Craig's review - 16 april 2008
Melbourne writer Robert Sims shows us, with his novel ‘The Shadow Maker' (2007, Arena/Allen & Unwin), that crime thrillers have definitely become much darker – an angle most horror fans should already be starting to enjoy.
With a tag line such as ‘Hell exists in this world, not the next', you know that you are not about to read an average forensic crime novel.
How about the torture of a prostitute, straight off the bat? Her eyes burnt out with a red-hot poker. A messy crime scene with no clues except the assailant's make of vehicle, which happens to match the MO of a prior, unsolved string of attacks (which cleverly throws your thoughts on the case in several wrong directions). Interested? I was, because that's only the beginning.
I must clarify that after the initial scene I found the novel had a deceptively slow start (arriving at the crime scene, then back at the police office), where it seems Sims merely copied his notes on police procedures verbatim. But once things really kick off, in quite a short time, the novel begins to relax with its main characters, their lives and actions real enough to provide a natural flow to the text. And of course the novel employs typically short chapters to make me read just another page, just another page…
As with most crime novels, it's hard to summarise the plot without giving too much away. Needless to say, the story revolves around Detective Sergeant Marita (Rita) Van Hassel, of Melbourne's Sexual Crimes Squad. With athletic looks and short blonde hair, she is a typical female cliché. But this appearance plays a large part in the development of Rita's emotional imbalance (yes, she is human), not to mention allowing a way to draw a few suspects into the outer rim of her private world.
The story is set in Melbourne, predominately within the city and its inner suburbs. This was blissful for me to read, since I have just lived there – indeed, many of the areas are described vividly enough to remind me of where I'd travelled. My only complaint is that Sims took me to a place and then added his own touch (such as entering a bookstore where I'm sure there isn't one – sorry, Robert, if there is). Legalities may have played a role in this. Creativity too. Especially when a large portion of the story revolves around Rita pursuing Greek crime boss Tony Kavella (in Melbourne city's Greek precinct and adjoining Chinatown), who owns a rather seedy nightclub called Plato's Cave, which happens to be the name on an encrypted security card Rita finds at the scene of a crime. Can't make too many real-life implications there!
The crime isn't that simple to solve though. In the fashion of many traditional crime thrillers, there are at least three suspects at all times. And when several of these are attached to a games company producing a virtual reality experience that may be crossing some borders, well… Rita isn't the only one with an emotional imbalance. Perhaps the assailant thinks slicing off noses and gouging out eardrums is a just cause. Whoops, I've said enough.
So after my criticism of Arena/Allen & Unwin's editing direction in a prior review, I gladly eat my words and thank the team for introducing us to Robert Sims. Not only has he created a solid first novel, but he has shown us how much the crime thriller genre is slowly but surely blending with horror. More people need to embrace this. And I'm sure we will see Rita in many future novels, her character only scraped at her surface for the most part. Robert, my order is in for the next one.
the novel
Robert Sims' 'The Shadow Maker' (Arena/Allen & Unwin, 2007) - Crime Thriller
