Federal elections are only a fortnight away in Australia and in Canberra Susan Wright, the Minister for the Environment goes missing. After three days her body is found near Lake Burley Griffin. It seems that with Minister Wright's death the government's chance of re-election has evaporated.

Darren Glass and his boss, Assistant Commissioner Len McHenry of the Australian Federal Police, are making slow progress when a second person goes missing - this time Alan Proctor, a senior adviser in the Prime Minister's Office.

By this time Glass has already upset the Prime Minister and the Police Commissioner, and it seems he may be thrown off the case. But fortunately for him McHenry values his insight and he survives.

And it is beginning to look as if Susan Wright's death may just bring the electoral bounce that PrimeMinister Michael Landsdowne needs.

Peter Cotton has managed to pull off one of those rare achievements - a political thriller that keeps the reader guessing all the way. As the election gets closer and closer the investigation becomes murkier and it is evident that the origins of the first murder go back a couple of decades, to events that occurred when Landsdowne and Wright were in Opposition.

Oh, and by the way, you never do really find out the "flavor" of the government, and that really doesn't seem to matter.

The structure of the novel is unusual - mainly Darren Glass' narration, interspersed with television commentary by a female "Live Cam" journalist, and daily provocative blog comments by another political commentator.

If you are a non-Australian reader, I'm not sure that the enjoyment of the novel hinges on an understanding of the Australian political system. In fact I'm pretty sure it wouldn't. It is very well written, particularly for a debut novel, and held my interest to the end. ( )

I come from Canberra so with the book being set in Canberra, and reading in the middle of an election campaign, this book had a bit of resonance with me. Of course the current election is no where near as deadly as the one featured in the book.

I enjoyed this a lot as it moved along at a nice pace and didn't get too bogged down. There was a nice amount of action and suspense.

One slight issue is with the opening as the setting of the book was not clearly defined. To say that a body was found by the lake is very unclear as the lake is quiet large and there are hundreds of places a body could be dumped. Especially when later in the book settings were very clearly defined. ( )

The body of popular Environment Minister and leadership contender Susan Wright turns up on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in the company of a recently deceased cat likewise dumped in the mud. Then a particularly unpopular government head-kicker (aka ‘advisor’) is found in similar circumstances, followed by further disappearances. including the kidnapping of our central hero – Detective Darren Glass. Review at :

http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/08/08/crime-scene-angela-savage-the-dying-b... ( )