X and Y by David Owen

Publisher's Synopsis

Drug barons and international operators move in on the Apple Isle for what looks like easy pickings. Detective Inspector Franz Heineken - aka Pufferfish - is busy tracking a series of top-drawer break-ins, when he is assigned to a government narcotics taskforce.

When its surveillance operation goes spectacularly and embarrassingly wrong, it is Heineken - weary, disaffected, and hankering for a seaside retirement - who looks a likely candidate for corruption. Enemies inside and outside the Force clearly have him in their sights. But they, like Pufferfish, fail to take into account the unknown X and Y factors...

My Review 

A stabbing at a Chinese restaurant that takes place while Heineken is working the night shift opens proceedings. Heineken arrives at the scene to find one victim down and a very agitated woman brandishing a knife and threatening to kill herself. This tense but reasonably routine situation is about to hurl the Pufferfish into one of the most harrowing cases he has ever been involved in.

In following up the stabbing case, Heineken actually finds himself intrigued with the hero of the piece, the doctor who tried to save the life of the stabbed man. For some reason he lied to Heineken during questioning and he just can't work out why on earth the man would choose to do such a thing.

So, although the stabbing case itself is open and shut, Heineken is anxious to clean up the obvious loose ends involved with the doctor. Unwittingly, and in true Pufferfish style, he steps on a few toes in the process. Those toes are connected to people who value their privacy and are most likely hiding something - not that Heineken can prove this suspicions.

As it happens, Tasmania has been hit by a spate of high-end burglaries in recent times. The thieves method of operating was to enter the empty houses of people who had gone away on vacation and stripped the place of the more expensive items, such as artwork, antiques and even, in one case, a Ferrari. So far there has been absolutely no clue as to who the mastermind behind the burglaries is, but it's definitely someone who does their research and is a master of efficiency. Heineken's office is deeply involved in the investigation and he's continually on the lookout for likely "hideouts".

To top things off the Tasmanian Police Force, and Heineken along with it, is swept up in cracking an international drug smuggling operation. The intelligence the taskforce has received is that drugs will be entering Australia via a Tasmanian port stashed inside a custom made new car. The car is to sit in a dealership for a day before being moved into the mainland on a ferry. The team undergoes extensive preparations with round-the-clock surveillance, careful to make sure nothing is touched until the sting can be unleashed once the car has hit the mainland.

But the unthinkable happens. The car disappears, obviously thanks to a tip-off from inside the police force. Fingers begin pointing and internal investigations are mounted and, horror of horrors, most of the fingers seem to be pointing directly at the Pufferfish. Then the murder attempts begin.

This Pufferfish episode moves along on multiple fronts at terrific pace which is not an easy thing to pull off when using the first person perspective. It's even more difficult considering the tough time that Heineken goes through in the course of the book. The story is made all the more eventful because of Heineken's insistence in being involved with just about every crime that is investigated by the TPF. The attempts on his life and his placement into a protective safe house doesn't slow him down at all, in fact, it's from the point where he seems most shackled that the action really takes off.

The off-beat insights into Franz Heineken's take on life courtesy of the first person perspective is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the book. Similarly the easy relationship between Heineken and Sergeant Hedda Andover, which is only a little bit dominated by sexual tension, and the intentionally overbearing relationship he cultivates with his 2 subordinates (whom he dubs affectionately Rolfus) makes for moments of lighthearted banter between the more serious police work that he undertakes.

X and Y continues an intriguing police procedural series, filled with action and featuring a defiant protagonist who openly hates his boss and welcomes the snide comments from his colleagues. Heineken's not your average police detective but there's never a dull moment when he's on the case.

If you haven't yet, go back and get an eyeful of Pig's Head and A Second Hand.