Leah GiarratanoBesprekingen

A graphic tale of a paedophilia club, murders and the conflicting feelings of those trying to solve the murders of men who most considered society the better for their absence. Well written but an unpleasant storyline.½

Newly promoted Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson of the New South Wales Police force has a deep hatred of pedophiles. When Jill was twelve years old she was abducted, held in a basement for three days, and abused by men who were never caught. Now, over twenty years later, she has recurrent nightmares and panic attacks. She is very security conscious and has also developed techniques for dealing with unwanted memories.

When several men are bludgeoned to death, law enforcement discover the men have all been accused of child molestation at some point. The somewhat reluctant investigation uncovers an entire club of such men who swap photographs, movies and children amongst themselves.

There are some parts of this book that many readers will find disturbing. It is a very dark, with extremely unpleasant subject matter. The plot is tightly constructed, and the action violent. But I really liked the main character and the atmospheric setting of Sydney, Australia. I plan to give the next book in the series a look.

Blech. Well enough written, and quick moving, but when the protagonist's inner voice says not to do something, but she does, repeatedly, well no. The milieu is Sydney police vs pederasts and it's as unpleasant as you'd guess, not to much point as there is so much unreal on offer.½

It took me very little time to read this book, yet I started it the best part of three weeks ago. So many interruptions yet this book has kept me rapt.

I met Leah at the Perth Writers Festival where she was holding a class on writing nasty villains. In fairness it didn't matter which character it was in the book, every single one felt real. But this book wasn't just about the characters, it was also crime fiction with a brisk pace and a lot more going on than an arsonist causing trouble and mayhem.

So I really enjoyed this book and it stands as one of the better crime thrillers I've read. I'm really going to have to email Leah and find out when the next one is due for release.

I'm really unsure as to whether to rate this a 4 or a 5. Lets call it 4.5

It was only just over a day ago when I gave up on a book. I found I was putting off reading, a clear sign that the book sucked. So I moved on, moved on and picked up Leah Giarratano's first novel. This book was just what I needed.

I met Leah at the Perth Writers' Festival. Aside from being one of the nicest people you will meet, she is also a very good crime writer. She draws on her background in psychology to delve into the dark corners of the Australian underworld. She spoke of this book being a catharsis from her day job and when you read it (yes you will go out and buy it and read it, I'll wait here) you will notice that in the story.

The first book I read in the Jill Jackson series was the most recent, Watch the World Burn. I can't wait to read the books I've missed in the series. Currently Leah is publishing some young adult books (Disharmony: The Telling, comes out later this month) so Jill may not be having a new crime to solve for a year or so.

i loved it can't wait for the next one. extra marks for mainly being based in aus.

Sergeant Jill Jackson has been promoted since the first book in which she appeared, 2007’s [b:Vodka Doesn’t Freeze|3615580|Vodka Doesn't Freeze|Leah Giarratano|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1215221768s/3615580.jpg|3658351], and moves from beach-side Maroubra to Liverpool in the heart of Sydney’s western suburbs to work on a newly established Task Force investigating a series of violent home invasions. The Task Force brings together a range of new characters and Jackson is paired with a Federal Police Officer who has a knack for observing body language and the two lead the investigation in new directions when they re-interview victims and learn new information about the incidents.

I find it difficult sometimes to put my finger on the difference between a good book and a great one. But whatever that intangible thing might be, this book is well and truly in the second category. To try and define what makes this book better than good I’ll start with the story. It’s genuinely suspense-filled and surprisingly delicately constructed given the subject matter. Although it features a seriously twisted criminal it’s far more believable than the serial-killer-making-a-suit-from-human-skin type of thriller. And things you believe could happen are always scarier than fantasy. Believable makes you look at your neighbours a little more closely. Believable makes you pull the bed covers over your head even though it’s 40C. Believable makes you check the locks. Three times.

