Christian Rodka's brilliant narration added great pleasure to listening to this novel. There is quite a cast of characters and his voice portrayal made picking one from the other relatively easy.

I've been on a bit of a Jon Cleary kick in the last few months and have listened to
4.6, WINTER CHILL- set some time before THE EASY SIN and
4.7, DEGREES OF CONNECTION which was Jon Cleary's last Scobie Malone novel, following on from THE EASY SIN.

There are passages in this novel which crack a smile, despite the seriousness of the story line: an abduction and a couple of murders thrown in for good measure; a gang that by any standards is incompetent, but at the same time amoral. I thought some of the characters were overblown and parts of the plot definitely unrealistic. On the other hand the collapse of the dotcom bubble pointed to how ordinary Australians lost money in a world financial phenomenon.

And then for Scobie Malone fans, historically this was his last case at the head of Homicide and at the time they must have wondered what Jon Cleary was up to. With hindsight we know he was preparing to bow out of crime fiction. ( )

This is the 19th of 20 books to feature Inspector Scobie Malone. He is nearing the end of his career and even contemplates retirement in this book. And it's this undertone to the whole story that is a bit of draw back to enjoying this book entirely. He is rather reflective through out the entire story and this wouldn't be so bad if this was the 19th book I had read in the series, but it's been years since I've read one.

For some reason it didn't all fit and flow together for me and although I enjoyed reading an Australian based book, it was not the best and I can only give it 2/5. ( )