuous to the potentially dangerous. The jump from one incident to the next brings the residents into play. Hirsch isn't a cop who sits behind a desk, but spends his time walking the street, and driving the territory.

Disher is a wonderful wordsmith. One understands the works, and the meaning behind them. "Hirsch the mediator. He seemed to spend most of his time as father confessor, therapist, social worker, fixer and go-between. What he'd give for a plain old criminal and a plain old vanilla arrest."

It is not all serious. Hirsch's relationship with Wendy and her daughter provides normalcy, offset by his unwillingness to confront the woman who is stalking him as she becomes a threat. We see the openness of Northern Australia and the bone-chilling cold of summer.

As the story progresses Hirsch finds one should be careful of for what one wishes when things turn violent and deadly. "…his ABC of policing said: assume nothing, believe nothing, challenge everything."

"Consolation" is a story of lives intertwined; the domino effect begun by the actions of one crashing into the lives of others. This is an author well worth reading.

Another fantastic rural crime by Garry Disher, as part of the Paul Hirschhausen series. It is punchy, funny in parts and is a compelling read.

A well written book, with interesting characters, and a good main plot.

This book was however, let down for me, by all the small sub-stories which didn't add anything to the main narrative, and in fact distracted from it.

EXCERPT: The house was empty. Hirsch didn't know if the thin trace of dust on the kitchen table indicated abandonment or bad housekeeping. But the UHF equipment in the radio room had been smashed up: violence of some kind had occurred here.

He left by the back door and walked to the jackaroos' quarters, a pair of squat back to back rooms. Unmade beds and dirty clothes piled on wooden chairs; in one room a guitar, in the other posters of a Tasmanian rainforest, a formula one racing car and a woman in tennis whites scratching her bare bum.

The sheds: a Falcon station wagon, a trailer, tools, ladders, ropes, axles, a blacksmith's anvil.

Hirsch stood in the yard a while, indecisive. Search a wider area? Call it in right now? The Ayliffes could be anywhere. Maybe they'd drive the Triton down into a sinkhole and the airbag would explode and slice their throats open.

Widening the circle each time, Hirsch circumnavigated the patch of buildings and stockyards. Eventually he caught, faintly but unmistakably, a stench of death borne on the wind that gusted across the rocky ground.

ABOUT 'CONSOLATION': Winter in Tiverton.

Constable Paul Hirschhausen has a snowdropper on his patch. Someone is stealing women’s underwear, and Hirsch knows enough about that kind of crime—how it can escalate—not to take it lightly.

But the more immediate concerns are a call from the high school, a teacher worried about a student who may be in danger at home. Another call, a different school: a man enraged about the principal’s treatment of his daughter.

A little girl in harm’s way and an elderly woman in danger. An absent father who isn’t where he’s supposed to be; another who flees to the back country armed with a rifle. Families under pressure. And the cold, seeping feeling that something is very, very wrong.

MY THOUGHTS: Paul Hirschausen is on duty twenty four seven in Tiverton and it's surrounds. No eight hour day then knock off and put your feet up for him. Rural policing doesn't work like that. In a typical day he might have a cup of tea and a chat about missing, believed stolen, sheep, or mysterious headlights in the night, or a grown son not taking his meds. He might help a widow start her ute with the police Toyota's jumper leads, hold a ladder so a man can fish his grandson's cricket ball out of the gutter, or change a tap washer for an elderly woman. He might also be shot at. . .

Consolation, the third book in the Paul Hirschausen series, initially seems gentler than the previous two, but this is merely an illusion. The crimes are different, perhaps a wider range than we have been treated to previously, but are still full of deadly intent. A farmer and his son turn rogue and go on a rampage, there is a stalker, some Irish conmen, fraud, child abuse, and a kidnapping. Just another police beat in a sleepy outback town where nothing much ever happens... Oh yes, and there's someone stealing elderly ladies' underwear from their clothes lines.

Paul's relationship with Wendy and her daughter Katie continues, not without the odd hiccup, and many of the characters from the previous two novels return in this one. But Disher also introduces some new characters: Clara Ogilvie, a teacher who works with Wendy; Margaret and Amy Groote, an elderly lady and her niece; Quinlan, the stock and station agent; Sophie Flynn, a young bank teller who uncovers some strange goings on in some bank accounts; and the Ayliffes, a family on the brink.

The previous two books in the series were set mid-summer, Christmas; Consolation is set mid-winter and I could feel every blast of that icy wind, see the roads made almost impassable by the relentless rain, feel the frost crunching beneath my feet.

