Dead Letters by Michael Brissenden

Publisher's Synopsis

Counter terrorism expert Sid Allen knows nothing good ever comes from a phone call at 5 am. Politician Dan LeRoi, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, has been shot. Four bullets to the head. The crime scene is chaotic. Homicide. Counter Terrorism. Media. And for Sid, hunting the killer is going to get complicated.

Journalist Zephyr Wilde is complicated. She's tenacious and she's got Sid's number. Sid knows the gossip: how Zephyr's mother was murdered when Zephyr was a kid. He doesn't know that Zephyr is still getting letters from her long-dead mother. But when he learns that Dan LeRoi was helping Zephyr look into her mother's death, he realises that lines are going to be crossed. A cop should not be talking to a journalist.

As they both ask too many questions, Sid and Zephyr stir up a hornet's nest of corruption. Knowing who to trust is going to mean the difference between solving a crime and being a victim. The question is, which side will they end up on.

My Review of Dead Letters by Michael Brissenden

Dead Letters is the second book in the Sid Allen series. Sid is a police detective, an expert in counter-terrorism in Sydney. He’s called out early one morning to a murder scene, one that will make big headlines around the country because one of the two victims is Dan LeRoi who’s not only a federal politician but also the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. He’s been shot in his car along with another man who was found in the boot.

Reporting the case, one of many, is Zephyr Wilde who works for the Sydney Morning Herald. She’s of interest because she’s also friendly with Sid and they occasionally get together to go over cases of interest. This particular case is definitely of interest with an agreement forged to help each other on a you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours basis.

But Zephyr has an ulterior motive behind her friendship with Sid. Years before, her mother died, murdered by an unknown assailant. She was a madame in a brothel and was privy to information that many may have been uncomfortable about should any of it get out. In short, the suspect list is long and it’s powerful.

Every year on her birthday, Zephyr receives letters from her dead mother. They pour out all sorts of information and emotion, leaving out one important piece…the identity of her father. It’s a recurring nightmare that repeats itself every year and drives her need to find out more about her mother’s life and, ultimately, her death.

Secrets from the past and high profile murders in the present are two compelling aspects that combine to make this an intriguing political thriller. That being said, I found myself drifting a little through the early sections of the book which tended to go deep on the political intricacies at the expense of any pretense of story progression. This meant an extended section of the book that really crept along, trying my patience.

The fans of political thrillers will enjoy the ins and outs and diabolical dealing of the backroom boys responsible for the true machinations of the politicians. The dirty power plays and the grubby deals designed to cover up indiscretions and out and out criminal activity are captured very succinctly in some parts here. In some respects, too succinctly with brief hints at involvement from the Ndrangheta and local underworld figures merely serving to make suggestions of danger rather than ever realising it.

Ultimately, the plot develops very nicely and culminates in a solid finale that manages to draw the police detective and the investigative journalist together to face a long-hidden, powerful enemy. Dead Letters was a good follow up to The List, it allowed Sid Allen’s character to become more fully fleshed out, but never really managed to fully capture and hold my imagination.