The Way It Is Now

Description

A stunning new standalone crime novel from one of Australia's most revered writers Set in a beach-shack town an hour from Melbourne, The Way It Is Now tells the story of a burnt-out cop named Charlie Deravin. Charlie is living in his family's holiday house, on forced leave since he made a mess of things at work. Things have never been easy for Charlie. Twenty years earlier his mother went missing in the area, believed murdered. His father has always been the main suspect, though her body was never found. Until now- the foundations are being dug for a new house on a vacant block. The skeletal remains of a child and an adult are found-and Charlie's past comes crashing in on him. The Way It Is Now is the enthralling new novel by Garry Disher, one of Australia's most loved and celebrated crime writers.

Garry Disher has published over fifty titles across multiple genres. With a growing international reputation for his best-selling crime novels, he has won four German and three Australian awards for best crime novel of the year, and been longlisted twice for a British CWA Dagger award. In 2018 he received the Ned Kelly Lifetime Achievement Award.

'A giant not only of crime fiction but of Australian letters.' * Ned Kelly Awards * 'Disher is the gold standard for rural noir.' * Chris Hammer * 'Disher is one of this country's finest writers.' * Tony Birch * 'A new crime novel from the prolific old master is always a treat, and this one is no different. The past intrudes into the present as Charlie Deravin, banished from his job in the police sex-crimes unit, still puzzles over his mother's disappearance 20 years earlier that had his father fingered as a possible murderer. You will be intrigued, very intrigued.' * Age * 'Ned Kelly Award winner Garry Disher has been producing high quality Australian crime novels for over 30 years and his latest, The Way It Is Now, is another terrific read...A well written and gripping mystery.' * Canberra Weekly * 'Garry Disher is arguably Australia's greatest living crime writer.' * Canberra Times * 'Take this to the beach when you can - and don't leave it unattended.' * Readings * 'Plenty for readers to sink their teeth into...more evocative, topical and well-constructed than most crime fiction out there.' * Robert Goodman, Pile by the Bed * 'This is another assured and modest crime novel by Australian grandmaster Garry Disher, whose books are so enjoyable precisely because they lack even the slightest glimmer or pretension. In a genre that increasingly demands a killer hook boiled down to a single sentence, Disher's focus is on character, and scalpel-sharp dissections of his selected themes.' * Simon McDonald * 'Disher's output is soaked in quality: crisp prose, fascinating characters, rich settings. Maybe his quiet, unflashy nature and consistent excellence mean he gets a little overlooked in some quarters, but those cognisant of the global boom of Australian crime writing know he is a giant on whose shoulders many of the hottest new stars are standing.' * NZ Listener * 'The prolific master of Australian rural noir returns to his home turf...a subtle, slow-burning standalone mystery.' * West Australian * 'Examining the insular culture of the police force has been another staple of Disher's fiction, and it is deployed here to great effect...Each summer I see people lying by public swimming pools, or in the sand on beaches, sometimes along the Mornington Peninsula, reading crime fiction. Readers often tell me they enjoy the genre as 'light relief', a puzzling response considering the endlessly macabre ways that crime fiction writers concoct new ways to torture, murder, and dismember characters. A Garry Disher novel is never an exercise in light reading. He respects the genre and his readers. His novels can also disturb a reader, for his characters are quite ordinary people, in the best sense. They are men and women like you and me - characters capable of good and bad, courage and murder.' * Tony Birch, Australian Book Review * 'Lyrical and haunting...Read the The Way It Is Now for its big heart and the way in which it lyrically captures a moment in time.' * Age * 'Disher is, as always, a deft and compelling crime novelist, and he has crafted a provocative whodunnit that is grounded firmly in the current moment.' * Guardian * 'This is a story with a slo-mo climax that is both funny and terrifying.' * Jane Sullivan, Age * 'The best of Australian crime [in 2021] was definitely Garry Disher's The Way It Is Now, cleverly combining a tragic cold case with social commentary.' * Canberra Times * 'Once again, Disher nails place, the atmosphere of a changing area and the tension and frustration of continuing a private investigation without resources. This book confirms just what a rare writer Disher is.' * Barry Reynolds, Herald Sun * 'Disher's crime writing is a masterclass in that understated, underwritten, exploration of the every day. Of what people pushed to the edges of tolerances will, can and won't do. He writes determination and dedication just as well as he writes evil and dalliance. He writes bitter and twisted as well as he writes hope and longing. His books are mesmerising, extremely readable, and atmospheric, and he's as assured in the settings of beach, surf and Peninsula as in The Way It Is Now, as he is in the hot, dry dust of the farming regions of the Mallee and beyond.' * AustCrimeFiction * 'Intriguing...a whydunnit more than a whodunnit; the motivation for the main crime is at the heart of the matter.' * ArtsHub * 'The Way It Is Now will have you, as it did me, guessing until the very end of this superbly written and quintessentially Australian story. I highly recommend this book for an absorbing and mesmerising holiday read.' * She Society * 'This is storytelling at its best...Another sophisticated and compelling offer from an author at the peak of his powers.' * Good Reading * 'Disher's novel is a compelling noir whodunnit examining contemporary Australia, its semi-rural life and attitudes. Provocative and deftly written, the pages almost turn themselves.' 2022 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award judge's comments * 'Disher's novel is a compelling noir whodunnit examining contemporary Australia, its semi-rural life and attitudes. Provocative and deftly written, the pages almost turn themselves.' 2022 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award judge's comments * 'Garry Disher knows how to spin a great story. This terrific tale...confirms the impression that some of the best crime fiction today is Antipodean.' * Independent (Ireland) *