Again, Garry Disher held me spellbound, totally caught up in the lives of the people in this small remote town. I can't wait for the next installment. In the meantime, I plan on starting on one of the other two series he has written. Can't get enough of this author!

⭐⭐⭐⭐.6

#Consolation #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 Text Publishing via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Consolation 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

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage.

3.5 stars

In this third book in the Paul Hirschhausen series, the police constable deals with cases ranging from underwear theft to men on the run. The book works fine as a standalone.

When Constable Paul Hirschhausen (Hirsch) is assigned to maintain law and order in the South Australian town of Tiverton, he makes it his business to learn about the area. Hirsch spends months walking the streets, driving the roads, meeting the citizens, noting residents who need help now and again, identifying petty criminals who bear watching, and so on. Hirsch believes the job of a country policeman is to be prepared, and to be friend and counselor - as well as law enforcement officer - to everyone.

Hirsch's patch isn't a hotbed of criminal activity, but the constable still gets a steady stream of calls that require a police response. We follow Hirsch as he goes about his day to day activities - protecting people, maintaining peace, and capturing wrongdoers.

Hirsch's first stop is the home of an elderly woman whose underwear was nicked from her clothesline. It seems a snowdropper has been stealing lingerie from senior ladies all over the region. Hirsch decides to mark the undies of older women, to try to nab the perpetrator.

*****
A teacher called Clara Ogilvie, who monitors home-schooled children, fears an eleven-year-old girl named Lydia Jarmyn is being neglected. Hirsch checks into the allegations and makes a shocking discovery.

*****
A primary school administrator phones to say a man called Leon Ayliffe is in the principal's office making a disturbance. When Hirsch arrives at the school he learns that Leon, a local sheep farmer, has an array of grievances: a stock agent named Adrian Quinlan owes Leon money; Leon couldn't pay his daughter Chloe's school fees; and the principal embarrassed Chloe as a result. Hirsch settles Leon down and agrees to look into the allegations against Quinlan, which opens a whole other kettle of fish.

*****
The aforementioned Leon Ayliffe gets in trouble again when Environment Protection Officer Andrew Eyre reports him for illegally clearing land. Hirsch, his boss Sergeant Hilary Brandl, and Officer Eyre confront Leon, which ends up with two people badly injured and Leon and his son armed and on the run.

*****
An elderly woman named Maggie Groote is approached by silver-tongued Irishmen who arrange to fix her (perfectly fine) roof. This scam leads to even bigger trouble when Maggie goes to the bank to get money for the crooks, and is told her account has been drained. Hirsch investigates the Irish swindlers as well as Maggie's missing money.

*****
In Hirsch's private life he spends time with his teacher girlfriend Wendy and her daughter Katie. Everything is going well until Wendy's colleague, Clara Ogilvie, develops a crush on Hirsch and starts texting, calling, and stalking him. Hirsch doesn't know how to handle the situation and it affects his private and professional life.

All this leads to an explosive and exciting climax.

Hirsch's perambulations give us a palpable sense of the geography and atmosphere of rugged South Australia. We also get a feel for the arctic winter. I could almost feel the frostbite in my own toes as Hirsch worked in his freezing police station with a useless little bar heater.

This is an engaging novel that depicts the work of a rural police officer in a gripping and realistic way.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Garry Disher), and the publisher (Text Publishing) for a copy of the book.

Consolation is a rural noir mystery that will have you hooked!

This is the third book in the popular Paul Hirschhausen series. It was my first read by Garry Disher and I was honestly impressed, the author's style is extremely entertaining.

Police officer Constable Paul Hirschhausen is Tiverton’s (a town between Adelaide & The Flinders Rangers) only cop and boy does he have a lot going on! He is an admirable character and really cares about his work and the locals in this rural town where he has been working for the past eighteen months.

Paul has to deal with a variety of crime including a ‘snowdropper' who is stealing elderly women’s bloomers, a welfare check involving child cruelty, a female stalker who won’t leave Paul alone and Irish roof repair scammers. When an attempt to serve an environmental protection order on a stressed farmer goes ass up, things go from bad to worse and there is danger and violence escalating.

The characters are vibrant and diverse and a variety of important issues are addressed in the plot. The writing is full of depth and wonderfully descriptive of the landscape and climate.

Consolation is compelling reading that is action packed and fast paced with a mystery to solve, I thoroughly recommend this read for lovers of mystery and crime.

