"Stiff", by Shane Moloney

I read this basically to shut my Dad up, as he had been raving about these Shane Moloney books since October when he came to visit.

To quote Tony Wilson (another author): "His sentences have an effortless grace and humour and he brings Melbourne to life on the page." The writing is very easy to read, with casual humour inserted throughout, and metaphors and common sayings slightly twisted to suit the context of the story in a way that makes you laugh out loud, briefly. It's also good to read something Australian, set in an Australian city that I have visited many times.

This story is the first in a series, about a guy who works as an assistant to a State Labor MP in Melbourne's ethnically diverse northern suburbs. He's asked to look into the circumstances behind a death in an abattoir located in the electorate, to make sure there won't be any union or IR implications for the government. As he delves deeper and deeper into the characters involved, and series of chaotic events unravel in his personal life, involving his unofficially separated wife who has taken up a position in Canberra, his 7 year old son, whom he stuggles to pick up from school on time, and the roof on his house, which inconveniently collapses in the middle of all the action and during the middle of a rainy week.

Anyhow, all is revealed and resolves itself in the end. I have no idea how this character manages to have a series or mystery novels written about him given his profession (ie not a detective, but then neither was Miss Marple), but I don't think I am intrigued enough to find out. Not bad, easy to read, and entertaining enough to make you want to see how it ends.