Synopsis from Amazon.com:
Ex Detective Sergeant Ben Hood, now a VIP protection operative, finds himself the target of a twisted serial killer when he is sent to protect Far North Australian Socialite, Merinda Jerome. Bodies and body parts are turning up in the deadly and ghostly caverns of Black Mountain. A graveyard is robbed. The killer seems to be two totally different identities. Perhaps he is white, or perhaps black. He is always one step ahead of Police and always too close for comfort. He uses a variety of unusual killing techniques. The man hunt is on, but who is hunting who?
My Review:
The author, Drew Lindsay, creates and tackles a large body of work, with a many-armed, quite detailed plot. At times, the protagonist, Ben Wood, feels larger than life and I half-expected him to start flying into the air while re-routing hurricanes and seeing bullets bounce off his body, all the while making love with every available female within a one hundred mile radius.
That said, the secondary characters are more down-to-earth and much more believable, with foibles and faults. There is young Binda, the aboriginal-descent detective with Maruce, the hard-bitten detective with a soft spot, the down-to-earth coroner/doctor, Ruth, who tends to everyone’s body and soul, and Merinda, the also aboriginal-descent rags-to-riches maven, whose husband disappeared in a plane somewhere. Now her business partner, was her husbands business parter…see where this is going?
Now add in a much-revered, spooky, religious Mountain in Austrailia and superstitions with bodies piling up. The story kept my attention, it didn’t deviate much from the mail storyline and wrapped up nicely.
Overall, I would suggest Black Mountain Affair for a good weekend read.
Brick ONeil 