Before It Breaks (Dave Warner, Fremantle Press)

In the far northern reaches of Australia’s western coastline, a body is discovered in a croc-infested creek, its head cleaved with an axe. Detective Daniel Clement—who recently stalled a rocketing career in Perth to follow his estranged family to his childhood town—is tasked with solving the homicide, alongside inexperienced colleagues more used to breaking up biffo at the pub than solving the murder of a slightly pesky dope-growing German. Clement’s investigation covers everything from local biker gangs to 1970s Hamburg. It’s an honest but never dull portrayal of the drone of police work and the tedium of travelling hundreds of kilometres across Western Australia for a single interview, before an impending cyclone accompanies a breakneck finale. Warner’s tone is laid-back and laconic, but with sentences as snappy as a nutcracker. Similar to Garry Disher’s excellent Bitter Wash Road, the story features cagey small-town locals and a protagonist sweating honest self-reflection while second-guessing his move from the big city to unfamiliar, imposing and expansive territory. Crime-writer and former 1970s punk rocker Dave Warner has written a book that’s as Australian as a bevvy in a tinny.

Fiona Hardy is a bookseller at Readings Carlton and a committee member of the Australian Crime Writers Association