In my reviews of previous installments, I've stated what I like so much about this series, and those same reasons continue to apply to this volume. The team is investigating a serial rapist who lures his victims wearing a police uniform, and there are several other crimes being investigated, ranging from vandalism to bank robbery. A significant portion of the book is told from the pov of an impressive female cat burglar, and I liked this aspect as we see how successful crimes are carefully planned. This may all sound random and confusing, but Disher puts it all together seamlessly in this excellent police procedural.

3 1/2 stars ( )

I read the previous two novels in this series a long time ago, but had forgotten all about them. This was an Australian police procedural with various threads; the rape of one woman, the rape and murder of a second and the abduction of a third; thefts of art, jewellery etc by a burglar called Grace; her attempts to stay one step ahead of the mysterious Galt; the passing off of forgeries as original works of art; a home invasion; an armed robbery at a bank etc. There was a lot going on. On top of that, the main character criticizes cuts in police funding to a journalist and is facing disciplinary procedures.

The various threads were all wound up by the end, but the case of the rapist, which I had anticipated being the main focus, kind of tailed off and ended extremely anticlimactically. I could have done with a map really, since (especially in the opening chapters) the author went into great detail about the towns Grace was driving through, living in, stealing in, keeping her bank safety deposit box in etc etc and it meant absolutely nothing to me (and didn't really turn out to be important save for the fact that they were different places). There was also a great focus on the police detectives' private lives, which slowed things down, as I found none of them to be particularly sympathetic, or even that interesting.

Competently done, but I don't think I'll be seeking out any more of these. ( )

In the first two books of the series, Disher created a set of weird and interesting characters, each with their oddities and personal stories. Then he realized that he has too many of them - so since then he had been busy killing them, sending them off for a whole book, splitting them from the team and whatever else you can think of. This time around, Ellen is shipped off to Europe for training and exchange of experience (so we see her only a few times, talking with Hal - and giving a chance to something like a relationship between them), Tankard makes a few appearances (in important places but outside the team) and after all that happened in the last few books, we have only Hal, Pam and Scobie in the team.

And while our team is busy with a rapist, we meet Grace - a thief with a complicated past and running out of luck. If you are reading the book, you know that these two stories will converge sooner or later - and when they do, people are under stress again. Somewhere in the middle of all that, Hal talks to a reporter about the financial cuts and the policies in the department and that gets him in trouble. Again.

The description of Australian life and scenery are fascinating as always and because the reader should know the main characters, private lives and thoughts are revealed with sketches - which will be a problem if you had not read the previous books - because this makes the characters sounding almost two dimensional - the third dimension comes from knowing these people; knowing what things mean (like Scobie's wife). Disher adds some backstory so things do not sound out of context but you need the real backstories to get all the meanings.

By the end of the book, Disher had put enough hints to ensure that someone else from the team can be missing from the next book - actually there are enough hints to make me wonder if there will be another book. I hope there is - I really like this series. ( )

Reviewed at Reviewing the Evidence. Another excellent entry in a solid series.

WHISPERING DEATH affirms that Garry Disher is a master storyteller, a tight and consummate plotter, a writer who could sit on any international podium along with richer and more famous crime fiction writers - and thank goodness he is going to be at Adelaide Writers' Week in March 2012.

There are some interesting pictures of Australian lifestyles

... this morning Grace was in Hobart, strolling through a well-heeled corner of Sandy Bay... a land of two-car households, two adults working nine to five in well paid jobs. No shift workers here.

and then later

Today she had a clear run on the toll road between Melbourne airport and the city, and again when she headed over the West Gate Bridge, high winds buffeting the little car, and down into Williamstown, where the mean grind of old Melbourne co-existed with bright young mortgages. Factories and workshops sat next to pastelly little townhouses with cute, candy-coloured cars in the driveways. Grace wound down her window. The air, dense and still, was faintly salted from the Bay. The trees, branches barely moving, seemed dazed from years-long drought.

Several elements of Hal Challis' life seem to come to an end in WHISPERING DEATH. He decides to sell his restored 1930s Dragon Rapide that he has worked on for the last 10 years. He sees this as representing a phase of his life that has come to an end. He decides also to sell his elderly Triumph TR4, this time because it needs a lot of work done on it, and he no longer has the time or motivation.

And then he voices criticisms of the resourcing problems Peninsula policing is experiencing, to local reporter, and it seems that his time on the Peninsula may be coming to an end too. He seals his fate when he rushes out of an interview with his boss and a couple of other big-wigs to answer his mobile phone.

His mobile phone sounded in his pocket. He checked the screen, saw McQarrie's name on the screen and knew he couldn't keep avoiding the man.

He answered and McQarrie said, 'What possessed you, Inspector, walking out on - '

Challis overrode him. 'A home invasion and then a murder, that's what possessed me.'

Silence, and he found himself adding, 'Doing my job, in fact,' guessing he was driving another nail into the lid of his coffin.'

So, if you are looking for some quality Australian crime fiction, here is another title, another author to add to your list. You won't be disappointed.
All the titles in the series are available on Amazon for your Kindle too. ( )