Peter Temple – 'Jack
Irish' series – Bad Debts, Black Tide, Dead Point and White Dog;
The Broken Shore; In The Evil Day.
Peter Corris –
'Cliff Hardy' series – Taking Care of Business, Saving Billie, The
Undertow, Appeal Denied, The Big Score, Deep Water and Torn Apart;
Wishart's Quest.
Something
different for the readers of Books with Balls. Have decided after
having read a sizeable portfolio of writings by two Australian crime
writers I will weigh them off against each other. The parallels
between the writers are there allowing for comparison – both are
Australian, both have a series based around a central character, both
have won the Ned Kelly award and therefore inherit the title as being
a 'Godfather of Australian Crime Fiction' and both write their work
with an undoubted sense of place.
Let's
begin with the works of each that do not fall into the single
character based series they are known for. From Temple I have read
two stand alone works – The Broken Shore and In the Evil Day. Both
are thoroughly engaging pieces of writing; detailed, gritty, and
leaving you as the reader desperate for more. Both works are very
different, In the Evil Day an espionage thriller in the mould of
Robert Ludlum set in Europe and The Broken Shore a dramatic tale of a
divided small coastal town police officer in Victoria unravelling a
chilling back story to the towns life. The latter being my undoubted
preference, but both are great reads.
Wishart's
Quest by Corris is a story of a former orphan, who became an esteemed
academic, investigating the history of who his biological parents
were. The quest takes him through racially divided communities in the
NSW north coast and further into the deep underworld of Asia that was
promulgated through the Vietnam war. The book is a good read however
at times the story felt too far fetched to allow the reader to
elevate it in their esteem above being 'a good read'.
Onto
the more well known works, those around a central character and
immediately comes a divergence. Whereas Corris has written
prolifically (over 30 publications) on the adventures of his Sydney
based private investigator Cliff Hardy, Temple has thus far elected
to limit his use of Melbourne lawyer Jack Irish to just four novels.
At
this point I the reviewer must admit to being of Melbourne, born and
bred. Therefore anyone born north of the Murray will easily identify
my bias, but I believe that the superior quality of Temple's books
over Corris's (who incidentally was born in rural Victoria) is a
metaphor for why I believe Melbourne is superior to Sydney.
Where
Corris describes tales that have brash crash and bash episodes more
often, Temple chooses a more subtle route. Corris's Cliff Hardy is a
man's man who's passion is for the boxing ring in the inner city or
the southern beaches of Maroubra or Bondi. Temple's Jack Irish is
more thoughtful and cultured and chooses his leisure to examine horse
flesh for his latest plunge or listening to Italian opera. Both
appear well versed in the mysteries of females, Irish tends toward
brooding good looks to attract them, Hardy makes his moves less
subtly with a cocktail of booze and pick up lines.
In
all seriousness both writers are worth reading if you are entertained
by crime fiction. Temple is my preference however being less prolific
than Corris in his writing (potentially a metaphor that those from
Melbourne seek quality rather than the Sydney pursuit of quantity) I
will be reading more of Cliff than of Jack.
