A frustrated book buyer

A couple of days ago, Bernadette over at Reactions to Reading posted her reads of the month.  Two of the books took my fancy: Black Wattle Creek by Geoffrey McGeachin and Paving the New Road by Sulari Gentill.  Neither are available on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com, nor Book Depository.  I've previously tried to buy McGeachin's other Charlie Berlin book, The Digger's Rest Hotel.  It's available as an audio book but not a paper or e-book.  I've twice had pre-orders for White Dog by Peter Temple cancelled because of delays in being published in the UK, despite the fact that it was published in 2004 in Australia (it is now available at hardback price).  I've also tried to buy Kel Robertson's second novel, Smoke and Mirrors, a winner of Ned Kelly prize for crime fiction in 2009, but to no avail.  I've read the first book in the series because a friend in Australia sent me a copy.

It's pretty difficult to be Fair Dinkum about Australian crime fiction when it is almost impossible to buy the crime novels published there.  In an age of globalised cultural production, Internet buying and e-books, I find it very odd that English language books are still being limited to geographical regions.  I can read reviews of books, but I can't buy them.  It's a practise that seems limited to fiction.  I think all of my academic books can be bought anywhere on the planet relatively easily.  It is very frustrating to potential readers and I suspect also authors who's audience is being deliberately limited.  I know that this is to do with the selling of rights and the launching/marketing of books in different locales, but it seems to me that there should be an opportunity for readers to purchase books online that might not yet be available in bookstores.  If nothing else it might create a buzz about a book, including reviews, and actually aid the selling of rights in different regions.  Especially as so many of the books I'm interested in will probably never be published in other regions.

Anyway, what I want to know is this: can somebody recommend an Australian online bookstore that will post the books to Ireland at a reasonable rate?  Or perhaps an alternative way to buy Australian crime fiction that is presently not available in the Europe or North America?  I know books in Australia are relatively expensive, but I can live with that.  I just want to be able to read the books that I want to read.

Review of Dead Set by Kel Robertson (Text Publishing, 2009)

Chinese-Australian Inspector, Brad Chen, has seen better times. The one time Rugby League star has been crippled by a hit and run accident that’s left him on crutches, addicted to drink and painkillers, and on the sick list. When Tracey Dale, the immigration minister, is found dead in her house, strangled with a coat hanger and a plastic bag tied over her head, he's called back to help his former protégé. The minister was seeking to implement a new immigration bill that would open the door for a wave of non-white immigrants, and there seems to be no shortage of people who would be happy that she was no longer in office. Into the bargain comes a new recruit, the beautiful Kate Malone. Her job is to shepherd Chen, his to mentor her first few days on the job. Tasked with following one particular strand of the murder investigation, Chen and Malone have a knack for discovering new bodies, all with some kind of link to Dale, and various kinds of trouble as they ruffle various feathers.

I thought the first half of Dead Set was a terrific read. The characters are well introduced, the police procedural elements are well handled, and the story just flies along. Robertson’s writing has a nice balance between dialogue and description, and whilst quite functional in style, it’s engaging to read. Chen is intriguing character with his sardonic wit, selective approach to procedure and various vulnerabilities. The second half of the book tails away a little and I increasingly found myself asking why questions as holes in the plot started to appear. And the end was a bit of a letdown, despite the blockbuster climax. Overall, Dead Set is a good, solid, entertaining read and it’s certainly whetted the appetite for the second Chen book, Smoke and Mirrors, which recently won the Ned Kelly Best Fiction Award in his native Australia.

Lost books

After a ten minute search it's become apparent that I've managed to leave Kel Robertson's first novel, Dead Set, on a bedside locker in a hotel room in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. I was going to post a Saturday snippet from it today. I'm really annoyed with myself for not checking the room properly before running out the door. At least I'd finished reading it during the two days I was staying there whilst attending a conference. I'll write the review tomorrow and post on Monday. If I'd been halfway through I'd be really cheesed off right now as the book had been specially posted to me from Australia. I'm sure you've experienced a similar experience or worse ...