J. M. Green

I've been a big fan of the Stella Hardy series (GOOD MONEY, TOO EASY and now SHOOT THROUGH), and I will admit that the setting of this one appealed enormously - what with Stella returning to the family farm in the Wimmera (there's something going on with lots of books being set in that part of the world), and the prison farm which I could have sworn was in South Australia but seemed a lot more like one not a million miles away from where I grew up... but I digress. The attraction of this show more series has always been the central character. Stella Hardy is a wisecracking social worker, one of the good people in the world, susceptible to a bit of temptation along the way, but reasonably so, what with the suitcase of drug money under her bed and all.

In SHOOT THROUGH there's a complicated plot involving her jailbird brother, his pregnant girlfriend, the family farm, mismanagement and corruption in the prison system, a new boss at the agency where Stella works, that suitcase of drug money, a ever closer circling police force investigation into that, and problems with her relationship with artist boyfriend, Brophy. Pretty much par for the course when it comes to Stella's hectic and slightly frenetic lifestyle. Although this time out there's less of her best friend Detective Phuong Nguyen, and oddly slightly less of Brophy even as their relationship teeters. There's a bit of a former gang member and general stand-over-man Percy Brash, a big threat from a lurking bloke in a black car, and a lot of driving around on the mean "roads" of Victoria's Wimmera.

To be honest, there was something that felt NQR about SHOOT THROUGH. I don't think the plot quite achieved the levels of credibility that were attained in the earlier novels. It was a bit all over the place, and had too many skeletons in too many closets dancing about with their strings visibly loosening. Having said that, Stella Hardy has always been a bit of a fringe dwelling character - almost forgiveable, chaotic and caring, odd and extremely likeable, and if this is, after all, her last hurrah then she'll be missed.

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Good Money is an Australian crime story with a number of differences that make it stand out in this crowded field. One, it has a woman as the heroine – Stella Hardy, who definitely isn’t a cop. She’s a social worker who assists migrants and who has a few dodgy things up her own sleeve. It’s refreshing to have a main character who isn’t a jaded, chain smoking detective with a string of bad relationships under her belt. Sure, Stella likes the odd wine or whiskey, and she has made show more some dumb relationship decisions but it’s not the focus of her dysfunction. In fact, she’s pretty functional!

Two, this story has some serious girl power. There’s Stella of course, but her recently reunited best friend Phuong is a rising gun in the police force and she knows how to kick some butt. Even the minor characters such as Mrs Chol, mother of a murdered boy, takes life by the horns and twists it to ensure her remaining son is safe. Similarly, Constable Raewyn Ross wants to be taken seriously in the male environment of the local police station and Stella’s friend Tania has taken drastic measures to take control of her life – with insurance.

The story reads like a hard-boiled detective novel, only with strong women in its place. The opening is particularly strong (it has the short, powerful sentences that set the scene and the tone) and the story just zooms from there. Stella is easy to relate to (even for all her faults) and the introduction of Phuong (who is awesome, holding her own with the idiot colleagues and breaking into things before finding the best food in town) makes things fun. There’s a lot of dark humour involved, mainly on Stella’s part, which brings some light to the dark moments. It’s very Australian with the black humour and Stella’s world-weariness. Some of the language used will make the reader crack a smile – J.M. Green knows just where to place the colloquialisms for maximum effect.

Essentially the story is based around the murder of a young boy, the family of which Stella has dealings with in her day job. Things are complicated by a notebook with Stella’s address in it, which has her panicking that she could be targeted for some misdemeanours years ago. Meanwhile, her nice-but-kind-of-ditzy neighbour Tania gives her some DVDs to mind and then disappears. Stella’s tangled up in two police investigations – could they be linked? Later the narrative moves to Western Australia, which is where I had a couple of plot issues – one, there’s more than just Cottesloe as suburb options and the plot seemed to almost be on a runaway train to over the top. Fortunately, Green winds it back to reality in the desert and the story finishes on a high note.

I think one of the things that pleased me is that the cover of Good Money mentions this is the first Stella Hardy novel, which means we will have more of Stella to enjoy. I’m hoping that means more of Phuong and the precocious young Marigold, in addition to Stella’s light fingered brother Ben – there’s plenty more here to explore!