Then there are the characters. I love Jill Jackson and enjoyed seeing her deal with a case that had less of a personal involvement than in the first book. She’s not in nearly so much turmoil here and seems more centred and smarter about the way she works and the decisions she makes. The victims too are very well depicted. Even if they appear only briefly, such as the teenage Justine who struggles to voice what happened to her, they seem to leap off the page and sit in the room with you. There’s nothing two-dimensional about the people in this book. Again though Giarratano excels herself in creating the creepiest bad guys in crime fiction. As with Jamaal Mahmoud, who still occasionally troubles my sleep some six months after reading Vodka Doesn’t Freeze, Henry ‘Cutter’ Nguyen is a masterpiece of evil in human form. The thought that Giarratano may have encountered a non-fictional version of him in her work as a clinical psychologist working with, among others, trauma victims and in the prison system, is a sobering one.

To top it all off the book demonstrates the increasingly rare art of knowing when enough is enough. Unlike the many 500 page bricks that pepper the shelves these days it’s a tightly written 300 pages and didn’t once make me wish I had a red pen in my hand. All that remains is to wait with much anticipation for the next offering from Ms Giarratano. And perhaps buy an extra deadbolt or two for the back door. Just in case.

At the prophetically named upscale Sydney restaurant Indendie an elderly woman is dining with her son when she bursts into flames for no discernible reason. The restaurant’s manager, former cop Troy Berrigan, does his best to help but the woman later dies of her injuries. Other incidents which may, or may not, be connected start happening across the city. Jill Jackson is studying for her Master’s degree and is on vacation from her job as a Detective with the Police Force but is drawn into the investigation at first because her boyfriend is leading it and then because the case becomes personal.

Watch the World Burn is the perfect example of a suspenseful police procedural mixed with a psychological thriller. There were enough disparate threads to keep me interested in who has done what and what will be done next but not too many that I lost track. Some threads allowed me to build up a picture of intriguing characters while others offered momentary snapshots but all of them kept me turning pages. In fact the shorter passages, such as the one where a woman hands out leaflets on a train station before coming to a sticky end, are really superb short stories within the larger tale and I really enjoyed these vignettes. It’s hard to talk much more about the plot without giving away huge spoilers but there were not many moments in which the story took me where I thought it would and that is always a satisfying experience as a reader.

As I’ve found with all of the books in this series the characters also standout and demonstrate Giarratano’s eye for observation of human behaviour (she is a practicing clinical psychologist). Jill Jackson has had some pretty astonishing personal problems in her life (these are briefly recapped here for those who haven’t read the previous books) but as Watch the World Burn opens she is more confident and happier than she has been before and it’s nice to see this kind of character growth. Quite realistically though she is not ‘all better in an instant’ and the personal trauma that she experiences in this book does force her to deal with her psychological issues in a more structured way than she has in the past and this entire thread has a very credible feel to it. There are other deft creations too including a terrific middle-aged woman who uses humour to help her through her marriage break-up and Troy Berrigan who is also under pressure because he has guardianship of his younger siblings and struggles to maintain some control over their lives.

The one thing missing from this book that I’ve loved about the others was a detailed picture of the ‘bad guy’. Here we only get brief snapshots of the evil-doer which would usually be fine but I must admit to a somewhat guilty pleasure in reading Giarratano’s excellent dark characters in the past. Even so, it’s a thoroughly entertaining read with a nice mixture of action and reflection which will appeal to fans of the series and is also, I think, a great place to start for those new to the world of Jill Jackson.

This is one of those books. One of those mega-marketed, multi-stickered books that I put off reading because I figured it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype and I’d end up disappointed. Again.

Happily I was wrong.

Not that the book is a happy one mind you. The subject matter is skin-crawlingly awful enough to make any sane person consider the merits of the death penalty and/or becoming an armed vigilante. When several men are brutally bashed to death Police discover the men have all been accused of child molestation at some point. The somewhat reluctant investigation into the murders uncovers an entire club of such men who swap photographs, movies and children amongst themselves for their particular sick and sordid pleasures.

The plot is logical and contains no extraneous material which is an increasingly rare thing in this age of books the size (and weight) of house bricks. There are one or two passages, e.g. the incident at the prison, that almost push the story into “I can’t believe all that would happen to one human being” territory but they’re only short and they stretched my credulity rather than breaking it. Irrespective of them the build-up of suspense is perfectly timed and kept me awake long past my bed time. Besides, it’s all set in one of my favourite places on earth and Giarratano has captured the feel of the beachside suburbs of inner Sydney to a tee which makes up for any slight imperfections.

