City of Light by Dave Warner

Publisher's Synopsis

'Jesus Christ. I found one.' These words are blurted over the phone to Constable Snowy Lane, who is preoccupied with no more than a ham sandwich and getting a game with the East Fremantle league side on Saturday. They signal the beginning of a series of events that are to shake Perth to its foundations.

It is 1979, and Perth is jumping with pub bands and overnight millionaires. 'Mr Gruesome' has just taken another victim. Snowy's life and career are to be forever changed by the grim deeds of a serial killer, and the dark bloom spreading across the City of Light.

My Review 

Dave Warner sets his debut thriller in the Western Australia city of Fremantle combining gruesome murders with flashes of biting humour. It's an unusual combination that manages to lighten the mood just a notch to avoid it from being taken too seriously. City of Light is spread over 9 years and has been split into 3 parts, each devoted to a different point in time. Part 1 is set in 1979, part 2 jumps forward 7 years to 1986 and then part 3 skips ahead 2 more years to finish in 1988.

In 1979 Snowy Lane is a young Detective Constable with the Fremantle CIB when he takes a call from a man who has stumbled upon the body of a young woman. The corpse turns out to be the latest work of a serial killer dubbed Mr Gruesome by the local papers. Snowy is recruited into the Homicide squad to assist in the case where he proves to have something of a knack for investigation.

Although his role is minor, he makes the most of his responsibilities and immerses himself in the work. It’s almost a disappointment to him when the investigation ends and he has to return to the dull routine of day to day police work again. On the bright side, Snowy has met the delectable Celeste in the course of his investigation and his love life has finally been kick-started.

By the time that 1986 has rolled around Snowy has left the police force and is now a private investigator. The pace of the book changes dramatically at this point too. From the action and excitement of a homicide investigation that moved very quickly and reached a dramatic conclusion we are thrust into a much more mundane atmosphere as Snowy waits for a job to land in his lap.

The job eventually comes, but it’s part of a rather involved plot that mixes politics, labour unions and community group interests together in a rather confusing web of intrigue and deceit. An astonishing number of characters are introduced and discarded along with a dazzling array of secret meetings, dodgy business deals and the occasional murder. Keeping track was only part of the problem I had with this part of the book, the other was maintaining interest.

Much to Snowy’s chagrin, the aforementioned delectable Celeste is far from being a one-woman man and, as it turns out, looks to be on the path to political greatness. With her looks and charisma, it appears that there is no stopping her. Snowy endures a stormy on again, off again relationship with her. Her continuing presence in his life suggests that it will be meaningful further down the track.

Part 3 arrives in the nick of time to pick up the fragments of story that were cast everywhere in part 2, along with the threads of my concentration. It’s 1988 and a couple of murders have stirred up Snowy’s world. One of the murders was of a friend of Snowy’s, a former colleague in the police force who was looking into the same political figures that Snowy himself was investigating. In a bid to find out why his friend was murdered Snowy picks up his friend’s investigation.

Part serial killer story, part political thriller, part hardboiled private investigator potboiler, told in a semi-humorous tone by protagonist Snowy Lane, a few questions are up to be answered by the finale. Was Mr Gruesome really caught back in 1979? Can 1 private investigator bring down a group of powerful businessmen? Will Snowy ever be lucky in love?

In its early stages it appeared that the story was going to be about a serial killer, a likable cop who would investigate and his life in Fremantle. As a fan of this sub-genre, I was happy to settle into it, ready to savour the occasional flashes of anecdotal wit and humour as well as the clever investigative techniques employed by Snowy. But the overly complicated middle section of the book put a dampener on the flow of the story and I found my attention beginning to wander while I waited for something to happen.

Apart from Snowy, there is very little character development at all. There is little time to get to know any of the other characters as they quickly pass in and out of Snowy’s life and just as they start to get interesting, the story moves on without them.

On the plus side, I really enjoy Dave Warner’s writing style. It is light and often entertaining, features sharp dialogue and an amusing inner monologue from Snowy. He peppers his prose with Australian slang giving it an authentic feeling, although for an outsider, much of it would be missed. Warner also has a tendency to inject his prose with colorful similes. A few that gave me a bit of a chuckle I’ve included here.

"A beautiful girl came to the door. Slim as a Presley movie plot she had dark hair, a small nose and chocolate-brown eyes that you could taste."

"My old Corona sat in front of the majestic iron gates of 4 Gwendolin Close, Dalkeith, like herpes on a beauty queen’s mouth."

"By Wednesday, doubt was ripping at my theory like a crow through a carcass of a splattered roo."

Descriptive, no?

Take out the overly complicated political sub-plot in the middle of the book that stole the momentum straight out from under me and this would have been one extremely entertaining thriller.