Reviews

Inspector Brad Chen - one-time football star and master detective - is not the man he once was. He's on crutches, with his leg in a cast, nursing a thirst for Amaretto and a raging pain-killer addiction. Then he's unexpectedly recalled from sick leave when the high-profile federal Minister for Immigration is found brutally murdered in her Canberra flat. Tracey Dale's proposed refugee policy was always controversial, and the list of suspects, which includes neo-Nazis, ambitious colleagues and a vengeful wife, becomes ever longer. As Chen and his beautiful driver Constable Kate Malone search for the killer, they display an uncanny talent for discovering corpses. But are these other deaths connected to the minister's murder or simply a series of bizarre coincidences'

Kel Robertson's debut novel doesn't exactly break the mould, but brutal, polished writing, witty dialogue, eccentric characters and an ending that leaves you breathless make Dead Set one of the most absorbing and satisfying crime novels of late. And a distinctly Australian one at that.