But it’s the characters in this book that are truly memorable. There’s Jill Jackson: an imperfect but very believable heroine who tackles the things she is afraid of despite her fears. Her white eyed companion is also perfectly written. But Giarratano hasn’t stopped with her main character. She’s written totally credibly in the voice of a kidnapped 11-year old boy, a transvestite and the most disturbing bunch of villains you’ll ever meet. For the record it will be Jamaal Mahmoud with his simmering violence and contemptuous hatred for every person he encounters who will inhabit my nightmares. Every passage in which he appears is terrifying. The kind of terrifying where a reader might close her eyes tightly while humming Walking on Sunshine and imagining pictures of puppy dogs before the dark thoughts consume her (I’m not saying I did that, just that some other, fraidy-cat reader might react that way).

For once the marketing was right: this is a killer read. It's my new favourite book of the year so far.

Jill Jackson is working undercover as Krystal Peters in Sydney’s Fairfield. In a long term operation she’s gathering intelligence on the area’s drug dealers and their suppliers in an effort to help clean up they city’s drug scene. At the same time Serendipity (Seren) Templeton is due to be released from prison after spending more than 12 months in jail for a drug related crime she did not commit. All she wants is to be reunited with her young son. And to extract revenge from the man responsible for her imprisonment. There are other forces at play too: Jill’s sister Cassie, a top class fashion model, has a new boyfriend and is living the high life in the harbour city and a young Chemistry student is learning that you can’t always stop what you start.

I’m sure part of the meaning of the title of this book relates to the drug at the heart of the tale. But as I started reading I was reminded of the winter I spent in the North-East of the US (i.e. a real winter as opposed to its rather laughable cousin we have here in Adelaide). As someone new to walking and driving in the conditions I was warned often of the black ice which was virtually transparent and so invisible until you were right on top of it (which in my case generally resulted in falling over or sliding off the road). There are elements of this story that are hidden in the same way: Jill’s undercover alter-ego whose personality is very different from Jill’s, Seren’s second persona which she uses to embark on the revenge she’s been plotting for months. Even air-headed Cassie, towards the end of the book, shows hidden depths. The unpredictable way all three of these strong female characters are revealed over the course of the story is utterly captivating.

It’s always the characters I love most about Giarratano’s books and this time I think it’s Serendipity who will stay with me after the rest of the book starts to fade. Her life of abuse, teenage pregnancy without any support, and betrayal when the one good thing that’s ever happened to her turns sour is painfully but beautifully depicted. In what might be a new record I was crying by page 38 when her two cellmates turned on her. Then each other. From that point on all I wanted to know was how would life treat Seren and how, or if, she would cope.

Jill is more mature in this book and at times takes a back seat to the other characters although she’s still quite a presence and it is interesting to watch her behaviour change and normalise over time. Aside from her and Seren there are Giarratano’s usual assortment of odd but memorable bit players who manage to leave lasting impressions even if they only appear for a few lines or a few pages. I won’t forget poor Damien who should have known better than to experiment or the nastily bureaucratic parole officer any time soon. And in this book the city itself plays a strong role. Two of its sides, rich and privileged versus limited by poverty, are shown inhabiting the same physical space yet practically operating as if on separate planets and it has quite a realistic feel for this former Sydney-sider.

Rather than answering the question ‘who committed that crime’ this book seems instead to be pondering the reasons why crimes happen and so is far less of a police procedural than its predecessors. Although some of the scenarios were completely foreign to my middle class existence with my happy childhood memories I found myself often wondering what I would have done in the scenarios being described. Although ‘turning to a jelly-like wreck’ is the most likely answer for most instances in this book I always enjoy reading that offers me any kind of vicarious living. And although parts of the book are bleak it’s not uniformly so. Call me an old softie if you like but I enjoyed it more because of that: there are limits to how much bleakness I want in my life.

I probably shouldn’t have liked this book. At least in part it’s about the drug scene (almost my least favourite plot theme ever for reasons I won’t bore anyone with) and, more importantly, it’s quite a departure from its much-loved predecessors. I was anticipating more of the same from Black Ice as I had enjoyed about the two earlier Jill Jackson novels: the creepiest of villains and a put-upon but valiant heroine. I didn’t have to hide undeer a blanket once here and the heroine wasn’t really who I expected her to be. However, despite that departure, or perhaps because of it, I found the book an emotional and satisfying read. It has retained the essence of what made the first two books great: wonderfully drawn characters and an exquisite build-up of tension towards the climax. But it’s also taken me somewhere unexpected, given me new ideas to think about. A thoroughly great read that I’d recommend to both fans of the previous books and people new to the series.

