55

Outback Australian crime novels are most definitely the new black at the moment, and the premise for James Delargy’s 55 is a little different to most.

Two guys, same story, one is the perp and one is the victim. Only with practically identical stories, it’s impossible to tell who’s lying and who’s telling the truth.

One wicked set up right?! But, the thing is, the further into this book I got, the more I thought that I’ve come across this story before. Don’t get me wrong, some of it was very unique, but other parts - the cliche of a divorced cop father, fighting his ex-wife for child custody, an a*hole for a boss, the presumption that country police are slow and inept, thick dry heat of Australian bush and the quiet and slow death of a small country town, they’ve been done.

The narrative style bugged me, we only ever got Chandler’s side of the story, and nothing about the actions and activities of the other characters, even though it is written in the third person. This left the other characters underdone, and lacking in any real depth. It is my opinion that first person would have worked better.

Since we are on the narrative, the writing also bugged me. It was flat, emotionless, overwritten and full of unnecessary analogies that did nothing for the story, eg “stomach bulging over his trousers like an overheated pot of mishapen pasta”
First part of the sentence is fine, the second part...huh?

Okay, let’s do some positives. The story itself was pretty wicked, in both the traditional and colloquial sense of the word. And disturbing, in more ways than one, and don’t even with that ending! But unfortunately, there was too much tell and not enough show.

Thank you to James Delargy, Simon & Schuster Australia and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot believe that you ended it there James Delargy!! What the!!!! I was not expecting that at all. This book, a debut from this author was fantastic. This year I am reading more and new Australian writers and I am so glad that I picked this one up.. if you are. a fan of thrillers and police procedurals then you need to get your hand story on it too. The story was clever and different and so well written. Set in outback Western Australia the writer makes you feel like you are there. I heard that this has been picked up for a movie, and I am looking forward to watching it.

Wilbrook is a quiet, remote little town in outback Western Australia. Nothing much happens there. That is until the day that Gabriel stumbles into Chandlers little police station. He is injured and bleeding. He claims that he was drugged and kidnapped by a man called Heath. Everything is thrown at tfinding Heath.. And then he walks into the very same police station claiming that Gabriel drugged and kidnapped him. Both men claim that the other tried to kill them and that they were to be victim Numberr 55. Doe she that have your attention? It certainly got mine!! The story jumps between now and back 10 years with a another case that Chandler was involved with his partner Mitchell. His old partner is no longer a fan f he and is called in to help in this serial killer case... making for a lot of tension and one up manship.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Australia and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are no way.

Whoa! This was one high tension read. I don't think my heartbeat returned to normal the whole way through. And that ending - Mr Delargy!!!

This is a very clever debut novel with two young men, beaten and bloodied, first one and then the other walking in to a police station claiming to be backpackers with an alarming story of abduction by a man who told them they were going to be killed as his victim number 55. Both tell identical stories of being locked and shackled in a small hut followed by a terrifying escape through the harsh and rugged bush surrounding the small outback town in northern Western Australia. The local Sergent, Chandler Jenkins doesn't know who to believe. Either one of them is guilty or they're both working together to abduct and kill lone backpackers. Chandler has no choice but to call the regional commander, specifically Inspector Mitchell Andrews, with whom he has past history. Once colleagues starting out together in the force, Mitch felt he was made for higher command and forced his way to the top, growing in arrogance and self-importance as he went.

Delargy keeps us guessing most of the way through this novel as to how this will all end. As well as the conflict between the two suspects both claiming their innocence, there is tension between Chandler and Mitch as Mitch walks in and takes over his station and sneeringly orders his staff around. Flashbacks to their early days in the local force when they were both on an extended search for a missing man, highlights their different natures and approaches to policing. It is Chandler who will eventually through good police work discover the identity and motives of the killer, but not before the tension builds to a pressure that is about to explode. A well written debut novel, with well depicted characters and a well paced intense plot. Definitely a new writer to look out for in the future!

3.5★ for this thrilling debut novel by Irish-born author James Delargy.

A terrified young man named Gabriel arrives at the police station in a small, remote Pilbara town, with a tale of escaping a serial-killer, Heath, who had told him he was going to be number 55. Barely had the police managed to plan their approach to locating Heath, when the man himself is brought into the station, blustering at gun-point, explaining his attempt to take the gun-wielder's vehicle was to escape from Gabriel, a serial-killer who had told him he was going to be victim number 55.

The details of both men's stories are virtually identical, but which one is telling the truth?

This is a book of thirds. With this killer opening, and a completely mind-blowing, stunning end, the first and last thirds of the book are deserving of all the hype this book is getting. However, I felt it dragged somewhat in the middle. If that had been a bit tighter - perhaps without so much of the chest-beating between cardboard cutout Inspector Mitch Andrews and his former childhood friend (and hero of this story) Sergeant Chandler Jenkins - I would have rated it higher. At around 400 pages, it could afford to have lost a few.

For the story alone, this is probably 4 or even 4.5★, but I had some other problems with it too. My digital ARC had a number of irritating editing issues (chiefly apostrophe mis-use and word order mistakes), but I tried to overlook those as much as possible, expecting they would be corrected prior to publication. What kept tripping me up though, was some glaring language errors. Apparently the author has spent some time living in Australia, and full credit to him for setting his novel in remote WA, but the myriad references to 'State' as a separate policing entity (i.e. distinct from the local police unit) really grated. As did constant references to the 'woods' of the Pilbara (come on, if anything they are forests or just the bush), not to mention the 'farms' in the area (stations!!...cattle stations or sheep stations). For me it marked the author as an outsider - more than just an author trying to write for an international audience - and caused me to rate it a little lower on authenticity.

Still, it was a good read.

From the opening pages of his first novel, 55, Irish-born author, James Delargy creates instant intrigue when two men, clearly in fear of their lives, enter a remote Western Australian town in short succession claiming to have barely escaped a serial killer. The details of their ordeals are virtually identical, except that each names the other as the killer, and themselves as number 55.

With his staff of four, Wilbrook’s Sergeant Chandler Jenkins is ill-equipped to mount a search when one of the men disappears, and finds his town overrun by the expensively-besuited Inspector Mitchell Andrews and his slick-looking team of ten. Mitch and Chandler started out in the force together, but ten years earlier, their paths diverged.

Delargy’s protagonist is a young cop with integrity whose focus on the case is blurred by the uncomfortable history he has with Mitch. Chandler chose family life while ambitious Mitch chose a career; now, though, Chandler finds that what he does have is under threat. While Chandler is a believable character (although his self-pity and resentment wears a little thin), Mitch seems exaggerated to almost a stereotype. The minor characters show a little depth but don’t really get a chance to shine.

A secondary narrative details the search, ten years earlier, for a missing bush walker that highlighted how very different Chandler and Mitch were, both as policemen and as people, a difference that seems, if anything, to have amplified over the intervening years.

Delargy’s descriptive prose easily conveys the Pilbara: the dry, searing heat, the desiccated landscape, the vastness, the challenge of distance, and the isolation. Well-articulated, too, are the small-town attitudes, with some sense of, community but also gossip, nosiness, and the disconnection from the city. The resultant boredom evidenced by the younger police officers’ hunger for some excitement.

Delargy certainly keeps his reader guessing about what really happened and whether either of the two are telling the truth as he sprinkles clues and red herrings throughout the story, inserting twists and turns right up to a dramatic climax and the shocking conclusion. A crime thriller that starts with great promise but doesn’t quite deliver.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Australia.