Paradise

Patricia Wolf

FROM the vast stretches of drought plains, sand dunes and red dust that mark out the famous Outback, to the topaz seas and white-sand beaches of the Gold Coast’s surfing paradise, exciting new Australian author Patricia Wolf has captured the very essence of her homeland in a thrilling crime series.

Paradise – set amidst the dark underbelly of Australia’s breathtaking Surfers Paradise – is the second outing for Aussie copper DS Lucas Walker after his dramatic arrival in last year’s cracking, tension-packed debut novel, Outback, which won much critical acclaim, and an army of readers hooked on both the charismatic detective and his authentically created world.

Wolf (pictured below) grew up in a mining town in outback Australia and although she now lives in Berlin, it was during a four-week road trip through far north-west Queensland in pre-Covid 2019, surrounded by the rugged beauty and harshness of the landscape, that principled and complex DS Lucas Walker and his stories took shape. Here we find Walker still recovering from a gunshot injury which he received during a recent case involving two missing young German backpackers in his Outback hometown of Caloodie, near Brisbane, where he had returned to care for his much-loved and terminally ill grandmother.

Assigned to light duties, he is temporarily relocated to the beachside city of Surfers Paradise as a guest lecturer for a drugs and serious crime training programme for Queensland police officers. It’s a place where gleaming high rises fringe sparkling surf beaches, sunny days lead to wild nights, and criminals and bike gangs mingle with tourists and dignitaries at five-star hotels, clubs and casinos.

But he is soon pulled into the dark twists and turns of an unspeakable crime at the luxury home of wealthy gym owner Craig Ford. Ford’s wife Siobhan was murdered in the house raid and his eight-year-old daughter Gabby was left critically injured and is now in a coma and fighting for her life in hospital. Determined to find the men responsible and keep the young girl safe, Walker digs into the hidden corners of this shimmering city by the ocean but a case from his own past resurfaces,

with deadly consequences. Stefan Markovich, head honcho of a vicious drugs gang called Vandals, is in town and Walker once again finds himself on a dangerous collision course with the gangsters.

And as young Gabby, the sole witness to her mother's murder, wakes in her hospital bed, Walker – still weak from his injuries – is in a race against time to stop the thugs responsible before they return to silence her forever.

Walker is an inspired creation... a man for all seasons (and we can take that literally in the notorious, fast-changing Australian climate) whose bravery is beyond question and whose conscience and sense of justice take him far beyond the call of duty. In Paradise, our dedicated, but sometimes reckless, detective is called on to investigate a brutal crime amidst the sea, sand and sun of a glittering playground for fun-lovers, and ‘the epitome of summer holidays and hedonism.’

Only recently returned to work after a gunshot wound to his leg, Walker is soon embroiled in a fast-moving, tension-packed investigation which takes him away from the coastal ‘paradise’ and deep into a multi-layered plot involving illegal biker gangs, corruption, drugs, and blood-curdling violence. As always, the action and intrigue play out against a richly detailed backdrop, and Wolf’s pitch perfect sense of place, and with a spectacular conclusion that leaves the door open to another gripping chapter for Walker, this is Aussie noir at its thrilling, chilling, nail-biting best.
(Embla Books, paperback, £8.99)