Award-winning Australian author Richard Harland is perhaps better known for his young adult fiction, some of which I have enjoyed a great deal. This is the final in a series of three science fiction novels with both mystery and supernatural elements by The books are stand alone – and this is the only one I have read.
The first volume, The Dark Edge, was a finalist for the 1997 Aurealis Award in both the Horror Novel and Science Fiction Novel categories and that Hidden from View was nominated for the 1999 Ditmar Award in the Best Novel category.
The series is set against the background of the colonial hegemony of the planet Terra, whose influence has spread across the cosmos, but is increasingly threatened by the Anti-Human, an unknown menace, which follows a steady path from the boundaries of the universe towards the core, consuming Terran colonies as it advances. Inspector Eddon Brac, a male detective with traditional sleuth leanings, is partnered with assistant Vail ev Vessintor, a female goth noble with expertise in the psychic sciences. Each novel presents the pair with a murder mystery with an unorthodox and surprising origin and also explores the tension between them.
In Hidden from View Eddon and Vail are not working together. Eddon has returned to ordinary police-work, while Vail is up on High Sphere, explaining about the Anti-Human to the elite members of the upper class. Eddon's new place of work is in Urban Disposal Site Number One - or 'the Uds' for short. The Uds is the lowest sleaziest area in the entire Metropolitan Zone. Its inhabitants are eccentric drop-outs well known for their strange obsessions and addictions.
Eddon doesn't want to have anything more to do with Vail. He has a new romantic interest in his life: a woman with violet eyes and skin the colour of apricots. But Vail isn't so easily excluded. When the murders begin, Eddon takes charge of the investigation. Still he doesn't want to call upon Vail for parapsychic assistance. But as the murders become more terrifying and more inexplicable, he finds himself desperate for any kind of lead. At the same time, he's also coming under increasing personal pressure. Dark events from his own past life return to haunt him. Meanwhile, Vail is running into family troubles of her own.
Harland has created a moderately interesting world. I might go back and read the earlier ones to get some more background. However, the contrived sexual tension, unconvincing plotline and absurd characterisations made this an only average read. ( )