Criminals by James O’Loghlin

Publisher's Synopsis

What makes a criminal? One May 2019 morning, two masked gunmen rob Blacktown Leagues Club. What happens next will change the lives of three people. Twenty-three-year-old Dean Acton is a heroin addict trying to get off the break and enter treadmill by pulling one big job. Sarah Hamilton, also twenty-three, is a police officer on stress leave, working behind the bar, trying to forget the mistake she made that caused the death of her fiancée. Mary Wallace, a forty-five-year-old ex-schoolteacher who lives and drinks alone, feels that her life is already over, and has made plans to formalise that arrangement.

When Sarah realises there is something familiar about one of the gunmen, she is drawn back to the thrill of investigating, and can identify Dean. Dean is overjoyed at his $12,000 haul, but before he can decide whether to spend it on a new start in Queensland or a few months' worth of heroin, he's arrested, and in Long Bay jail everyone wants to find out where he's stashed the cash.

Mary is inspired by the robbery. Pottery and French classes haven't jolted her out of her depression, but perhaps embarking on a life of crime will. She starts small, and then ups the ante. When she, too, is arrested and her lawyer tries to discover why a respectable middle-class woman would steal constipation medication, will she be able to reveal what caused her to give up on teaching and everything else?
Dean learns that the only person who identified him at the robbery was Sarah and is tempted by a plan that will ensure she won't ever be able to give evidence against him. But is he prepared to go that far? And if he does, will he ever come back?

As Dean's trial approaches, Mary, Dean and Sarah must work out why they have become who they are, and whether they have the courage to change.

My Review of Criminals by James O'Loghlin

I knew that James O’Loghlin has worked as both a comedian and as a lawyer so I was aware he would be capable of telling a good story. But I was also expecting that the story he would tell would be weighted heavily toward the comedic side of the ledger. I was very pleasantly surprised with Criminals. From what started out feeling like a bit of a breezy caper, the mood darkens as some serious social and psychological issues are presented. O’Loghlin deals with them with sincerity and compassion, striking a wonderful balance between humour and serious introspection.

An armed robbery at the Blacktown Leagues Club sets the story rolling. From the robbery, the paths of three vastly different people cross and their lives are affected by the encounter.

Dean is a junkie and break and enter man. He has orchestrated the robbery in a bid to make a big score to fund his habit and to pay off some really pressing debts. Sarah is a former police officer who now works behind the bar. Mary is a depressed alcoholic 40-something who was seriously contemplating ending it all before walking into the club that day.

Their lives are each affected in some important way by that day which acts as the impetus for greater changes. Dean, of course, eventually gets arrested for his crime. Sarah is reminded that her powers of deduction and investigation are still strong. And Mary? Well Mary postpones her planned suicide and then makes an unexpected leap as the following quote indicates:

“Yoga, painting and drunken sex hadn’t made me feel alive again, but perhaps risking my reputation, respectability and liberty could. Perhaps the danger, fear and excitement of crime could jump-start what was left of my heart and shake me out of the open-eyed coma I’d been in.”

We are taken deeply into each of their lives (past and present) and are brought face to face with tragedy, adversity and heartbreak in roughly equal measure.

The story moves along at a brisk pace thanks to the alternating first-person narratives devoted to each chapter. As we flick our attention to another of the three main characters we either find out another important tidbit about their past or watch their present selves coping with where their lives have now reached.

O’Loghlin expertly draws the threads into alignment and what we’re left with are characters we’re invested in and now care about where they’re headed. And rather than being repelled by Dean, Sarah and Mary’s faults I couldn’t help but find myself well and truly in their corner.