Kirjailijakuva
9+ teosta 153 jäsentä 8 arvostelua

Tekijän teokset

Associated Works

The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir (2017) — Avustaja — 37 kappaletta
Columbia Noir #3 Booklet (Indicator Series 312-317) (2021) — Avustaja — 1 kappale

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Syntymäaika
20th century
Sukupuoli
male
Kansalaisuus
Australia
Asuinpaikat
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

The second Gary Chance novel, ORPHAN ROAD, sees Chance move his centre of activities to Victoria, all because of an old friend and former employer, the once notorious Melbourne social identity, Vera Leigh. Owner of a struggling S&M club being circled by property developers, knower of decidedly dodgy characters, it all starts with Chance and another contact of Leigh's in Byron, shaking down a peace and love cult front for a major drug smuggling ring. Which turns into another one of those jobs that could be described by the quote in the blurb:

"The heist always goes wrong and the consequences, even half a century later, can be deadly."

Of course that particular line is referring primarily to the job that Chance finds himself embroiled in on his return to Melbourne, new woman in tow, to find Leigh and contacts of hers looking to share some previously unknown information about the notorious 1970s Great Bookie Robbery - a heist that has gone down in Melbourne folklore. It seems that there was something at the Melbourne bookmakers club that day that was never mentioned in dispatches. Sure the three million dollars stolen has never been recovered, no-one has ever been charged, and just about everybody believed to be connected to the crime has since died - natural causes or not. But it seems that the thing that wasn't particularly well known was the stash of uncut South African diamonds that went missing on the day. And Leigh's pretty sure she knows who had them. Only problem is, it turns out Leigh isn't the only one who had an inkling, and Chance turns out to not be the only one looking.

When the first Gary Chance novel GUNSHINE STATE was released in 2018, my review included:

"When approaching such well sculpted and highly stylised ground as this, there can be a lack of fresh perspective. Not so in GUNSHINE STATE which uses many of the well-known elements of noir (the bad boy central character, dark settings, shabby dives, surrounded by a very dodgy group of potential back stabbers), lifting it somewhere different with the predominantly Queensland "Gunshine" setting, establishing a character like Gary Chance who is part hardman, part hair trigger, part lover, all of whatever it takes."

In this outing, so much of that still applies. Granted the location is less "shine" and more grey Melbourne and Western Victoria, and Chance is less lone wolf and more surrounded by people who share his affection for diamonds and, for want of a better description, regard for Leigh - not necessarily in that order. To that end, he finds himself on the trail of an old gangster, a family torn apart by the fallout from the Robbery and, what should come as a surprise to no-one, the disaster that was Catholic peodophilia in Western Victoria.

All of which combined with Chance's affection for Leigh, and regard for his companions in the final pursuit - Eva and Loomis, serves as a hint of grey at the dark centre at the heart of Gary Chance's noir world. Not much mind you, but at one point it kind of looked like the lone wolf might have picked up a thorn in his paw. Which was quickly removed, problems were solved, lives were lost, others were saved, and the past was revealed. To a select few on a need to know basis.

Whether or not the diamonds surfaced, the neo-Nazi's were dealt with, the crooked cops done for and the dodgy property developers buried in their own foundations, you'll have to read ORPHAN ROAD to find out. But fans of noir styled caper and heist novels, and anything that says a lot about humanity in a few well-placed words, should do exactly that. Read ORPHAN ROAD, and if you've not read GUNSHINE STATE then get to that as well.

This is a seriously good, noir-styled novel. Machine guns, Ford XB GS Falcon (mustard coloured), inner city Melbourne rabbit warren buildings, Byron Bay cults, protofacists and all.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/orphan-road-andrew-nette
… (lisätietoja)
 
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austcrimefiction | Jun 20, 2023 |
This anthology of essays covers "radical science fiction" from 1950 to 1985. The definition of "radical" is seemingly broad: it takes in sf radical in form, in content, and in politics. Some essays thematically cover certain ideas (e.g., apocalypse, sex, nuclear war, homosexuality, animals), others focus on specific authors or even texts (e.g., Judith Merril, R. A. Lafferty, the Strugatsky brothers, Philip K. Dick). Despite its seemingly broad mandate, it actually feels very coherent: one gets an impression of sf responding in a variety of way to a time of social change, and that it was a time when almost anything was possible in the genre. It does a great job of creating a coherent portrait without feeling repetitive; I never would have thought of putting some of this stuff together, but it really does fit. The essays are also generally of a very high quality, in-depth and analytical without feeling too academic. There were really just two I didn't like (one felt too much like a journal article, another a summary), and there were some obvious errors occasionally. I have some new works to seek out, and I think it would be fun to teach a course using this to organize.… (lisätietoja)
 
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Stevil2001 | Aug 5, 2022 |
"Beat to A Pulp 3" is a 2013 collection of stories in a variety of styles and genres ranging from noir and neo-noir to hardboiled to western by a group of authors, many of whom have already made a name for themselves in the modern writing world. There stories here are incredibly varied and take you to gangsters in the Far East ("One Ashore In Singapore"by Andrew Nette) to the backwoods of the upper Midwest ("Doe in the Headlights" by Patti Abbott), where a woman named Doe has an unusual and constantly changing job description. "Gunpoint" by Fred Blosser takes the reader to a shootout in the wild west of, well, West Virginia. If you get tired of all that countryside, then "Fair Warning" by Hilary Davidson takes the reader back to the modern computer age and the dangers of the big city. Chris Holm's "Follow-Through" is all about remembering the lessons your father taught you and getting along with the neighbors.