Disharmony (The Telling #1)
LEAH GIARRATANO

A psychopath . . . an empath . . . a genius.

Three siblings who will save the world – or destroy it. They know nothing of each other. They know nothing of the Telling. But they'll need to learn fast if they're going to survive . . .

A gripping new series about a collision of worlds, the power of destiny, and the darkness in us all . . .

'I need to know who I am,' said Luke. 'I need to know what everyone else seems to know.'

Twins Luke and Samantha have grown up on opposite sides of the world, both unaware the other exists and knowing nothing of their deceased mother. Raised by gypsies in Romania, Samantha is a talented tarot reader, using her empathic gifts to give her clients increasingly more than they expect from their card readings. Luke bounced between a number of foster homes before finding a 'home' in a juvenile detention centre in Sydney, Australia. He has mastered the skill of recognising emotions shown by those around him, but has never experienced any himself.

Torn away from the lives they know by inexplicable attacks by assassins and kidnappers, the twins must rely on their skills to stay alive and find each other. Struggling to know who to trust, they are pushed towards their destiny by fate, or is someone pulling the strings and trying to bring the twins together?

As the introduction of a new series, this book works - just as things start to get interesting the book ends. I looked for the second in the series, only to read that this book was released just days ago. Frustrating! As someone who likes to read a series of books within the shortest period of time I can, this annoyed me - but it's not the books fault. I will have to re-read the book when number 2 comes out as I will definitely be following this series as it progresses.

I chose this book when I flipped it open and saw that the author was a psychologist. I was curious to see what she would bring to the characters of an empath and one who didn't feel emotion at all. I liked the descriptions of what Samantha, felt when she did readings for people, especially describing sickness as having a physical presence that can be seen empathically. Luke and Samantha were handled differently than 'normal' psychopath and empath characters in my eyes, as it's easy to have characters of these type and just write them as completely shut out and unable to handle contact with people.

All in all, I can't wait for the next one, and will be going back to read some more of this author's books in the mean time.

WATCH THE WORLD BURN was one of those books that I enjoyed more, the more I read. The opening "hook" was great though - an elderly woman bursts into flame, just when the manager, aboriginal ex-cop Troy Berrigan, was standing right next to her, but not looking at her.

WATCH THE WORLD BURN is full of intriguing little stories, starting with the one about why Troy Berrigan is no longer a cop. Then there is also the continuing story of Jill Jackson, the thread that connects all Giarratano's novels so far. And then the story of politician Erin Hart campaigning for the installation of CCTV in public places such as railway stations. Underpinning it all is the ongoing investigation into Miriam Caine's not-so-spontaneous combustion, and questions that elude answers.

This is a book that keeps the reader on their toes, testing out hypotheses. For me the final answer came out of left field, but then I could see that the clues had been there all along.½

I didn't recognise the name when I chose Watch The World Burn as a read for the Aussie Authors Challenge but as soon as I saw the authors image I realised that Leah Giarrantano was the presenter of Beyond the Darklands. This (Australian TV) crime doco series had Leah, a psychologist, discuss and disect the stories of notorious Australian killers. It was okay, I watched a fair few episodes but I didn't think it was much more than sound bites really and to be honest Leah's voice/tone was a little grating.Still I wasn't aware she had written any books so I was interested to read her work. Watch The World Burn is a comfortable blend of psychological thriller and police procedural. It is the fourth in a series with police officer Jill Jackson. I haven't read the previous installments though I don't feel it was much of a problem. Jill Jackson has obviously dealt with some serious cases previously and has her own long standing issues however the author shared enough of her history for me to be mostly satisfied. In this book, Jill is not central to the criminal investigation but is certainly an emotional focus for the story, still I think I would have preferred to read the earlier books though to be more invested in her character. Jill's separation from the case means Troy Berrigan, the ex-cop who becomes tangled in the Caine investigation, has an equally strong lead in the story. With such an equal split, this led to some division of my attention as their stories take a while to cross-over.The premise is quite interesting, however I felt the plot lacked depth. I thought the crime became more of a backdrop to the characters, the investigation seemed to skim the surface, with emotion overriding procedures. While I found Watch the World Burn a quick and easy read, it lacked the intensity I prefer in psychological crime fiction. Reviews seem to agree that previous books in the series are more insightful so I won't rule out picking one up should they be lurking on the shelves of my library.

