Dirty Laundry
Paul Thomas
Vista pbk, £5.99
Review by Gerald Houghton (1998)
Wallace Guttle, a P.I. who gets off on the sexploits of his targets, gets three bullets in the forehead for his troubles. Businessman Victor Appleyard took a final dive off of the Auckland harbour bridge, leaving a merry widow and a whole mess of trouble for disgraced reporter and failed gigolo Reggie Sparks. Maverick cop Tito Ihaka is just trying to make sense of it all.
It's hardly promising when a novelist comes billed as "the down-under Carl Hiaasen" by his publisher, but this second from New Zealand's Paul Thomas very nearly fits the bill. Like those of his Floridian cousin, the plot - which revolves around the 1970 suicide of a young woman at an exclusive public school - is ludicrous, needlessly convoluted and extremely diverting. But more pointedly, Thomas' deft characterisation and sense of violent absurdity save Dirty Laundry from simple pastiche.
This book is not just a comic American thriller transplanted to the Southern Hemisphere, finding in its mix of erstwhile SAS-loons, Oz Mafiosi and psychotic, blood-drinking Maori gangs an original voice with a real feel for location.
Vista are already promising two more Thomas books (including his award-winning debut, Inside Dope), but don't wait until everyone wants a piece: hitch a ride aboard this particular bandwagon now.