The two gems of this collection are "There You Are" by Keith Rawson and "The Blow Jobs" by Josh Stallings. Both of these stories are similar in the sense that they focus on teenagers left to fend for themselves in this desperate world. Rawson's "There You Are" is about a kid who is dragged from state to state and, when they finally ended up in Arizona, the woman "finally got tired of the road and left [him] in a Buckeye motel room and [he] never saw her again." Left to his own devices, the kid gets a job in the motel, but ends up digging in the desert for places to plant corpses. It is a smoothly written story with a believable voice. Stallings' piece is reminiscent of his longer work, "All The Wild Children," in that it focuses on a pair of siblings left to run amock after dad got crushed to death by a poorly stacked forklift. They grew up in Glendale, California, "in the golden dawn of glitter rock" and thankfully dad hadn't lived to see them in their "skintight jeans and feather boas." His brother Caleb was the toughest dude around and perhaps handy with an icepick. Making their living selling plants and robbing tourists. Somehow Stallings managed to capture the teenage angst and the dead-end world and the brotherly love.

In an age where it is easier than ever to find a collection of short pieces, this group is a stand-out.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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DaveWilde | 1 muu arvostelu | Sep 22, 2017 |
GUNSHINE STATE has been compared to Garry Disher's Wyatt series for a very good reason. The anti-hero characterisation here is as crisp and clear as you'd want, with Gary Chance the sort of loner survivor that has stepped straight from the pages of classic noir into the bright lights and dodgy business of Queensland's high-roller world.

When approaching such well sculpted and highly stylised ground as this, there can be a lack of fresh perspective. Not so in GUNSHINE STATE which uses many of the well-known elements of noir (the bad boy central character, dark settings, shabby dives, surrounded by a very dodgy group of potential back stabbers), lifting it somewhere different with the predominantly Queensland "Gunshine" setting, establishing a character like Gary Chance who is part hardman, part hair trigger, part lover, all of whatever it takes.

Chance is the sort of bloke that you know will get himself out of all the trouble that his choice of occupation (thief / standover man / enforcer / whatever pays) gets him into. You will, however, always be guessing just how much clinical violence will be employed to achieve that. Having said that, just about everybody he surrounds himself with here has an element of questionable character about them (even the victim) so there's something nicely contained about the entire situation.

There are many high-points in GUNSHINE STATE. Written in beautifully crisp prose, lean and pointed, there is still sufficient room for nuance in character development. The main characters here all have their good and bad points, they are believable, without overt clichés and extremely easy to connect with. The setting is perfect, with the high-rise anonymity of a tourism focused location, and excesses of the Surfer's "reputation" combined with the image some have of sun and surf to create a very effective contrast. Even the title - GUNSHINE STATE - with its spin on the well known tourist slogan, fits exactly with what for many, is a much more sleazy underground vibe.

What GUNSHINE STATE does as well is avoid the trap of style over substance. For all the lean and mean styling and strong characterisations, there is also a very solid plot. Believability again being the key here. There are all twists and turns you'd expect when the people on your side are as bad as the ones you're up against, and there's a certain type of person that does not take being screwed over - literally or figuratively - quietly.

It is evident that much of Nette's work (and interest) centres around noir and pulp styled fiction. His deep knowledge of the style and cadences of that sub-genre have been evident in earlier works, but in GUNSHINE STATE it's pitched just about as perfectly as you can get it.

There's room in Australian crime fiction for two lone-wolf anti-hero types, and Wyatt's got some serious competition now.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-gunshine-state-andrew-nette
… (lisätietoja)
 
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austcrimefiction | Sep 12, 2016 |

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Associated Authors

Cameron Ashley Contributor
Molly Grattan Contributor
Brian Greene Contributor
Nicolas Tredell Contributor
Mike Stax Contributor
Scott Adlerberg Contributor
Maitland McDonagh Contributor
David James Foster Contributor
Bill Osgerby Contributor
Kat Clay Contributor
Lucy Sussex Contributor
Rebecca Baumann Contributor
Daniel Shank Cruz Contributor
Rjurik Davidson Contributor
David Curcio Contributor
Kirsten Bussière Contributor
Nick Mamatas Contributor
Kelly Roberts Contributor
Rob Latham Contributor
Erica L. Satifka Contributor
David Rife Contributor
J. F. Norris Contributor
Joe Blevins Contributor
Robert Baker Contributor
Dave Kiersh Contributor
John Harrison Contributor
Austin Matthews Contributor
Brian Grene Contributor
James Doig Contributor
Brian Cofffey Contributor
Peter Doyle Foreword
James Cockington Contributor
Alwyn W. Turner Contributor
Stewart Home Contributor
Clinton Walker Contributor
Emory Holmes II Contributor
Danae Bosler Contributor
Michael Bronski Contributor
Eric Beaumont Contributor
Woody Haut Contributor
Steve Aldous Contributor
Gary Phillips Contributor
Kinohi Nishikawa Contributor
Brian Coffey Contributor
J. Kingston Pierce Contributor
Bill Mohr Contributor
Jenny Pausacker Contributor
Susie Thomas Contributor
David Whish-Wilson Contributor
Linda S. Watts Contributor
Alley Hector Contributor
Mike White Introduction

Tilastot

Teokset
9
Also by
2
Jäseniä
153
Suosituimmuussija
#136,480
Arvio (tähdet)
4.2
Kirja-arvosteluja
8
ISBN:t
18
Kielet
1

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