Before It Breaks by Dave Warner

Publisher's Synopsis

Detective Daniel Clement is back in Broome, licking his wounds from a busted marriage and struggling to be impressed by his new team of small-town cops. Here, in the oasis on the edge of the desert, life is as stagnant as Clement’s latest career move.

But when a body is discovered at a local fishing spot, it is clearly not the result of a crocodile attack. Somewhere in Broome is a hunter of a different kind.

As more bodies are found, Clement races to solve a decades-old mystery before a monster cyclone hits.

My Review 

Western Australian Detective Inspector Dan Clement has moved from Perth to Broome so that he might be close to his ex-wife and daughter. It amounts to a return to the town in which he grew up and, notably, a perceived step back in his career on the force. All of these points are felt deeply by Clement and leaves him constantly questioning the decisions he has made.

Clement’s day to day work involves all of the usual small-town stuff that occupies a detective - burglaries, shop-lifting and drunken brawls. So the hint of a missing person that soon turns into a suspected murder case energises him into action.

That being said, Clement has been around for a while and is very experienced in dealing with criminals although he is not to the point where he might be described as being ‘world-weary’.

"Bunyips were not myths, twenty years of policing had taught Clement that much. Bunyips were the depraved hearts, souls and minds of people given form by fury, anger, greed, envy, lust, and they could just as quickly fade into a ripple, a shy smile, a quiet sigh. Violent and careful killers were as hard to grab hold of as smoke. Clement knew he could be staring into the killer’s face and see nothing more than that tranquil billabong with the reflection of his own."

The case starts off with the murder of an old man at a remote waterhole. The fisherman has been bludgeoned to death and left in the water, presumably in the hope that a crocodile would take his body. It would later turn out that the man is a former German ex-cop who nowadays deals small quantities of marijuana to the locals.

In quick succession the case expands to also include the murder of a bikie and then another elderly German. Clement works out there is a link with the original murder, no matter how tenuous it may appear. This prompts him to continue along with his investigation which expands to Germany and the details of events that took place 30 years ago.

This is a police procedural mystery that goes very heavy on the procedural side of things. Where it becomes difficult is in the remote location in which it is set. Evidence gathering is tough in the dusty outback and getting it to a laboratory for examination also has its challenges.

There is definitely an art to juggling all of the moving pieces of an active police investigation and Clement performs the task very well. At the same time he finds time to be with his daughter, something that’s made more difficult by the strained relationship he has with his ex-wife and the animosity that exudes from his former mother-in-law.

Another fly in the ointment is the impending cyclone that is bearing down on Broome putting a tight deadline on the investigation to give Clement another difficulty under which he has to work. The simple act of moving from house to office is severely hampered. Naturally, the cyclone will play a significant role in the outcome of the case.

I’m going to have a minor gripe here because it was something that struck me while I was reading the book...And I have noticed that others have had the same problem. The paragraph lengths were particularly long which I found made it quite difficult to read.

Before It Breaks does a few things very well. We are totally immersed in small-town living and are given a comprehensive overview of the vast array of characters who make up the majority of Australian communities. You can’t help but feel but knowing both the town of Broome and many of the people living there by the end of the story.

The role of thorough police work is showcased effectively too. Both forensic analysis of trace evidence and hard slog questioning of people are used here. We are along for the ride and, consequently, are given every chance to solve the case ourselves.

This is a quality mystery that combines a tantalizing mystery with in-depth character development and solid police detective work. All of it takes place in an unusual and remote setting that opens up a range of scenarios that are not often experienced in other crime novels. It is certainly a rewarding book to read and it is not surprising that it won the 2016 Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction. 

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