CRIME
Dust
Michael Brissenden
Affirm Press, $34.95
Dust is journalist Michael Brissenden’s fourth crime novel and simply the best. The first two were political thrillers set mainly in Canberra, and the third, Smoke, was a police procedural set against the backdrop of a Californian firestorm. Dust combines the two sub-genres in a thrilling political procedural set in Australia. There is also a decidedly eco-critical edge, dealing as Dust does with the impact of climate change.
It’s also a very moving story about those doing it tough in far west New South Wales who are yet to be convinced of the virtues of the energy revolution as their caravan park homes are bulldozed to make way for the promised solar and wind farms. Brissenden, ever the journalist, points to the omnipresence of Sky News in the outback, constantly seeding disinformation on every screen from the cafe serving burgers to the Returned Services Club.
Out west is where Dust opens as the young Aaron Love searches for signs of his missing father, Tobias – also known as Dog – who disappeared two years ago. It’s clear Aaron has a few questions to ask, not least why Dog was such a brute. Alerted by a murder of crows out on the mud of the “vast drying lake”, Aaron discovers a body, but it’s not that of his father. Instead, Aaron recognises the young environmental journalist who came looking for Tobias only two days ago and who has been shot in the head.
This is the set-up for a murder inquiry that will bring two city cops from the Organised Crime unit in Sydney to the failing township of Lake Heddon to investigate a case with tentacles all the way to the top. Martyn Kravets is the jaded, divorced cop under a cloud after being demoted from homicide after accidentally shooting his partner, his bright offsider young Fiona Weldon, a university graduate keen to make a difference. She knows her Shakespeare.
Having negotiated the nine-hour drive from Sydney, they arrive in Lake Heddon to be greeted by the ruling authority, Sergeant Clementine (Clem) Basko, “a grumpy bugger with a chip on his shoulder”. As Kravets watches on, Weldon and Basko are soon at odds, the air “thick between them” as the “old-school racist” and “the gung-ho, over-educated rookie” exchange verbal swipes.
Journalist and author Michael Brissenden.Credit: Brook Mitchell
It’s a familiar stand-off with a contemporary edge. East versus West, old-school versus new, with Kravets just trying to get the job done, even as his 19-year-old daughter goes missing at a climate change demonstration in Sydney. Kravets is smart, and realises from the start that they are up against powerful forces that will stop at nothing to preserve the corrupt status quo.
But the heart of this book is Aaron Love, the soulful young man with androgynous good looks, chipped nail varnish and silver rings. For his police interview, he’s wearing a faded pink T-shirt with a young Raquel Welch on the front. It’s an “Ah…” moment. As Kravets and Weldon follow their line of inquiry, Aaron also follows his. They are not the same.