Before WA based author Felicity Young commenced her extremely good Dr Dody McCleland series, she published a series of police procedural novels one of which built around the central character of Sergeant Cam Fraser in it. FLASHPOINT, originally out in 2005, has recently been re-released in ebook format.

Years ago this reader did read FLASHPOINT and some of the elements remained and obviously a lot didn't (the first version of this review muddled up the Cam Fraser and Stevie Hooper series utterly - with apologies to Felicity Young). FLASHPOINT looks back to recent events when his wife and young son were murdered, set in the immediate aftermath, as Fraser and his daughter Ruby return to the country town where he grew up - he assigned to the local Police Station, Ruby to be enrolled in the school that her mother attended.

The story starts out with the discovery of a burnt body and proceeds from there to build the details of the investigation, interwoven with the difficulties that Fraser and his daughter continue to have in coming to terms with the violent act that killed the rest of the family, and the tensions that come from settling into a new community, to say nothing of the difficulties of a now single father raising a teenage girl who is desperate to construct her own life.

The combination of an ongoing investigation, and the family tensions, as well as settling back into a town that has history for Fraser are balanced well, with Young writing the police procedural aspects with authority and a careful touch. The revelation of Fraser's backstory is woven into events in a logical manner, never distracting from the current death, providing insight into Fraser's behaviour and reactions, to say nothing of investigative tools and information that wouldn't be so readily available in larger, less connected societies. Whilst there is much in the sulky, difficult teenage daughter that is predictable, there is also the poignancy of a young girl whose life has gone through so much upheaval and the difficulties she is experiencing as a result.

As with the Dody McCleland series, this book works really well. Young expands the backstory and allow the characters to take on personalities that you can connect with. Which makes republishing FLASHPOINT as an ebook a great opportunity for fans of Australian police procedurals as FLAREUP, the second Cam Fraser book will be out next year.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-flashpoint-felicity-young ( )

Cam Fraser is a former National Crime Authority officer who, with his teenage daughter Ruby, has moved from Sydney to become Senior Sergeant in the Western Australian country town of his birth. Almost as soon as he arrives a building at a private girl's school in the town is burned down and a body is discovered in the ashes. To investigate the crime Cam has help from a squad of rookies and one experienced officer who is the subject of a series of complaints. In addition both he and his daughter are still recovering from the tragedy that led to them leaving Sydney.

Fortunately for me this book was well worth the four months it took to track down a copy of it. The story is believable, has a well paced suspense and rates highly on my 'readability' scale which is a vague term I use to describe how interested I am in turning each page. I finished the whole thing in two sittings and I'm not even going to complain that one of those sittings kept me up until 2:00am on a school night. I simply had to know if my predictions for whodunit were accurate which is always a sign of a good read (for the record, they weren't).

Although recognisably Australian in its setting and language the book achieves this state naturally. Sometimes with Australian books, such as Geraldine Brooks' People of the Book which I read earlier this year, I cringe at the use of colloquialisms that would only be found in a Paul Hogan ad and never in real conversations. A Certain Malice achieves an Australian sensibility beautifully and without appearing to try too hard.

I quickly became engaged by the protagonist and the minor characters, especially the troubled Ruby and rookie cop Leanne, who all seemed very credible. It was also interesting to see the sub-plot with Vince develop in a more realistic way than some of the 'cops protect cops at all costs' plots that have permeated crime fiction for years.

On top of all this the book is less than 300 pages and, it seems, is not part of an ongoing series. Both of these things are increasingly rare occurrences in modern crime fiction so to find both attributes in one terrific story is something to be treasured indeed.

My rating is actually a 4.5 ( )

Opening Sentence:
‘…”First I heard the thumping feet, then I caught a flash of the kangaroo bounding through the burned bushland“…’

Senior Sergeant Cameron Fraser, along with his teenage daughter Ruby, has moved from Sydney to his hometown of Glenroyd to take charge of the local police station. Fraser hopes to finally put behind them the deaths of his wife and young son three years before in a deadly fire, one in which Fraser was badly burned trying to save them. He also hopes to protect Ruby and himself from the bikie gangs responsible for the fire that all but destroyed their lives.

Author, Felicity Young, started off by easing the reader into the story. Opening with the discovery of a burnt body. From there Felicity took an almost interminable amount of time developing the setting and introducing characters.
However, this was just the lull before the storm – without warning the plot suddenly cranked up into top gear and sped off at such a pace that this reader hardly had time to pause for breath. I did not dare put the book down in case I
missed something.

Twists and turns abound, and just when I thought that I may have an idea what might be happening, and where the investigation was going, Felicity changed direction and dragged me off down another route. There is betrayal after betrayal – trust no-on, but can you trust yourself? Everyone gets betrayed in some way – right up to the final hurrah on the side of a country road. Talk about edge of the seat stuff.

A very, very good read. ( )

As one of my friends is won't to say, life is really too short to spend precious time re-reading books. I originally read A CERTAIN MALICE back in 2006, soon after its publication.

So why have I just re-read it? Well, it is our discussion book over on oz_mystery_readers for the next few days starting tomorrow, and my memory just isn't what it used to be. And I'm glad I took the time to do it!

Back in 2006 I wrote
"Felicity Young, new West Australian author, hits the spot with her debut book. Senior Sergeant Cam Fraser accepts an appointment to run the police station in a small country town in West Australia to get away from the trauma that he and his 15 year old daughter have experienced in the last 3 years. He was brought up in this town, but his expectations of a quiet life are shattered with the discovery of a charred body after a bushfire in the grounds of a local school. To complicate matters the police at the station are mainly young and inexperienced, apart from Vince against whom there have been many complaints by locals. And what are the school principal and her husband hiding? The story moves at a good pace and the plot is well woven. Young makes good use of the uniqueness of her Australian setting." and I rated it at 4.5

I don't think I need to tell you more about the plot here, except to say that my rating has gone up to 4.8. After this re-reading what I want to tell you about is Felicity Young's considerable air of assurance in this her debut novel. If you are looking for an Australian author to start reading, then here is certainly one for you.

Felicity currently has 3 published books, and one on the way. Her website is at http://www.felicityyoung.com

If you are in Australia Booktopia has all 3 Felicity Young titles available.
So do Felicity's publishers Fremantle Press.
Look for A CERTAIN MALICE, AN EASEFUL DEATH, and HARUM SCARUM.
If you are outside Australia try the Book Depository: A CERTAIN MALICE, and HARUM SCARUM are both in stock, although the latter is a bit expensive. ( )