I wish to thank Netgalley and Text Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

‘Outback Noir’ became a hot commodity thanks to the global success of Jane Harper (THE DRY), Chris Hammer (SCRUBLANDS), and the Mystery Road films and television drama. But long before any of them hit the crime scene, there was the brilliant storytelling of Garry Disher. A couple of year's back, Disher deservedly received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award for three decades of storytelling excellence,

Judging by the high quality of his new novel CONSOLATION, there's been no resting on his laurels. Many authors plateau, taper, or wane with long-running series or crime writing careers in general. Disher has shown with CONSOLATION, like he did with PEACE, that he's among the few who keep raising the bar, decades in.

The third outing for Paul ‘Hirsch’ Hirschhausen sees the likable rural police constable now settled into life in tiny Tiverton, South Australia, wearing out the tyres on his 4WD as he patrols the surrounding ‘wheat and wool’ landscapes. While there's not the buzz and busyness of city life, that doesn't mean nothing happens.

HIrsch is on the trail of a 'snowdropper', someone who's been stealing old women's knickers. Is it just a prank, or could it be a dangerous sign of much worse to come? Meanwhile a teacher worries for a home-schooled student who may be getting neglected, and a furious local confronts a principal at another school about publicly shaming his daughter. Women old and young are in danger, then the angry man violently confronts an officious council worker trying to enter his property, before going bush with his son and a couple of rifles. While all this is going on, 'tradesmen' are conning older folks out of their savings, and there's a suspicious death.

With plenty on his plate, Hirsch tries to keep the peace and put a lid on simmering tensions threatening to boil over, while dealing with city detectives investigating various incidents, plus his own personal stalker. Not to mention he has to step into a leadership role, temporarily, when his own boss gets injured on the job.

Disher adroitly brings many threads together into a cohesive whole while giving readers a deep look at a rural community and the people who live there and pass through. CONSOLATION is a sublime tale tat flows so well it'd be easy to overlook just what a triumph of a novel it is. Disher shows once again that he's a consummate storyteller, the kind who makes the difficult seem oh-so-easy, like watching a talented guitarist launching into a spine-tingling solo live onstage. While the third in a series, CONSOLATION could be read as a standalone.

Whether this is your first taste of Disher's crime tales, or you're a long-time fan, you're in for a treat.

3 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This is an ok mystery set in Australia. The story moves slowly and there are irrelevant storylines that detract from the main mystery. This is the third book in the series, but it's a stand alone mystery so you can read this book without having read the other two.

Paul Hirschhausen (Hirsch) is a constable in a tiny town in Australia. He slogs along making the rounds of his patrol area, checking in on residents. Then, he gets calls to investigate several issues at once. Someone has been stealing underwear and bras from elderly ladies and Hirsch knows to take it seriously less the crime escalates. He gets a call from the school about a young child that may be neglected. He gets a call from a different school to calm down an enraged father concerned about the treatment of his daughter. On top of this add a stalker, an elderly lady that may be the victim of a financial crime, a violent duo on the run, and a prominent citizen that may be swindling everyone.

Instead of focusing on one mystery and doing it well, the author throws a lot of different crimes and victims into the mix and it's just a bit much. It would be one thing if the various crimes ended up being related to the big major mystery, but not all of them are. Hirsch seems to be beaten down by life and it was hard to root for him. Even his romantic interest in a woman and her daughter fell flat. I didn't feel any spark or emotion in the relationship. The pace of the book is really slow and it just seemed to bog down in the middle. The ending was really odd and very abrupt.

Overall, the book was written well, but it was just too slow and jumbled for me. However, I think a lot of other people would really enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Text Publishing for a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I've loved the two previous books in Garry Disher's Paul Hirschhausen series and Consolation has certainly cemented this as one of my all-time favourite crime series.
Six months after the events of Peace, Constable Paul Hirschhausen remains the lone police officer responsible for the remote South Australian town of Tiverton and its surrounding area. In the midst of a bitter winter, Hirsch is required to deal with the wide variety of criminal, domestic and community issues that readers have come to expect. There's a snowdropper active in Tiverton and nearby Redruth, who curiously seems to target the undergarments of the area's senior residents left hanging outside on lines. Hirsch is called by a teaching colleague of his partner Wendy, and asked to carry out a welfare check on a child who is schooled remotely. A local stock dealer doesn't seem to be honouring his financial commitments, sending ripples throughout the small community. A volatile farmer causes ructions at the local primary school when he turns up and threatens the principal over percieved unfair treatment of his daughter. All fairly standard fare for a country copper.
However, it doesn't take long for the various call-outs to develop and become more complicated, and with the unexpected absence of his sergeant from Redruth, Hirsch now finds himself responsible for a wider area and two junior officers.
Like Bitter Wash Road (aka Hell to Pay) and Peace, Consolation is an action-packed and engrossing rural noir read, with many complex and intersecting storylines and a great collection of well-developed characters. Disher's portrayal of the landscape, climate and issues facing those who live in the backblocks of South Australia remain as evocative as ever. The well-crafted prose and realistic dialogue made this an unputdownable read for me. I can't wait for my next Hirsch fix!
My thanks to Garry Disher, publisher Text Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Consolation prior to publication.

