Tangled Web UK Review August 2007
Bad Debts by
Peter Temple
pbk out May 07
(Quercus)
at £6.99
Peter Temple was born in South Africa, but moved to Australia in 1980, working
as a journalist and editor. He has won no less than five Ned Kelly awards for his crime
fiction. Bad Debts, the first in the Jack Irish series, won him the first one in 1996.
Jack Irish is not exactly who you might think. Not a son of the 'ould sod' down
under, but descended from a German Jewish immigrant to Australia. His life is equally
more complicated than you might think on the surface. This is no ordinary private eye.
A lawyer by trade, drink has reduced him to a part-time debt collector, horse-race
gambler, and cabinet-maker. The back-story tells us his wife was murdered by a
dissatisfied client of his, and he is now struggling to recover from the booze addiction
that the event drove him into.
He gets a series of phone calls from a Danny McKillop, who claims to be a
former client who has just got out of jail. Irish can't at first recall who he is, because the
case goes back to when he was immersed in drink. When he does remember that
McKillop was the guilty party in a hit-and-run accident, it is too late. McKillop has been
conveniently shot by a policeman, apparently in self-defence. Fired by a sense of guilt
that he might not have represented McKillop well due to his boozing, Irish investigates
the apparently open-and-shut case. It begins to appear that the matter was not as
comclusive as it may have seemed. But, as Irish tracks down witnesses, they start
disappearing with monotonous regularity, and turning up dead. Irish teams up with a
journalist Linda Hillier, who is interested in the fact that the victim of the hit-and-run was
a political activist. And her death was very convenient for some high-powered politicians
and real-estate developers. It is at this point that Irish is warned off the case.
The novel is a pleasure to read, scattered as it is with an intriguing array of larger-
than-life characters. They range from Charlie Taub, irascible cabinet-maker, who is
teaching the impulsive Irish to take care and time with wood, through to Harry Strang,
wealthy punter, and organiser of well-planned betting plunges on unfancied horses. Not
to mention the old boys down at the local bar who, like Irish, are lifetime supporters of
Fitzroy Aussie Rules FC. Temple's style is terse, driving the story forward at a pace, and
is full of dry humour. Irish is more than a standard PI, full as he is of self-deprecating wit
and not a few weaknesses. He is a refreshing character that you should seek out. I will –
again. Thank goodness there are already three more in the Jack Irish series already
published in Australia.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
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