Ein klassischer Krimi in der Welt der pädophilen Szene in Sydney, Australien.

Nach einer Reihe von Morden in der Szene entdecken zwei Polizisten eine Verbindung zu einem "Club", es wird eine Soko gegründet und die Spur verdichtet sich. Der Hauptcharakter hat selbst einen Mißbrauchs-Hintergrund und muss sich nun mit alten Erinnerungen auseinandersetzen. Ein weiteres Kind wird entführt und die Situation spitzt sich zu ...

Durchweg spannend mit einem überraschenden Ende. Habe mich gut unterhalten gefühlt, auch wenn es kein herausragendes Werk ist.

First Line: The razorblade just felt cold and clean as always; her blood warm and soothing.

As a twelve-year-old, Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson of the New South Wales Police was kidnapped and held in a basement for three days. For three endless days, she was abused by men who were never caught and punished for the crime. Now as an adult, she is extremely security conscious and has methods for dealing with recurring nightmares. It is no surprise that she has a deep and abiding hatred of pedophiles and those who procure children for them.

When the body of a man is discovered on a hill overlooking a children's pool, it's immediately clear to Jill that a pedophile has been stopped in his tracks. At first she feels ambivalent about pursuing the man's killer, but when others die-- all known child sex offenders-- Jill knows a serial killer is on the loose.

The further into the investigation she goes, Jill uncovers a long-established club of wealthy pedophiles who mistakenly believe that they are untouchable. As she unearths abusers and victims, she learns that the psychotherapist who's helped her is having her own difficulties-- and Jill's nightmares and panic attacks assume new levels of terror and strength.

If you're not up for the topic of child abuse, pedophiles, and a cast of characters well-populated by pond scum, you might want to give this one a miss. All this didn't deter me, and I found the author's expertise in the subject matter to be very interesting.

The one thing that ultimately did not ice the cake for me was the character of Jill Jackson herself. The woman is filled to the brim with neuroses and doesn't cope with them as well as she'd like to think. Too many things trigger her panic attacks, and she can rapidly turn into a gibbering mass of Jell-O, unable to function. Although catching pedophiles is her stated life's mission, I find it very difficult to believe that she passed all the tests required to become a police officer. (Yes, I know what happened to her when she was a child. It was horrible, and it's wonderful that she's fought back to become a functioning member of society. However... I would not want to be her partner.)

Although Vodka Doesn't Freeze has a lot to recommend it, in the end, I just couldn't buy into the main character. Of course-- your mileage may vary!½

Clinical psychologist and best-selling author Leah Giarratano is known for exploring various criminal and/or psychological behaviours in all of her books, and in WATCH THE WORLD BURN, the fourth in the Sergeant Jill Jackson series, she's exploring family, along with extreme psychopathic behaviour. Whilst earlier books clearly demonstrate Giarratano's own background in her deft handling of the extremes of human behaviour, somehow, WATCH THE WORLD BURN is more assured, more informative, more affecting and profoundly unsettling.

Readers of the earlier books will know that Jill Jackson had an horrendous experience as a young girl - kidnapped, raped and tortured. Her ongoing battle to cope and move on is an underlying thread in all the books in this series, but in WATCH THE WORLD burn we see Jill put under the most extreme personal pressure and we watch as she completely falls apart, and starts to put herself back together again.

We also watch as a series of different sorts of families cope. Jill's family continue the struggle to support both of their daughters - both victims of Jill's childhood experience in their own ways. We also watch as a young Aboriginal ex-cop struggles to rebuild his life after he was shot, wounded, pushed from the force after he became a whistleblower. As the sole carer for his much younger brother and sister, Troy Berrigan has a family that was torn apart by so many of the problems in Aboriginal society, being put back together by their individual and collective strength. Then there is the family of Miriam Caine. Her son and granddaughter are pulled into Troy and Jill's circle after Miriam bursts into flames one night the very up-market restaurant that Troy manages, dying a painful and seemingly inexplicable death. Followed by a spate of seemingly unconnected acid and arson attacks around Sydney, the police investigation slowly weaves the stories of Jill, Troy and Miriam's families together.

