By Sue Turnbull
FICTION
Smoke
Michael Brissenden
Affirm Press, $34.99
Climate change and wildfires, the displacement of Indigenous people, political and police corruption, and coercive control. These are the big issues former journalist Michael Brissenden tackles in his third crime novel, Smoke. The setting, however, is not Australia this time, although it could be given these problems are endemic here too, but California. Since joining American agent Shane Salerno’s Story Factory, Brissenden is clearly hoping to attract a broader readership to his work.
Credit:
And he deserves to find one. Smoke is a weighty police procedural featuring a relatable female central character, Detective Alex Markov, who left her hometown of Big Jasper in the Californian Sierras to pursue a career in Los Angeles that hasn’t turned out well. Now she’s back in Jasper facing three misconduct charges after crossing “the blue line” and informing on corrupt colleagues.
Credit:
Having experienced the Black Summer bushfires in 2020 that threatened his home on the NSW south coast, Brissenden is clearly drawing on personal memories when describing the devastating fire with which Smoke opens as it surges up the valley, “jumping from ridge to ridge” across the tree canopy. This is scary and all too real.
In the aftermath, a body is found in a burnt-out shed, the complication being the door was locked from the outside. This is where Alex and her Native American policing partner, Mackenzie, come in as further complications ensue. The dead man is the partner of Alex’s old school friend, Eve, who is also the mother of Alex’s nephew, Jamie. Alex discovers to her dismay that Eve has been subjected to ongoing coercive control and is therefore a suspect, as is Jamie.
And there is more going on in Jasper. Someone has big plans for the hardscrabble town and is buying up land for development. The Little Sisters of Mercy nursing home with its magnificent view of the lake has been earmarked for a “wellness resort” complete with yoga, meditation and a golf course.
This bothers Alex since her mother, Vita, is a resident and the alternatives too expensive. While Vita is disappearing into the haze of dementia, Alex’s father, Leo, is off trapping coyotes in the mountains while trying to escape his own demons. He, too, becomes a suspect after reappearing in town, suggesting this is indeed a family affair. But that’s not all: the plot accelerates when Alex’s LA past catches up with her.
Meanwhile, the fire has been devastating for the hundreds of displaced people who have lost their homes and are congregating at the local fairground, their “trailers loaded up with whatever possessions they had managed to save”. Even more tragic is the ongoing plight of the Native Americans “squeezed off the land they had occupied for thousands of years into a clapboard village” on the edge of town. And it didn’t need to be that way, Mackenzie tells Alex: “The country is part of us. We know how to manage it properly”. Brissenden makes the point without being didactic or preachy.
There are also some nice observations about the role of the media here as one might expect from an ABC veteran. As a local journalist tells Alex, everyone’s out at the fairgrounds – the politicians, the fire chiefs – because of “disaster porn. Media love it.” Although Alex’s boss, Chief Grisha Stankovic, doesn’t. He’s a big man “frightened of nothing except fluffy boom microphones, cameras and reporters”.
Trenchant, vivid and densely plotted, this is Brissenden’s best book so far and it’s a page turner.
The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.