It was bitterly cold as Constable Paul Hirschhausen did his usual rounds, checking on the outlying properties as he did on a regular basis. Tiverton was small, with not a lot of crime and he was the only cop for his area, until he reached the town of Reruth where there was a larger police station. Paul had a snowdropper on his hands, stealing elderly ladies’ underwear, and was doing his best to catch the culprit. But it was a worrying call from a high school teacher that had Paul on edge, and was the start of a culmination of events which would lead to kidnapping and murder…

The danger was heightened for Paul and his fellow police – CIB from Adelaide as well as the Reruth boys – and Paul wondered what more could possibly go wrong. The freezing conditions didn’t help anything and the tragedy that was unfolding made Paul feel angry, frustrated, inept. What would be the outcome to this complex series of events?

Consolation is the 3rd in the Paul Hirschhausen series by Aussie author Garry Disher and I loved it. Fast paced, plenty of action and lots of tension filled this book and with each book I read of Disher’s, the confirmation is there as to his greatness as a writer. Consolation is an excellent crime fiction novel, and one I highly recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading this book. It had a good story to it. I liked the variety of characters in it. It was a well written book. I hope to read more books by this author.

Australian rural Noir!

First up I've been a Garry Disher fan forever. This third tale of a country / outback cop in Tiverton, South Australia near Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound (fabulous country) is taut and vivid. Constable Paul Hirschhausen or rather Hirsch could be a small town cop anywhere where spaces are wide and open, from Canada to the US. The play between the big city cops and the homegrown patrols who know their charges and the lay of the land are brilliantly depicted.
The people are familiar. I loved Hirsch's concern for the elderly helping them in small and big ways. Concerned that the elderly females are being targeted by a snowdropper. I didn't know what this meant until now. Being nice sometimes doesn't pay off. Suddenly Hirsch becomes the target for a stalker.
So there's a lot happening here, all more or less connected.
Plenty of drama, downplayed and yet it smacks you in the face as large as life.
Rural Australian noir that joins with other locations of Noir, like the frozen landscapes of Nordic Noir, where harsh and unforgiving climates nurture distinctive crime odysseys.
I loved Disher's descriptions of the land, the patrol rites, like Thursday's long patrol, giving a sense of the immense spaces the local police have to care for.
Did I say how much I loved this!

A Text Publications ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

Author Garry Disher's powerful writing can drag you right into the heart of Australia. In the case of the third Paul Hirschhausen mystery, it's a vast area of villages, farms, and ranches in South Australia "midway between Adelaide and the Flinders Range." I have to admit that I've read the first book in this series, Hell to Pay, and somehow missed the second, Peace, but opening Consolation was like coming home, and it would read well as a standalone if you don't want to sign up for all three. (But why would you pass up the chance to read three excellent books?)

Hirsch is a character who found a spot in my brain and burrowed in. Reading this book was like I'd never left him. This man takes his job seriously, and he has a routine that he follows which means he covers his entire area of responsibility each week. That all gets thrown up in the air when his superior officer is injured and he has to take over her station as well. I wonder if the citizens realize just how much they take this one man for granted? Whenever one of them knocked at the Tiverton Station door and Hirsch wasn't there to take care of the problem, the person would throw a hissy fit. These folks are used to having him at their beck and call. He's spoiled them.

And there's a lot he has to deal with. The snowdropper (love that term) is the least of his problems. Hirsch takes charge when a little girl needs help, and he finds himself chasing a father and son who've gone on the lam. Scammers are targeting elderly women and their life savings. He works on each case, always working on the why as well as the who. Why did the father and son think the only option they had was becoming fugitives? Why was the little girl treated that way? It makes for good policing and for good reading. And guess what? Hirsch is doing all this while he's being stalked. When it rains, it pours.

If you're in the mood for a fast-paced slice-of-life mystery about the life of a small-town Australian cop, get your hands on a copy of Consolation. It's a good'un.

The bumps and grinds of policing in rural South Australia: lots of good, fast-paced action👍

4.5🌟stars
The Australian setting first drew me to Disher's book and I was quickly hooked by the plot blended with the realism. Disher gives the police some pretty nasty characters to catch but he also describes the rural police beat routine which revolves around periodic visits to lend a hand with a chore or a sympathetic ear. Hirsch, the lead protagonist, is a conscientious constable with a content social life until an acquaintance contacts him about a possibly endangered remote learning student and aggressively intrudes into his work and private hours. I really liked Hirsch and the way he related to his colleagues and the country folk he serves and protects.