Balanced well between the police investigation and the various personal stories, WATCH THE WORLD BURN quickly becomes an emotional rollercoaster, although don't for a moment think that means that the reader is left feeling manipulated or over-wrought. It's seering in its portrayal of desperation, pain, suffering, madness and hope. There's humour and great humanity here as well, there are strong and safe characters balancing out the damaged. And in creating a bad guy who is somewhat elusive Giarratano has created what seems to be a pitch perfect portrayal of a psychopath - distant, illogical, slightly out of focus even, but ultimately inexplicable.

Readers of Giarratano books need to be aware that they aren't going to be in for an easy read, but they are absolutely guaranteed to feel something. You may also learn something about the slender threads that some people balance on every day. But you cannot come away from WATCH THE WORLD BURN unaffected by the characters created, the pain that they feel, and the nature of nurture.

Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson is seeing the seamier side of Sydney's drugs underworld working undercover. The aim of the operation is the identification and removal not only of drug pushers, and the drug barons, but also of the small kitchen labs where pills and tablets are being manufactured. Jill's role requires that she live in communities where she is likely to meet users and through them gain the trust of those further up the chain. It is a dangerous sting, and the complexity increases ten-fold when she meets her younger sister Cassie at a party.

The main action BLACK ICE takes place over just 15 days, some of the described events occurring simultaneously. The convergence of several story lines: the young mother who has just done 12 months in gaol for carrying, now bent on revenge; the university chemistry student raking it in manufacturing in his kitchen now realises that it is all getting a lot more complicated than he envisaged; Jill's own relationship with her family and her sister in particular; these all add heightened interest to what feels in particular like an authoritative novel.

BLACK ICE is #3 in Giarratano's Jill Jackson series. While it is part of a series, BLACK ICE works quite well as a stand-alone. Giarratano sees to it that the reader gets plenty of Jackson's back story. The action moves well, and the scenarios felt very believable.½

Leah Giarratano, forensic psychologist, crime fiction writer and consummate storyteller has just released her third novel - BLACK ICE. As with both of the earlier books, Giarratano takes the reader deep into a specific world of crime and criminal behaviour, the theme in BLACK ICE is illegal drugs.

Readers of the two earlier books will know about DS Jill Jackson, a survivor of child sexual abuse, she has fought her way back from despair and continues, ever so gradually, to get control of her life and to deal with the memories of what happened to her. BLACK ICE adds another dimension to the story with the introduction her sister Cassie - famous model, one half of a glamorous society couple, a cocaine addict. Her boyfriend Christian, a highly successful lawyer and drug dealer has a past which is about to catch up with him. Cassie inadvertently steps into an investigation into illegal drugs that Jill is working undercover on, and in even more difficult circumstances, Christian's past, when a young mother, just out of jail is hell-bent on vengeance.

One of the strongest aspect's of Giarratano's books is that she is obviously writing about people and behaviours that she knows all too well. DARK ICE draws a picture of both sides of drug addiction. The sheer ruthlessness of the "business" side of drugs - the totally amoral behaviour of the dealers and the people who make obscene amounts of money. The ease with which that money can buy the cooks, the dealers, the trappings of the lifestyle. The craziness that takes over when there's turf to protect and supply and demand chains to maintain. Finally the depths to which the addicts themselves can sink. Even as part of the so called "beautiful people", addicted people do terrible things.

The introduction of Jill's own sister under threat provides Giarratano with an opportunity to explore the relationship between the sisters. There's an age difference, and then there's the problem of the affect of abduction and abuse on the siblings of the victim. The relationship between these two sisters is very fragile, and a lot of the difficulties go back to the way that their family coped with what happened to Jill. Hopefully this is an area that Giarratano's going to get further into as this was a particularly interesting aspect of the affects of dreadful crimes that isn't overly explored in crime fiction. Slightly less successful for this reader was the story of Seren - the young mother jailed for drug offences, who is so keen to achieve revenge. To this reader it seemed the author was seeking to create another character who, despite enormous odds against them, triumphs over circumstances which seemed a little to co-incidental with Jill, despite the specific experiences being very different. Perhaps it was simply a personality thing - but readers who find a connection with Seren will undoubtedly be able empathise with her strongly.

