Description

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Meet Hal Challis, Detective for the Mornington Peninsula police force in Southeast Australia, in the first investigation in this prize-winning crime series
 
A serial killer is on the loose in a small coastal town near Melbourne, Australia. Detective Inspector Hal Challis and his team must apprehend him before he strikes again. But first, Challis has to contend with the editor of a local newspaper who undermines his investigation at every turn, and with his wife, who attempts to resurrect their marriage through long-distance phone calls from a sanitarium, where she has been committed for the past eight years for attempted murder—his.

About the Author

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Garry Disher is one of Australia's best-known novelists. He's published over forty books in a range of genres, including crime, children's books, and Australian history. His Wyatt crime series is also published in the US by Soho Crime. He lives on the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne.

Praise For…

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Praise for The Dragon Man

“A straightforward police story with a terrific plot, nuanced characters and solid procedures, served up on refreshing new turf.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

“A first-rate piece of crime writing.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Colorful . . . Disher has literary talent and imagination.”—Chicago Tribune

“Disher makes his characters as interesting as his plot.”—Portsmouth Herald

“A police procedural of a very different kind . . . A ‘down under’ atmosphere that most American readers will find unique.”—The Plain Dealer

“The American debut for Australian crime writer extraordinaire Disher is as complex and dark as anything by Ian Rankin or Michael Connelly.”—Las Vegas Mercury

"Disher delivers an intelligent, atmospheric police procedural . . . Fans of such gritty yet cerebral crime novelists as Ian Rankin and Jack Harvey should be well pleased."—Publishers Weekly

"This series debut from the prolific Disher (The Sunken Road, 1996, etc.) doesn’t read like one, thanks to fully formed characters and wall-to-wall mysteries. The offbeat setting’s a bonus for US readers."—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for the Hal Challis series

"This series boasts careful, realistic casework, but there’s enough darkness and ambiguity to suit John Harvey fans and a kind of which-way-is-up sense of the police force that recalls early James Ellroy. Moody, inventive, and extremely hard to put down." —Booklist