Review: Peace by Gary Disher

Title: Peace
Author: Gary Disher
Year Published: 2017

Genre: Adult fiction (mystery)

Pages: 392

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location (my 2020 Google Reading map): Australia

FTC Disclosure: I bought this book with my own money

Summary (from the inside flap of the book): t’s been a peaceful Christmas for Paul Hirschhausen, the only cop in Tiverton. A grass fire, a stolen ute, the usual welfare checks. The big event: Brenda Flann driving her Falcon into the front bar of the pub.

Then Hirsch is called to a strange, vicious incident in Kitchener Street. And Sydney police ask him to lookin on a family living on a back road outside town.

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

Review: I first heard about this book from Shelleyrae at Book'd Out. She lives in Australia so it's fun to get books set in Australia every once in a while. At first I wasn't sure about this book, but after about 50 pages, I realized I was sucked in and appreciating the characters, the setting, and the plot.

Hirsch is a police officer in a small rural town who is figuring out the locals and how to finesse them into sharing and helping him. It's tough to break into a tight-knit community. When run of the mill stealing turns to slaughter, Hirsch is up to his eyeballs in lying, stealing, murder, kidnapping, and more. It all evolves so slowly, that all of a sudden I realized we were in the middle of something big. And, there were so many tentacles to it, with so many other minor characters involved!

Disher does a great job of describing the outback, a small town, private citizens who want their lives to stay private and more. I got a real sense of Tiverton, which was great and I could really sense where Hirsch was while he was out doing his job. The reader really gets a sense for the people and the town in this book.

Challenges for which this counts: 

This book qualifies for the Popsugar Challenge because this author has written over 20 books.