Kickback

The first in Disher's series about Wyatt, a high stakes burglar who isn't squeamish about killing associates who screw up or compromise his operation. He is competent, cool in a crisis, and totally unappealing to me. Disher's writing here is as fine as always, his plotting creative but not overdone, the twists and turns interesting to follow--until they turn deadly and Wyatt blithely eliminates human obstacles. Disher has turned the caper story on its head, making no attempt to make his readers like his protagonist. Oceans Eleven it's not. I'm not about it. Give me a flawed hero any day, but don't give me a man with no scruples at all whose primary satisfaction is pulling off a big job, and then sitting back in style "somewhere warm" show more until another great opportunity comes along or the money runs low. YMVV. show less

I finished Garry Disher's Hal Challis series a few years ago, but for some reason I resisted starting his Wyatt series for fear I'd end up with nothing by Disher to read. In the interim I read his Paul Hishfield books and a couple of stand-alones by him. With Kickback I've now started the Wyatt series

The Hal Challis series consist primarily of police procedurals, with an ensemble cast. Maybe I should call the Wyatt series "criminal" procedurals. For Wyatt is a criminal. Most of the time he is traveling, usually abroad from Australia, or, more recently spending time on his farm in the countryside outside Melbourne, where he is believed to be a former stock broker who made it big in the market and now merely dabbles. A couple of times a show more year, he disappears for a while, planning and executing a "job", usually a bank robbery, to finance his lifestyle until he begins to run out of money and must do another job.

This, the first entry in the series, opens with Wyatt doing a small job, almost a favor for a mobster, with the proceeds of which he hopes to finance a more financially rewarding job. Unfortunately, the mobster has foisted on Wyatt the assistance of his incompetent younger brother, and the small, supposedly simple job goes awry. Wyatt gets paid, and the remainder of the book focuses on Wyatt's planning and execution of a much more complicated job, which is further complicated by the mobster's brother wanting revenge on Wyatt and constantly creating snafus.

I liked this a lot. Not as much as Hal Challis, but I can see treats ahead--there are 9 Wyatt books. It's intriguing to watch as Wyatt plans down to the most minute details an intricate job, hires the exactly compatible specialist accomplices, and arranges everything so it should all go off without a hitch. And then, there's always a hitch, something always goes awry, so we get to see how Wyatt will wriggle out of it and save himself.

Recommended.
3 1/2 stars show less

This didn't turn out quite how I had anticipated. Obviously Garry Disher's more recent novels have been police procedurals and this was an earlier work from the perspective of a career criminal, but nevertheless I was expecting Wyatt to be more sympathetic somehow. This was a short, well-written read, but there was a lot of casual violence, and it didn't make me want to continue with this series.

There's a new Wyatt on the way, and that means it's as good a time as any to do a little tidying up of the back catalogue.

Wyatt is a very careful man, because he has to be. Wyatt robs banks, lifts payrolls, gets girls, leaves girls, lives the life of a loner, trusts few, works out the details and thinks a job through. He regards his criminal activities as his job, he's very professional. He doesn't like surprises, he doesn't like hot heads and half wits, mind you, he can handle them when he needs to.

Kickback is the first Wyatt novel from renowned Australian writer Garry Disher. Unusual in Australian crime fiction, these books are about the crimes and the criminals. In KICKBACK in particular, even the victim's aren't squeaky clean. Anna show more Reid is a solicitor who is happy to see the robbery of her work partner's safe - she wants the money to get herself out of a financial hole. But she gets more than she bargained for when Wyatt agrees to do the job, and brings a little extra baggage along with him. Sugarfoot Younger is a young man, a bit of a cowboy in look, inclination and attitude, and he is just stupid enough to think he can play Wyatt at his own game.

Tough, violent, precise and absolutely authentic, Disher write a fantastic professional criminal in Wyatt. An old-fashioned sort of a crim, Wyatt isn't interested in collateral damage - to himself or his victim's, but don't for a moment think that he's beyond ruthlessness if he needs to protect his own skin.

The current Wyatt novels are:

* Kickback (1991)
* Paydirt (1992)
* Deathdeal (1993)
* Crosskill (1994)
* Port Vila Blues (1996)
* The Fallout (1997) show less

I have read several of Disher's novels in the Wyatt series and they are all quite competent, noir in the manner of Quarry, and Parker, and Keller. This was the first in the series and I wish I had read it first. They are all stand-alones, but this one sets the stage, if you will.

As with Lawrence Block, all of Disher's creations are wonderful ways to spend an afternoon. Get them all.

Another great read from this Australian author. A fast moving crime story set in and around Melbourne.

After I read the latest book in this series called Wyatt, I had to read the first one. It is as good as the new one. Only problem is tracking one down through the library! Not one library in RI has his older books! Mine came from Florida. Worth the wait. Looking forward to the next one.