Thank you to Scribe Publications for the ARC. My review is honest.

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TOO EASY is the second novel to feature sometimes self-deprecating, always amusing social worker Stella Hardy and proved the perfect start to my reading year. The combination of a plot depicting organised chaos, insightful social commentary, genuine humour and engaging characters was exactly right.

Though it’s easy enough to follow, the plot is complex and has many elements that I don’t want to give away but it starts with Stella receiving a call from her best friend. Phuong is a police show more detective whose boyfriend, also a policeman, is under a corruption cloud. He wants to find a particular drug dealer to corroborate his version of a questionable incident and Phuong thinks that Stella, who has a different sort of connection to Melbourne’s dodgy underbelly than the police, might be able to help with the hunt. Stella and Phuong almost come to blows over the request and what Stella thinks of as Phoung’s lousy taste in men but their friendship is a strong one. The search though puts Stella in the path of a murderous bikie gang, other corrupt police and teenagers whose lives are being threatened in a truly grim way. At the same time her own love life undergoes a test as her artist boyfriend finds a new muse.

Whether they be total geniuses or alcoholic loners I can struggle to believe in many crime fiction protagonists. But Stella Hardy seems like a real person I might actually know. Heck at times she seems like one of the voices inside my own head. The depiction of her as being good at her job (at the wonderfully named WORMS) but struggling with the inane bureaucracy rings absolutely true. As does her knack of setting somewhat unrealistic personal goals – such as becoming a gourmet cook – and spectacularly failing to meet them. That she faces everything in her life with a combination of wry humour and stubbornness help make her into an authentically Aussie woman.

The story that unwinds in TOO EASY is at times madcap but somehow even the most outlandish elements of it have the same aura of truthiness as Green’s characters. It is full of people doing stupid things for entirely believable reasons – either good or bad – and events build up at just the right pace.

There was a time not so long ago when the general consensus seemed to be that the only truly Australian stories could take place in ‘the Outback’. J.M. Green is one of a new breed of artists proving that urban locations and city dwellers can offer equally compelling depictions of what it is to be Australian. She has captured the essence of Melbourne living, provided a thoroughly modern heroine and a supporting cast that oozes familiarity in a story that is an absolute hoot, where even the scary bits are tinged with comedy. show less

I imagine it is pretty difficult to come up with a new angle from which to approach the crime genre. J.M. Green has achieved a genuinely refreshing take by introducing a social worker as the central protagonist in GOOD MONEY. Stella Hardy is forty-something, lives in Melbourne, works for WORMS, yearns for cheap wine and a good man and tries to do the right thing but doesn’t always succeed. In what I hope is the first of many appearances she is drawn into two investigations – the death of show more one of her young, migrant clients and the disappearance of a neighbour who was hiding some secrets – that lead her from the seedier parts of the city to, literally, the middle of nowhere.

Although there is much more besides it the element which established the book as realistic for me was the daft acronyms that the bureaucratic entities Stella deals with use. I’ve spent a good portion of my working life in similar surroundings to Stella and when, a few pages in, she heads off to her job at WORMS (you’ll have to read the book to find out what it stands for) I knew this was both a book I would ‘get’ and one I would believe. There’s an even more absurd (yet entirely credible) acronym further in. Delicious authenticity.

Stella is another strong factor in the credibility column. She is imperfect but not so dysfunctional that you wonder how she stays in a job let alone out of an institution where inhabitants are required to wear padded jackets that do up at the back. And none of her adventurous activities are so silly as to induce eye rolling. This might sound like a small thing but it isn’t. I’ve got a pile of books from this month alone that will remain forever unfinished because my eyes nearly rolled out of my head while reading them. I am well and truly done with authors who expect me to swallow the notion that the stupid things their characters do make them windswept and interesting. The minor characters here include Stella’s recently paroled brother, her policewoman best friend and an artistic love interest and all are engaging and help to give the book its natural feel.

At its core though GOOD MONEY is simply a great yarn, offering a mixture of humour, heart and action that should appeal to a wide audience. With its new migrant characters, drug dealing as an industry and mining executives behaving badly it is topical enough to be interesting but not so now as to ensure it is irretrievably dated within a few months. In short it’s a great read and if wishing can make it so the first of many tales featuring Stella Hardy. show less