As always with Leah Giarratano's books, the reader is going to come away from BLACK ICE thinking just a little bit more about the consequences behind the headlines on the nightly news. That's a very good thing.

A detective who was kidnapped and abused when she was a little girl investigates a serial killer who is killing off convicted child sex offenders. A twelve-year-old boy is kidnapped.

A man has his head bashed in while hiding in bushes watching kiddies playing in a beach pool. It turns out he is a known paedophile. Sergeant Jill Jackson and her partner Scott Hutchinson are assigned to the case. Unbeknown to Scott, Jill was a victim of just such a man so she doesn’t really want to look too deeply into the case as she thinks his death is a good thing. As the investigation limps along and it becomes apparent that more sex offenders have been killed she
is forced to face the fact that a serial killer is on the loose and make a decision as to whether or not she should bring the killer to justice. I mean to say, the killer is actually doing a service to the community! She takes the stance that citizens can’t take the law into their own hands – no matter what the provocation – and starts to interview past victims and their families.

Jill finds links, looks for clues and conducts the investigation while dealing with her own mind that appears to be getting lost again. In fact quite a few of the characters seem to have either lost their minds or on the verge of it. The story looks at the police investigation, the victims and the sex offenders – which makes reading it a little uncomfortable. The characters range from a child, a transvestite, through to a despicable and heartless man who was once a victim and now is a predator. The setting range from the streets through middle calls all the way to the top echelons of society. Some of the scene’s that relate how little children are prepared for their fate are heartbreaking, but in the end the whole story was just to busy for me and I got completely put off by the relentless various mental breakdowns.

Writing a psychological thriller on the subject of paedophilia is very confronting, and will probably turn a lot of people off it. The writer is a psychologist who worked extensively with trauma victims – so I guess she would know about the mind and how people react. I just felt that Leah Giarratano was perhaps writing the book as therapy and throwing everything at Jill to purge herself of her own memories. By the time we got to the prison scene – I felt like shouting at the book saying enough already. There was just so much drama being thrown at Jill I couldn't believe she was still functioning. In the end Jill just ended up being a caricature rather than a real person which spoilt the book for me. What I did like though was the way the story brings out the emotional toll that these investigations take on both the victims and the various professionals which have to pick up the pieces after these sexual crimes have been committed.

A dinner at the boss's place becomes a nightmare: a home invasion with one of the intruders wielding a machete. One of the victims is pretty sure that he recognises the man with the machete despite the fact that he is wearing a balaclava. In the moment of recognition when their eyes locked, he was pretty sure the invader recognised him too.

The Sydney police know there have been at least five brutal home invasions in the last month, each more violent than the previous. They are almost sure that the invasions are being carried out by the same gang, and that the increasing violence is being perpetrated by just one or two members of the gang.

Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson, whom we met in the first in the series, VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE, has been shifted from comfortable Maroubra to Sydney's Western suburbs to be part of a newly formed Home Invasion Task Force. Not only does the new job mean a long commute to work, it also means she has to learn to work with a new partner. Jill's new partner is Gabriel Delahunt, a Federal police agent seconded to the taskforce because of his interviewing skills. Jill has to re-establish herself and again prove herself worthy in her male dominated profession, and her first impression is that working with Gabriel is not going to be easy.

VOODOO DOLL is a real page turner. Each of the major characters is carrying a legacy of traumatic events that affects the way they relate to other people. Their traumas surface in nightmares, waking dreams, and flashbacks. As the police narrow their net and identify the home invaders, the tension builds. The major characters, police and civilian, each attempt to locate the psychopathic leader of the home invaders before he strikes again. The author's experience as a clinical psychologist working with offenders who have severe personality disorders displays itself in realistic scenarios.

This novel has an authentic Australian flavour and feel to it. It isn't just conveyed in the setting, in the way the characters treat each other, but also in the language used. VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE was remarkably accomplished for a debut novel, but VOODOO DOLL demonstrates that Leah Giarratano is a force to be reckoned with in Australian crime fiction. VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE was long-listed for the 2008 Ned Kelly Awards for Best First Fiction, and I won't be at all surprised if VOODOO DOLL is long-listed for Best Fiction in 2009.

