I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from a detective story written by a cartoonist, especially the creator of the rather quaint Naked Man cartoons. I guess I expected something frothy and a bit risqué, like the Phryne Fisher books. I did not expect this; a rather gruesome story set in wartime Melbourne, with a psychopathic Nazi at its core.

Inspector Titus Lambert heads up the newly-formed Homicide division of the Victorian police. On Christmas Eve, Lambert's holiday plans are wrecked when he receives a call to a mansion in East Melbourne. There he encounters a brutal double murder: a young man killed in the living room in the style of the Crucifixion, and his father upstairs, shot in the bath.

Lambert very soon finds himself at loggerheads with Military intelligence: one of the victims was an intelligence agent. MI demand that Lambert give them his sergeant, Joe Sable, to help investigate the Nazi sympathisers that they are sure are behind the murders. Lambert is unhappy with this, given wartime manpower shortages. He is forced to supplement his team with (shock, horror!) a woman - Constable Helen Lord.

Gott's police procedural is certainly intriguing in terms of its setting and concept; there are a few wartime detective stories around, but i can't recall anything set in wartime Melbourne. Gott's descriptions of Melbourne and surrounds are very accurate, and recognisable even today. However there are some problems with this book. Lambert is improbably modern in his attitudes towards women, fostering Lord's career over her male superior in Sable, and running all of his investigations past his wife, even when covered by Official Secrets. The Jewish Sergeant Sable somehow manages to forget that Hanukkah is going on during the investigation; this simply never comes up, which seems an oversight, given the character and title. The right wing group's name - Our Nation - is cutely close to that of a modern right wing group. Gott also telegraphs his punches quite a bit, there aren't really a lot of surprises and the ending is all a bit too neat. These flaws mar the book, but I still think that I'll give the next book in this series a whirl, just to see how Gott develops his promising concept. ( )

The story is set in Melbourne during WWII.
A murder/suicide is investigated by the homicide department, but it quickly becomes obvious that things are not how they've been set up.
Joe Sable, a young detective, gets involved in an investigation that follows a group of thugs heavily involved in National Socialism trying to make their way in the grey area of Australian politics of the time.
I've read others of Robert Gott's books that I've enjoyed more. The story is quite nasty and brutal and while the protagonists are interesting, you seem to be following caricatures of thugs around.
Interesting twist at the end though. ( )

Set over the Christmas to New Year holiday period at the end of 1943 the book opens with police being called to a crime scene. Xavier Quinn has been brutally tortured and murdered by, on first appearances, his father John who subsequently committed suicide. However it is soon clear that both men were murdered though a motive for the gruesome crime is not immediately obvious. Mary Quinn, Xavier’s sister, is an actress in radio dramas and has discovered the bodies on coming home from work with her friend Sheila. She can’t seem to provide the police with any leads as to who might have committed the awful crime though she does admit that the family was not close. She describes Xavier as a religious zealot of unsound mind who didn’t really communicate with anyone while she and her father were at odds over her choice to work as an actress. The police wonder if there might be some religious motive to the crimes but then discover some reading material that suggests a political motive. This in turn leads to the involvement of the military’s Intelligence boffins and leads the investigation into the path of Australia’s very own (and very real) Nazi-sympathising fascists.

It’s difficult to know where to start with the list of things I loved about this book but I think the characters (just) edge out everything else as my favourite element of the novel. Titus Lambert is the Inspector in charge of Victoria’s newly established Homicide squad though with manpower shortages the squad is not teeming with numbers. He is an unorthodox fictional detective in several ways, most notably due to his very happy marriage. Indeed his wife, Maude, is really an extra member of his squad as he discusses all his cases with her and, on occasion, even shows her evidence. This could have come across as hokey but Gott does a great job of making the relationship seem very realistic, to the point that I did wonder if it isn’t a jolly good idea to have married police detectives. Rather than having a host of awful memories and images turning him into the usual angst-ridden, alcoholic mess Lambert is able to share his burden and also gain a fresh, intelligent perspective on the cases he confronts. It seems eminently sensible.

The Homicide squad is rounded out by freshly trained Sergeant Joe Sable who is keen but lacks confidence and some of the skills he needs and Constable Helen Lord who seems more suited to the role but as a woman is ineligible to rise any further in the ranks. She is, not unreasonably, a little bitter about this and sometimes her frustration affects her work. Joe is Jewish, though without a very religious upbringing, and is struggling to come to terms with the news that has started to come out of Europe regarding the Nazis’ treatment of the Jewish people. His feelings of guilt and impotence over this lead him to jump at the chance to assist the Intelligence people with the infiltration of a local group suspected of having National Socialist sympathisers and this work, in turn, tests his loyalties to Lambert and the Homicide team.

Early on we meet the menacing brute responsible for the murders but, rarely, this doesn’t lessen the tension and suspense of the novel for readers. Partly this is because we’re worrying who will be the next victim and partly because this isn’t one of those books in which you know the police will triumph over the bad guys. The depiction of the band of hate-filled bigots for whom violence comes as naturally as breathing is all the more chilling because Gott not only makes you believe in these particular fictional people but also that they have real life counterparts, even today. But not all the bigots are Romper Stomper style thugs; the book forces readers to reflect more generally on the many insidious small ways that bigotry was, and is still, allowed to flourish in the wider community.

In addition to all of this the novel has an authentic historical feel, with loads of references to real world people and events and a million little details that make you feel as if you’ve been transported back in time, and a thoroughly gripping plot. Every time I thought I had worked out how things would resolve another element or twist came to light and the resolution, which I stayed up long past my bed time to get to, was a stunner. I’m hopeful this is the first of a series of novels featuring these characters and I highly recommend it.

This title was reviewed for the Newtown Review of Books

This novel of murder and military intelligence in wartime Melbourne is inspired by history.

While The Holiday Murders isn’t, sadly, a new William Powell book, Robert Gott has delivered another masterful crime novel steeped in Australia’s past.

For the full review: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/02/26/crime-scene-robert-gott-the-holiday-m... ( )