Title: Dead Man Switch
Author: Tara Moss
Published: October 21st 2019
Publisher: Harper Collins – AU
Pages: 368
Genres: Fiction, Historical, Mystery, Detective
RRP: $32.99
Rating: 4 stars
She’s a woman in a man’s world …
Sydney, 1946. Billie Walker is living life on her own terms. World War II has left her bereaved, her photojournalist husband missing and presumed dead. Determined not to rely on any man for her future, she re-opens her late father’s detective agency.
Billie’s bread and butter is tailing cheating spouses – it’s easy, pays the bills and she has a knack for it. But her latest case, the disappearance of a young man, is not proving straightforward …
Soon Billie is up to her stylish collar in bad men, and not just the unfaithful kind – these are the murdering kind. Smugglers. Players. Gangsters. Billie and her loyal assistant must pit their wits against Sydney’s ruthless underworld and find the young man before it’s too late.
Review:
Twenty years is a good innings in the publishing industry, which Australian/Canadian author Tara Moss recently celebrated. Moss’ debut novel Fetish hit shelves two decades ago now, and she returns with a brand new crime fiction novel featuring a snazzy heroine. Dead Man Switch heralds the first in an exciting new historical fiction series featuring Billie Walker, a penetrating PI, with a wicked sense of determination.
Set in the years just after the close of World War II, Dead Man Switch introduces Billie Walker. A war widow, Billie has returned to Australia’s shores a changed and independent woman. Billie sets her sights on her father’s detective agency, opening its doors once again, but now she is in charge. Soon after Billie revives her father’s agency, the cases begin to trickle in. Billie is called up to help in the search for a young man who has vanished without a trace, but this case becomes baffling and dangerous. Along the way, Billie is in for a wild ride. She is confronted with various violent and dangerous figures, determined to keep the truth under wraps. She faces cheats, gangsters and many shady figures. She is also exposed to murderers and thugs. It becomes a race against time to find the missing young man, before he is swallowed up by Sydney’s gangland abyss.
Tara Moss is quite the name here and abroad. She has some impressive stats to her name. Moss has notched up eleven published books of both fiction and nonfiction, which have been beamed across nineteen separate countries and translated into thirteen different languages. With a number of titles, awards and credentials, it surprised me that I hadn’t picked up any of her work until now. Dead Man Switch is my first taste of Tara Moss’ writing and I did enjoy it.
Too often we are presented with books that focus directly on the World War II experience. Dead Man Switch takes a different approach, as this book is set just after the war. As a result, we get a very good grasp of the general reception, atmosphere, emotions, public perceptions and inner feelings of those who lived through, fought, or were left behind during the war. This is the case with Billie Walker, the lead of this novel. We learn that Billie is a war widow, who survived the war, but she lost her love. Billie’s feelings of grief are still very fresh and pointed, which is referenced to throughout the book. Moss also draws our attention to the soldiers who survived, but are left with battle scars, physical deformities, or psychological wounds. It is both devastating to read, but also realistic, reminding us of the toll on everyone following the close of the war.
Billie Walker, the heroine of this tale, is expanded upon very well by Moss. We are presented with a lead who is strong, yet vulnerable. Billie is enterprising, determined and open to danger. In re-opening her father’s private investigation service, Billie is honouring her late father, but she is also placing her own spin on this agency. It was nice to see her team up with a returned serviceman, together these two make a great working team. The cases presented to Billie are intriguing and I enjoyed seeing how they would be resolved. The missing person’s case of a young man brings plenty of peril, suspicion, underhanded tactics, violence and action to the floor. Billie takes it all in her stride, despite some hairy moments!
It is clear that Moss has conducted a heavy amount of research to formulate her first Billie Walker historical crime based novel. This book is rich in period specific information and exact details of the time, which makes it very authentic in the eyes of the reader. What became quite apparent to me while reading this book was the strong attitudes present during this era. This was a time when sexism, racism and class distinctions were absolutely rife. It infiltrates into every aspect of 1940s life, right down to the system of law. Billie is really fighting a losing battle to rise to the top and to be acknowledged in this piece. She does put up a damn good fight for women of this time!
The cases presented and the atmosphere depicted by Moss is a great nod to a decade that was filled with uncertainty and loss. Moss adequately highlights the shift in perspectives, as well as behaviours that defined this time period. The acknowledgements section details how this novel was born, which is a combination of real life events, some fictional fantasy, stories drawn from the author’s family and the writer’s preoccupation with post war based history. Combined with Moss’s interest in noir, action and hardened fiction of this period, along with a desire to outline the female trailblazers of this era, all these aspects culminated in the creation of Dead Man Switch.
Dead Man Switch proved to be a compelling read, featuring a brazen lead, that definitely makes her mark. This novel will be sure to entertain both historical fiction, mystery and crime readers.
Dead Man Switch by Tara Moss was published on 21st October 2019 by Harper Collins – AU. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
To learn more about the author of Dead Man Switch, Tara Moss, visit here.
*I wish to thank Harper Collins Australia for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Dead Man Switch is book #4 of the 2020 Australian Women Writers Challenge