Title: VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE
Author: Leah Giarratano
Publisher: Bantam
Edition released: 2007
ISBN: 978-1-86325-583-7
322 pages
Review by: Karen Chisholm

Nobody could possibly call reading VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE a pleasure - it's an absolutely heartbreaking and very discomforting book. The author is a trauma psychologist who works with victims, and victims are very much the focus of VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE.

A young girl, victim of sexual abuse kills herself. Her psychologist Mercy treats patients who have suffered trauma, but Mercy seems to be very close to breaking in her own right. A middle-aged man is beaten to death in his hiding spot in the scrub, overlooking a children's pool. This is not a victim for whom anybody feels much compassion - a paedophile who, it turns out, has connections to a major paedophile ring. The main investigator on the case, Sargeant Jill Jackson daily fights her own demons, the legacy of being kidnapped and repeatedly raped by paeodophiles as a young girl, she manages her ongoing trauma via a series of her own obsessions - exercise, control of her environment, 100% concentration. Soon Jill, and her partner Scotty, have more murders to solve - but the victims are all paeodophiles and really - does anybody care? As the investigation continues, a ring of paedophiles, many of them successful businessmen, leaders and the privileged in society, is revealed and Jill's own past is brought more and more into the present.

There is absolutely no doubt that the central theme of this book is the damage that is done by sexual abuse. The author has provided a dense, complex concentration on human damage and the ways that various victims try to cope with their own lives - VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE is a harrowing book because of it. All of the central characters of this book have been damaged, hurt, are struggling to cope with their pasts, the methods that they choose to cope starkly drawn and discomfortingly believable. There are some parts of this book that many readers will find distressing, the grooming of young children, the kidnap of a young boy....

This harrowing and detailed concentration on the victim is what could make VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE potentially difficult for the average reader. The damage and suffering of the victims is undoubted, the experience of the psychologist and other support personnel who work to help these people must be appalling, but the concentration on the abuse itself made the plot of the murder disappear and VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE became less of a crime fiction book and more an analysis of the affects of crime on a victim. Sometimes the shape shifting of expectation in a category - such as crime fiction - is a good thing, it can refresh, provide the reader with a different viewpoint, a different consideration, challenge the readers expectations and drag you out of your comfort zone to consider the unconsidered. VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE is perhaps too heavy handed, too harrowing, too hard, too peopled with damage and suffering, too distressing for many readers, which would be a pity as the message is obviously important. There is a second book in the works, and I'll be reading that one as well when it comes out, as there is something being said by this author.

Newly promoted Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson of the New South Wales Police force based in Sydney has a deep hatred of paedophiles and the “squirrels” who procure children for them. When Jill was twelve years old she was abducted and held in a basement for 3 days during which time she was abused by men who were never caught. After the kidnapping Jill experienced considerable trauma including a phase of self-mutilation. Even now over twenty years later she has recurrent nightmares, and unpredictable panic attacks. She is very security conscious and has also developed techniques for dealing with unwanted memories. Exhaustive exercise is one of her strategies. Jill’s colleague Scotty Hutchinson is as committed as Jill to hunting down paedophiles. David Carter, paedophile and voyeur, is killed in the sand dunes when he is watching a young couple. There have been two other bashing deaths with similar MOs in the Sydney metropolitan area. Jill and Scotty believe there are connections, perhaps even a serial killer who is hunting down paedophiles.
VODKA DOESN’T FREEZE seems to me to be rather thickly populated with unpleasant characters, including a colleague of Jill’s , whose brother she gaoled in the amphetamine bust that resulted in her promotion. Jill has many enemies and needs all her physical and mental strength to win through. The subject matter of this novel is extremely unpleasant. We are told that VODKA DOESN’T FREEZE “though inspired by real Australian crimes, is a work of fiction”. Author Leah Giarratano is a psychologist who has obviously drawn on her experiences in working with victims of sexual offences. In this her debut novel, the plot is tightly constructed, and the action violent. However for me Jill Jackson is just a little too larger than life. At 34 years of age, too many bad things have happened to her. I am surprised that she actually made it into the New South Wales Police force, although Giarratano has built a very strong case for this being her mission in life. Giarratano’s next book is due to be released in July 2008.