GARRY DISHER Under the Cold Bright Lights. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Cold-case detectives are everywhere these days, but the latest creation from Garry Disher, Alan Auhl, is not as straightforward as some might expect.

It makes sense that at some stage Garry Disher would mesh the traditional ethical ideals of many of his police detectives (both stand-alone and series characters) with the slightly less acceptable stance of Wyatt, and come up with somebody like Alan Auhl. Auhl is a retired detective, reborn as a cold-case investigator who, as the blurb puts it: ‘will stick with these cases until justice is done. One way or another.’

You’ll have to read the book to work out exactly what that means, but the heaviness of the hint doesn’t need a lot of consideration — unlike Auhl, who deserves a lot of consideration, and with luck an ongoing series.

Alan Auhl is not a traditional Australian male detective, even with the edges rubbed off a bit, like Disher’s long-running character Challis. Auhl is a divorced man living in the inner city in a rambling old house that is populated by his daughter, an ex-wife who comes and goes, as well as a changing assortment of waifs and strays. The current waifs and strays include Neve Fanning and her young daughter Pia, who are fleeing domestic violence and a controlling nasty husband and another member of the cold-case team, Claire Pascal, seeking thinking time away from a cheating boyfriend. The house rules are relaxed and Auhl seems to genuinely love his role of house-father, guidance counsellor, and support service, especially for Fanning, whose problems rapidly escalate into a custody and access battle. At the heart of everything he does, however, is a real sense that he wants nothing more than for his ex-wife to return, his family to be restored, and justice to always be done. It’s that profound sense of justice, formulated by his own regrets, fuelled by the pain he sees around him, that sets him outside the rules on more than one occasion.

Under the Cold Bright Lights does a lot in a very concise manner. It introduces Auhl, his unusual household, a lot of their personal situations and troubles, and leaves plenty of room for enough cold case investigations to keep Auhl busy:

On a mild October morning near Pearcedale, south-west of Melbourne, a snake slid over the edge of a veranda on a shortcut to somewhere. Nathan Wright, blearily contemplating his parched lawn from the front door after breakfast, caught the movement in the corner of his eye: a big fuck-off copperhead rippling over his veranda. Heading where? Towards his wife and daughter? Jaime was pegging jumpsuits to the clothesline on the side lawn. Serena Rae on a pink blanket at her feet.

A very Australian way to introduce the discovery of a body, buried under the concrete slab that the snake eventually disappears beneath. The discovery sets off a chain of events and an investigation that heads back into the past before careering into the present:

‘Male, shortish, probably young, going by his teeth. By young I mean late teens, early twenties. Possibly shot. There’s a chip out of his bottom left-hand rib, a corresponding chip’ – she craned her head – ‘lower spine. So, maybe shot in the chest, the bullet going right through.’

Auhl’s cold-case unit gets that case, but at the same time Auhl’s still quietly keeping an eye on the death of a farmer five years ago whose daughters aren’t the only ones refusing to believe it was an accident:

‘All I want to know is could someone have hit Mr Elphick on the head as he stood between the front of the ute and the fence. He fell onto the roo bar, got up again, tried to get away, eventually climbed behind the wheel, was pulled out again and given another whack on the head and fell to the ground, where he died.’

He’s slightly less quiet about his interest in the doctor whom he knows, but can’t prove, has murdered two wives and a girlfriend, leaving no evidence in his wake; in Auhl’s mind, he will undoubtedly have more women in his sights

Back when Dr Alec Neill’s second wife died as mysteriously as his first, Auhl was the Homicide Squad sergeant in charge of the investigation. His team had never been able to prove anything but Auhl, convinced of Neill’s guilt, had had a quiet word with Neill’s new girlfriend, a hand therapist employed at one of Neill’s hospitals: Don’t let yourself become murdered wife #3.

Needless to say, a busy caseload and home life, yet Auhl is the stillest, most controlled character you’d ever come across. There’s nary a wasted movement or moment, thought or comment in anything he does. Every job is done by the book, until justice cannot be served. Every person in the household is supported and cared for, no matter what the cost. Every scumbag, murderer and serial abuser is dealt with. Efficiently. Quietly. Whatever it takes:

A neighbouring house, a rice paddy beyond it; a man wandered through in bare feet, carrying a sickle. Auhl sensed a busy, populated landscape even though he’d barely seen or heard anyone yet. He listened, and presently followed a rattly snore to a bedroom midway along the hallway.

Despite all the moral ambiguity that a Wyatt-like character brings to the cold-case unit, there’s something appealing, admirable and extremely likeable about Alan Auhl. He’s a decent man whose compass might be a little off true north, but readers will instantly feel he’s trustworthy, and just enough on the side of right.

Everything is delivered in the precise, clever way that you can expect from a Garry Disher novel. The caseload here is tricky, complicated and thankfully not always neatly tied off. Closure is the last thing anybody should expect in cold cases on the frigid side, but you can’t help but feel resolution will arrive in the persona of Alan Auhl once he works out how best to deliver it.

Garry Disher Under the Cold Bright Lights Text Publishing 2017 PB 320pp $29.99

Karen Chisholm blogs from //www.austcrimefiction.org, where she posts book reviews well as author biographies.

You can buy this book from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW here.

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Tags: Australian crime writing, Garry | Disher