Book Review: The Way it is Now by Garry Disher

 The Way it is Now

by

Garry Disher

 

Publisher: Text Publishing

 

Publication date: 2nd November 2021

 

Genre: Crime Fiction

 

Pages: 384

 

Format read: eBook

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley

 

My review of The Way it is Now

 

The Way it is Now is a stand alone mystery / thriller. The story opens in January 2000 with Charlie Deravin and 20 other probationary officers looking for a young boy who has gone missing from his school camp. Charlie's mother also mysteriously goes missing the same day. Neither is found and no-one is charged.

 

Twenty years later and on the cusp of the covid pandemic Charlie is back in his childhood home on the Victorian Mornington Peninsula. He has been suspended after attacking his superior officer. Now with his marriage in tatters and time on his hands Charlie becomes obsessed with  finding out what happened to his mother and spends his time interviewing people who lived in the area at the time.

Garry Disher effortlessly evokes the feel of a small town community where everyone knows each other and old secrets are buried deep. The timeline of the pre-covid pandemic is well portrayed when we were all so naive and it was just something happening somewhere else.

 

The mystery was well played out with plenty of twists. I had no clue as to what had happened to the victims.

Disher includes themes of jury tampering and victim blaming around a sex crime case.

 

Overall I enjoyed The Way it is Now although the ending wrapped up abruptly and I had the feeling it needed a few more pages. 

 

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Photo: Goodreads

Garry Disher was born in 1949 and grew up on his parents' farm in South Australia.

He gained post graduate degrees from Adelaide and Melbourne Universities. In 1978 he was awarded a creative writing fellowship to Stanford University, where he wrote his first short story collection. He travelled widely overseas, before returning to Australia, where he taught creative writing, finally becoming a full time writer in 1988. He has written more than 40 titles, including general and crime fiction, children's books, textbooks, and books about the craft of writing.