Wyatt

Starred review from June 27, 2011
A jewel heist that appears straightforward proves anything but in Australian author Disher's outstanding seventh thriller featuring Melbourne bank robber Wyatt Wareen, last seen in 1997's The Fallout. Intercepting and robbing an international courier should be as simple as car theft. Armed with inside information, Wyatt is looking forward to a quick pay-off. What Wyatt doesn't know is that his confederates can't be trusted, that the heist will yield not easily fenced jewels but a vast fortune in bonds, and that the courier is a professional criminal as adept and deadly as Wyatt himself. While his backstabbing former allies try to exploit a haul unexpectedly too valuable to pawn, the methodical Wyatt plots final retribution. The spare, economical prose perfectly suits this tale of mad love and crimes gone wrong, which will remind many of Westlake's better Parker novelsâand should boost the reputation of Disher, winner of Australia's Ned Kelly Award, in the U.S.

October 1, 2011
Two super-thieves meet in Melbourne and discover the world isn't big enough for both of them. Wyatt Wareen and Alain Le Page are cut from the same larcenous cloth. They think alike, they sound alike at the rare times when they talk and they operate from the same existential premise: Nothing matters but the job. They even look alike. Wyatt is "wiry, stripped down, bones close to the surface…with the kind of eyes that take and give nothing." It's a description that fits Le Page just as snugly. Among his peers, thieves of the highest echelon, Le Page gets extra marks for his knife work. But transcending all other similarities is the way they plan. Both are meticulous and detail-oriented in the extreme. So when things go as terribly wrong as they do in Melbourne, it's probably not fair to fault either one. Blame it on bad luck, or an inattentive St. Dismas. Blame it on a jumped-up, suddenly ambitious fence named Eddie Oberin, the link between two entirely separate heists. Or blame it on Eddie's girlfriend Khandi Cane, who's equally capable of loopy behavior and homicidal rage. At any rate, what should have been a workaday job with sensible payoffs for each becomes a hodgepodge of betrayal and murder, leading to a confrontation between super-thieves neither one wants. Once again Disher (Blood Moon, 2009, etc.) takes us back to the golden age of thrillers, a time when they were fast, taut and dependably suspenseful.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from July 1, 2011

With an uncanny ability to hide in plain sight, master thief Wyatt Wareen (Kickback) slips calmly and silently through the streets of Melbourne, Australia. No one--including law enforcement--ever notices or remembers his presence. This calculated anonymity, along with Wyatt's preference for taking low-risk jobs and working alone, has fostered his underworld success. But when he changes his usual MO to join an old contact and his ex-wife on a lucrative jewel heist, the job takes an ugly turn that puts them all at risk. As duplicity turns to murder, Wyatt becomes the target of several players in the deal, and he must rely on all his skills to untangle and rectify multiple layers of calamity and betrayal. VERDICT Disher's depiction of Melbourne's underworld is a revelation--undeniably lurid and harsh yet humming with a vibrancy that lends a soulful note to the story. In his first Wyatt thriller in 13 years, Disher, author of the Hal Challis police procedurals (The Dragon Man; Blood Moon) excels at capturing the complexity and tension of life on the run, and his characters exude a visceral energy as they compete to survive. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy atmospheric, character-driven crime thrillers.--Kelsy Peterson, Prairie Village, KS

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2011
Wyatt Wareen has been away for awhile, but he's back in Melbourne and looking for a score. Partnering with tipster Eddie Oberin and Eddie's ex-wife, Lydia Stark, on a jewel heist seems safe enoughuntil they find bearer bonds, not jewels, and are ambushed by a fourth partner that two of them didn't know about. The job goes to hell, but Wyatt is resourceful. He wants the bonds, and he wants to send a message. Strictly business, of course. Disher also writes the excellent Inspector Hal Challis procedurals (Chain of Evidence, 2007), but a new Wyatt novelwe've described the series as criminal procedurals (Kick Back, 1993)is cause for celebration. Though the ensemble cast is sharply drawn, the heart of the story is Wyatt, a cool-headed, taciturn, unsentimental thief with a code. Not the kind of code that makes him a good guy at heart, just a code for staying alive and out of jail. If there's an emotional tug, it's from Wyatt's sense that his time is almost up. He was an old-style hold-up man: cash, jewellery, paintings. . . . The trouble was, technology had outstripped him. Wyatt may be a man out of time, but crime fiction like this is timeless.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)