Off Season

Detective Ramesh Ryan’s career with Sydney’s prestigious Organized Crime Unit is on the up, until he loses a court case against the city's most powerful drug dealer. In disgrace, the detective is relocated to the tiny Australian beach town of Barton.

 

It is off season in Barton—when its few criminals usually take a well-earned rest. But not this year! With the detective's arrival, the town suddenly becomes murder central. Two bodies are discovered in the space of days, both victims of drug overdoses. Then a mysterious foot is found washed up on the beach, and memories are awoken of an unsolved cold case of the teenager who disappeared fifteen years ago. Add to this a blossoming romance, along with a contract taken out on Ryan’s life, and it's clear that the detective has jumped out of the Sydney frying pan into the Barton fire.

 

What follows is an action-packed adventure, thrilling at every turn—where truth and lies are almost impossible to separate, and unexpected twists are the order of the day

my review...

I have read another of Clive Fleury’s Detective Ryan books, and enjoyed both of them. I do tend to have a penchant for down-on-their-luck cops, and Ryan is definitely at that level of job prestige. Sometimes, if you are a bit of a troublemaker, the higher-ups tend to use anything they can as an excuse to get rid of you. That’s what happened to Ryan and how he ended up in a gossipy little backwater town that turns out not to be as boring as he thought.

As I said, I liked some of the characters Fleury crafted. There were quite a few of them, and I’m not sure they were necessary. I don’t like having to look back to see “who is who” so to speak, and I did have to do that a few times here.

I’m giving this 4 stars because I really like this author’s plots and main characters. One thing that detracted from this story is the racial comments. I saw no reason to insert them into the story and didn’t enjoy reading them. I hope we have another Detective Ryan book without any racial connotations.

read an excerpt...

DI Ryan lived in what was, in estate agent jargon, the Paris-end of Potts Point. Perched on a hill overlooking the naval base, the bay, and the city, the district had finally succumbed to gentrification back in the mid-eighties. Before this, Potts Point, with its myriad of one and two-bed apartments, had housed a mix of poor older people and even more impoverished youngsters. But with the developers' arrival, derelict land was brought up, and ancient terraces were bulldozed to make way for gleaming high-rise blocks. Today the area was a 'happening place' filled with hip restaurants and expensive boutiques. Well, most of it was. A little of the 'old' Potts Point remained, and that's where Ramesh chose to live.

The detective closed the gate, strode up the redbrick steps, and entered the lobby. Ramesh's apartment was on the third floor. To reach it, Ramesh had to climb worn stone stairs that curved around the building's innards. When he rented the unit two years ago, Ramesh was told that most occupants had lived in the block for at least thirty years. Many had bought their flats when prices were still just four figures. But, despite the numerous agents who came calling, many remained, refusing to leave. Ramesh knew why.  Despite the district's noise, buzz, and cosmopolitan feel, his apartment, with its view over the city, remained quiet and serene—a perfect place to hide away from the world.

Ramesh paused outside his unit. He could hear the sound of a TV inside. The detective lowered the file and laptop onto the floor. Reaching into his blue suit jacket, he unholstered his Glock semi-automatic gun. Holding the weapon in one hand, he unlocked the door, twisted the handle, pushed hard, and entered.

“Ramesh?” the portly middle-aged woman said as the detective burst into the living room, his arm out, the Glock gripped tight. 

“Mom?”

She peered up at him from the couch. “Why have you got that gun out?”

Ramesh looked at the weapon before hastily holstering it.

“What are you doing here?”

"Watching the TV, of course. What does it look like?"

 Ramesh squinted his eyes. “How did you get in?”

“With a key .”

Ramesh strode across to his mother, lifted the remote, and turned the TV off.

“A key?”

"That is the way you usually enter an apartment. And thank you, Ramesh. Now I won't know if anyone won the million dollars today.”

Ramesh sniffed the air. “What’s that smell?”

The detective’s mother stood up and brushed down her green sari over her substantial stomach.

“Curry.”

“You’ve cooked curry?”

"Yes, for you. It's your favorite. Now come over here and kiss your mother."

Mumta opened up her arms to embrace Ramesh.

"That's better," she said. Releasing her son, she walked out of the living room into the kitchen.

Ramesh, still confused, followed.

“You have a key?”

“You gave me one last year, don’t you remember?”

“That was for you to let the electrician in while I was at work.”

“For which you never thanked me properly.”

“I did, mom.” He thought about that. “But you gave me that key back?”

Mumta dipped a wooden spoon into the pan of curry and offered the liquid to Ramesh.

“Try it.”

about Clive Fleury...

Clive Fleury is an award-winning writer of books and screenplays and has worked all over the world as a Film/TV director, writer and producer. He has written six books, most recently 'All Or None', the second novel in the Detective Ryan Murder Mystery series.

'All Or None' sees Detective Ryan back in the thick of things. His latest investigation into a mysterious death couldn’t come at a worse time. He discovers his mother is hiding a troubling secret and is further sidetracked by a new romance. Fans of who dunnit's, crime thrillers, and cop and detective stories will love this novel. 

Clive's other books include 'Off Season' - book one in the Detective Ryan Murder Mystery series; 'Kill Code' - a dystopian science fiction novel set in a world facing climate change;  ‘Scary Lizzy’  - a novel about an eight year old girl, who befriends an African child ghost –  and the teen action adventure book; ‘The Boy Next Door ‘ -  a story of what happens when a teenage girl has a crush on her next door neighbor, who isn’t all he seems.  He also co-wrote ‘Art Pengriffin and The Curse of The Four’ - a young adult fantasy adventure about a teenage boy who discovers his father was Merlin the Magician.

 

Website: https://clivefleurywriter.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/clivefleury

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087136850713