The variety of cases Hirsch works keeps the story always moving and interesting. I would gladly read more books by the author in a similar vein.

Thanks to Text Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.

Consolation is the third excellent, compelling crime novel by Garry Disher to feature Constable Paul Hirschhausen, a country copper in rural South Australia.

It’s winter in Tiverton, there is frost on the ground and snow on Razorback ridge and as Hirsch patrols the quiet streets in the freezing Wednesday dawn he is ruminating on the behaviour of the ‘snow dropper’ stealing the underthings of elderly women from clothesline’s all over the district. Arriving at the one-man police station that is barely warmer inside than out, a request for a welfare check first leads Hirsch to discover a severely neglected young girl, next he is called to calm an irate parent at the local primary school, and then made aware of gossip that suggests a local big shot is in financial trouble. Thursday, Hirsch’s regular long range westerly patrol is interrupted by an environmental control officer wanting an escort to inspect a local property, and an accusation is made regarding the exertion of undue influence against an elderly lady. On Friday, everything goes to hell, and Paul finds himself dealing with a manhunt, a stalker, a missing man, Irish conmen, a dead woman, all while managing two stations, and his relationship.

There is a lot happening in Consolation but Disher manages the multiple threads skilfully, connecting seemingly disparate people and events in a manner that feels credible where any single disturbance can create a ripple effect within a small community. There’s plenty of well timed action that drives the story at a fast pace but without sacrificing suspense, or emotion.

A country copper is more than just an enforcer of the law, Paul is often called upon to act, among other things, as a mediator, a counselor, a confessor, and a jack-of-all-trades. The various events in Consolation requires Hirsch to draw on all his skills to keep the peace within his community, and he is often worried he won’t be able to do it right, despite evidence to the contrary. Paul’s humility and integrity contrast with that of several of the visiting officers in the novel who are variously ego-driven or indifferent.

The setting is recognisably Australian, Disher’s prose effortlessly evokes the environment, character, and residents of Tiverton and surrounds. The laconic dialogue and dry wit is familiar and authentic.

This series has become a firm favourite of mine, Consolation is as deserving of five stars as its predecessors Bitter Wash Road (US title: Hell To Pay) and Peace. If I was pressed to recommend just one Australian rural crime series, this would be it.

Consolation is the first mystery I’ve read by Garry Disher, and I’m glad I did. I received an advance review copy of this title from the publisher in exchange for my honest review, and going in, I didn’t have much idea of what to expect. What I found was a very very nice, tightly written police procedural that kept me reading late into the night, and then again early the next morning!

Paul Hirschhausen (“Hirsch”) is a one-man police operation in a small town on the edges of the Flinders Ranges in Australia. He seems to have been sent here as punishment for some unclear (in this book, at least) issues in his past. But by now he has settled in pretty well, and I didn’t feel as I was missing out on any info from his past that I needed to understand what was going on. Instead, there is a pretty good set of current cases for him to tackle, ranging from an underwear thief (apparently called a snowdropper in Australia ?!?!) to a case of child abuse to some financial chicanery to a pair of survivalists on the run. Oh yeah, and a potential stalker in his personal life.

In the best traditions of police procedurals, Hirsch does a nice job of juggling all these cases. I really liked the way that Disher shows how difficult some of Hirsch’s decisions can be, especially since he is often out in remote territory on his own. In one example, he’s helping a badly injured person when he hears a gunshot off in the direction of the “bad guys”. Should he leave to go see if someone else has been hurt even worse, or stay with the person he knows is hurt? Either choice is probably bad…

I also really enjoyed Disher’s descriptions of the countryside around Hirsch’s home base of Tiverton. Sometimes his descriptions are almost poetic (e.g. “rain-shadow country trying to be green”), and I found myself reading more slowly just to be able to enjoy them. Now I really want to visit this area someday! In some ways, Disher’s descriptions, and the remote countryside itself, remind me of Tony Hillerman’s descriptions of the American southwest in his Leaphorn/Chee series, which I also like a lot. .

Finally, I enjoyed learning some Australianisms, like “snowdropper” above. I was especially amused by Hirsch’s “second breakfasts” – a meal that I had only heard of before when Pippin memorably complained about missing it in the first book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

All-in-all, I highly recommend this book. My thanks again to Text Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy. And I personally will be looking for more of Disher’s titles to read – including/especially the first two books in this series!