This is the first of the Jack Irish novels and well worth a read, if, like me, you enjoy good crime novels.

Temple is a notch above the average crime writer. His protagonist, Irish, is a suburban lawyer who dabbles in gambling/horses, loves football and works part-time as a cabinet makers apprentice. When he gets drawn into unsavoury events, he skillfully uses these talents to extricate himself and to do some good in the world. He does it larconically and humourously.

A light enjoyable read. If you are after 'deep and meaningful', look elsewhere. This is one to read between the mind-benders. ( )

Crooked horses, crooked politicians, dodgy land deals ... With gold-toothed thugs threatening him with sub-machine guns and the corpses piling up, Jack Irish needs to find out what is going on and fast.

This is Temple's debut novel and the first in the Jack Irish series.

Irish is smart, witty and a dab hand in a fight with an empty champagne bottle. Dead wife, live daughter, he's a reformed binge drinker, an occasional cabinet-maker, an Aussie rules and gee-gees fanatic, and a part-time lawyer currently filling in the gaps between cases as a debt collector. Not a CD in sight you'll be relieved to know, but just occasionally (and not in front of his mates) he uses words like 'exculpatory', an ability no doubt due to his fondness for the odd 'Bolivian novelist' or two. But don't try looking them up – they're fictitious.

After a hard day out of the office, Irish picks up, too late, a phone message from an old client, Danny McKillop, just out of jail after serving a term for hit-and-run driving. McKillop is now dead, shot whilst acting suspiciously in a pub car-park by a local policeman – the pub where that night Irish should have met him. Seems also that, for various reasons, McKillop did not get the full benefit of Jack's legal training in the hit-and-run case. Irish, whilst not above the odd horse-racing scam, responds as a true knight errant should.

Chandler territory then, but this is Chandler on speed, crackling with wit, ripe language in every sense of the term, and with a sharp eye for hypocrisy and political shennanigans. The plot is a little over-signposted, so that it's more a howdoesheget'em than a whodunnit, but it is none the worse for that. Just relish the mechanics and most of all the cast of characters assembled for our delight, particularly the deadpan, cynical wit of Jack's horse-racing buddies, Cam and Harry.

As you might expect, Irish wraps the case, and then, not anti-climactically, goes horse-racing. Man's got to get his priorities right. Get yours right and buy this book. ( )

Suspenseful thriller set in Australia; provides a keen sense of place through a gripping plot of graft and political corruption that resounds in any place. Fairly flat character portrayals. ( )