Snapshot (Inspector Hal Challis)

by Garry Disher

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Editorial Reviews
Product Description

"Disher's stories are tough-minded, character-rich, and strong on social conscience. . . . For me, a writer like Disher-old-fashioned in the best sense of the term-is the most satisfying."-The Philadelphia Inquirer

"[Disher's] police procedural novels rival American notables for crisp plotting and strong emphasis on character."-Baltimore Sun

"Full of surprises. . . . [Disher] has packed this police procedural with the kind of detail that enthralls fans of the genre and with deftly sketched characters . . . the coolly contemporary and finely grained Snapshot lives up to the immediacy of its title."-Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

It took months for Janine McQuarrie to succumb to her husband's pressure to have sex with strangers at suburban spouse-swapping parties, but after attending a few such events on the Mornington Peninsula, this Australian social psychologist rebels. Then, driving with her young daughter one day, she gets out of her car to ask directions and is shot dead. The girl escapes when the gunman's pistol misfires.

Inspector Hal Challis, to whose Crime Investigation Unit the case falls, is thwarted in his efforts by his boss. The dead woman was Superintendent McQuarrie's daughter-in-law, and he seems to be more interested in protecting his son than in finding her killer. Who might have had a motive to kill this attractive young wife and mother?

Garry Disher is the author of more than forty books for adults and children. Two of his mysteries have won the German Crime Fiction Critics Prize. He lives near Melbourne in Australia.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 5 out of 5 stars

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Dandy Down Under Detective, 2008-06-13
I'm always looking for something new to attract my eye in the crime genre and I've been attracted to the publisher of the "Soho Crime" books. These stories take place in foregin locales and Mr. Disher's Detective Hal Challis stories take place in Austrailia. I've now read the first three in the series and each one is better than the last. Hal Challis plays the world weary police detective that has survived an assisination attempt by his wife who wanted him dead so she could be with another man only to have her heap guilt on him as she constanly calls him from prision to beg his forgiveness. Challis works with an assortment of well fleshed out characters from his female partner struggling with her attraction to Challis and a broken marriage to another cop; a bright, young upwardly mobile woman constable who spends her off time surfing and is stuck with a neanderthal, overzealous copper as a partner; and the ever insufferable Chief who stands in the way of Challis pursuing a killer that just might be his son-in-law.

Terrific prose, a well-conceived plot with a smashing and very believable climax and fleshed out characters make this a series worth checking out. Start with the first in the series to get the background but make your way to this book. It's off the beaten path but well worth the journey. The 4th book is out in hardcover and I've already ordered it.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Worth Waiting For, 2006-11-03
This man can write! Riviting plots and good writing makes Disher a real find. I have read all his books published in the U.S. and can't wait for the next one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Another winner in this character-driven series, 2006-09-03
Australian author Disher opens his latest Hal Challis procedural with a murder victim driving nervously to the scene of her execution, her 7-year-old daughter by her side, triumph on her mind. Point of view switches to the hit man and his dismayed slacker driver as the gruesome scene unfolds, culminating in the escape of the little girl into the woods.

Tense pandemonium breaks out in Challis' Mornington Peninsula homicide squad. The dead woman is the daughter-in-law of loathed Police Superintendent McQuarrie, who seems immediately intent on deflecting the investigation and shielding his son from police attention.

But the child is a surprisingly calm and observant witness and when the murder team discovers that the victim had secretly taken pictures at the sex parties her husband dragged her to and sent them to prominent participants (including her husband), murder for hire looks increasingly likely. And the husband, as cold and dislikable as his wife - she was a psychologist with a confrontational approach - is looking better and better as a suspect.

Fans will be pleased to find Challis' team intact. Hal himself is no longer seeing the local newspaper editor Tessa Kane, but has turned a guilty eye on his sergeant, Ellen Destry, unhappily married to a bitter traffic constable. Destry returns the regard, though both hold back.

Young Pam Murphy is still partnered with rude, misogynistic John Tankard, whose psychological counseling, mandated after last year's shooting, seems to have scrambled his brain. They're on a traffic assignment - driving around in an unmarked sports car rewarding courteous drivers - and provide as much comic relief as they do accidental aid, red herrings and missed chances. Scobie Sutton still chatters ceaselessly about his amazing little daughter and plugs away at his job wishing he had more of Challis' intuitive spark.

Before it's all over, more will lie dead on Australia's Peninsula coast and the lives of several of the continuing characters will have taken major turns. Disher delivers another fine story in an atmospheric, realistic, character-driven series.

-- Portsmouth Herald

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

Sex Kills, 2006-07-02
Australian Garry Disher spins his first US release in "Snapshot", a slick little noir jewel from down under reminiscent of Ian Rankin and his Scottish detective John Rebus.

Off to a fast and sordid start, yuppie psychologist Janine McQuarrie succumbs to her husband's pressure and joins the swinger set, joining Melbourne's sex party crowd. Taking time out from the panting and rutting, she takes some clandestine cell phone snapshots of her groping buddies. Shortly after, she is gunned down on a deserted Mornington Peninsula suburb in front of her seven-year-old daughter in an apparent contract kill. Turns out her oversexed husband is also son of the local metropolitan police commissioner, adding a heavy dose of office politics to the baffling murder mystery that Inspector Hal Challis is trying to unwind while the senior McQuarrie does his best to thwart Challis' efforts and keep his son's reputation clean.

Disher's story moves briskly, chock full of cops chasing crooks through dead ends and plot twists while leaving enough time for them to fantasize and occasionally act out their own sexual trysts. You may want to hang out an extra couple of nights at your local Outback to get familiar with the Aussie lingo, unless "chuffing the weed", "sea fret", or "pittosporum" roll naturally off your tongue. And then there's a less-than-subtle dose of left-leaning politics injected unnecessarily into a story that doesn't need embellishment.

In the final analysis, though, "Snapshot" is a unique peek under the covers of southern Australian culture - a steady mystery and solid police procedural well worth the time.

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