Bleak Spring by Jon Cleary

Publisher's Synopsis

When local solicitor Will Rockne is found in his car by his wife - shot through the head - it seems a baffling and motiveless murder. However, Scobie Malone, newly assigned to the case, has his suspicions. Despite his daughter Claire's shy romance with young Jason Rockne, Scobie and Lisa's encounters with Will and Olive Rockne at school functions has always been a little disconcerting...Will had been determined ti convince that he was more than just a suburban lawyer.

But when a huge amount of cash is found in a safe in Rockne's office, Scobie discovers that he wasn't just boasting - he would seem to have been caught up in something big - big enough to involve Bernie Bezrow, Sydney's largest bookmaker, the mysterious Shahriver offshore bank and an elusive, undoubtedly dangerous, Russian.

Somewhere in this labyrinth lies the key to a ruthless murder, and Scobie is determined to pursue it to the end...Until his investigation is thwarted by an unexpected source and he is met with a wall of deceit and evasiveness. To break it down will demand all of his skills and experience and will put the lives of Claire and Jason in terrible danger...

In Bleak Spring, Jon Cleary memorably combines a gripping murder story with characteristically shrewd observations on the dark underside of contemporary world events and modern Australian society.

My Review of Bleak Spring by Jon Cleary

Bleak Spring is the 10th book in the Scobie Malone series and the second book in a 4 book set (Dark Summer, Bleak Spring, Autumn Maze and Winter Chill) in which author Jon Cleary closely explored the variety of family values in contemporary Australia.

Scobie is called out to a shooting murder in the parking lot at Maroubra Beach to find that he knows the victim, Will Rockne. In fact, he was sitting at the same table as Will and his wife at a school function only a few hours earlier. The question of how a small-firm solicitor comes to be shot in the head while out with his wife is foremost in Scobie’s mind as he surveys the scene.

When the investigation gets into full swing another question pops up. How does a suburban solicitor come to have a shade over 5 million dollars sitting in a bank account under his name? That the bank in question is based in a politically hot country such as Iran only makes it look more suspicious (this was published in 1993, remember). Will Rockne is beginning to look less and less like the quiet small time operator he first appeared.

Scobie finds himself in the awkward position of investigating a murder where one of the suspects is a friend of his and his wife’s. To make it even more awkward, Scobie’s eldest daughter and Jason Rockne have just begun dating. As Scobie makes repeated return visits to the Rockne family home it doesn’t take terribly long for his stature to shift from family friend to unwelcome police officer and his presence is resented as an invasion.

So whose 5 million dollars did Rockne have stashed away in that obscure bank account? Could it be bookmaker Bernie Bezrow’s, a guy known for his shady deals and plans for moving dodgy cash from under the taxman’s eye? Or maybe the mysterious Russian who has been lurking on the fringes like a shark waiting to attack has a claim to the dough. And did the money have anything to do with Rockne’s death?

Besides all of that, Scobie is most concerned about the fact that every time he talks to Will’s wife Olive she consistently lies to him. What is she hiding?

The plot itself runs along a fairly standard police procedural line as Scobie heads the investigation, ably assisted by the ever-present Sergeant Russ Clements. Cleary throws out several seemingly plausible lines of enquiry as Scobie casts the net wide. All the while, the question of the money keeps rearing its head, directing us to the likelihood that it may somehow be connected.

In the meantime we continually return to the question of how the dynamic of the Rockne family is affected by this crisis. What we find is that there was a lot more hidden behind the careful facade that was thrown up (as there is with most families to varying degrees). In the process of progressing through his investigation Scobie unearths glimpses into the changing family values around which this 4 book “sub-series” is based.

One of the strengths of Jon Cleary’s novels - or at least, those of the Scobie Malone series - has been the insightful commentary on everyday life in Australia creating an accurate portrayal of the values and norms that are typical of what might be classed as an average Australian. But I feel he misses the mark significantly in the area of sexism and the accepted role of women in the 1990s.

‘I know that!’ snapped the magistrate, giving him the edge of her tongue as if he were her dumb husband. ‘I take it there’s someone here from the DPP then? There’d better be.’
‘Here ma’am.’ Another woman appeared: crumbs, thought Malone, the bloody law is becoming cluttered with them.

Yes, Scobie, women cluttering up the joint...disgraceful. This is merely one example of numerous times that the role of women were either commented on disparagingly or else women were portrayed in their “proper” place - in the kitchen, ready to make a cup of tea for their lord and master. As a matter of fact, now that I come to think of it, I’m having a hard time recalling a female police officer in any of the 10 books in the series so far.

Bleak Spring maintains the ongoing battle fought by Scobie Malone in which he must carefully balance the dangers faced in a murder investigation with the security of a stable, loving family environment. As good police procedurals should, the plot builds consistently throughout before spearing off into an unexpected direction providing the kind of crescendo that ensures a memorable ending.