Kingdom of the Strong

Chilling and memorable; top-notch Aussie Noir - Weekend Australian on PROMISE

Compulsive reading, Promise itself is more menacing, more disturbing and much more confronting than any other crime thriller on the shelves. It is brutal. It is terrifying. It is a brilliant book. - Rob Minshull, ABC Radio on Promise

One of the most complex and uncompromising heroes since Harry Bosch. - Weekend Australian on DEAD GIRL SING

I literally tore through this book... Cavanaugh again trawls through the dark recesses of humanity and you can't look away... Cavanaugh isn't emulating any established international crime writers, he is joining them in his own unique right - bitethebook.com on DEAD GIRL SING

Tony Cavanaugh brings new depth and dimension to crime fiction in this country. - The Weekend West on THE TRAIN RIDER

“Every murder, rape, every act of wanton violence is a snatch in time but the incident didn’t come out of nowhere; there’s always a timeline where the person who commits the crime sets about on his or her journey and for whatever reasons, intersects with their victim and then, following that crossroads of violence and mayhem, tendrils are left behind. Guilt, shame, remorse, anger, feelings of retribution or hopelessness and evidence, the traces from the contact and these tendrils, both physical and psychological, never….vanish” Kingdom of the Strong is the fourth book in the Darian Richards series by Australian author, Tony Cavanaugh. On the night of December 21st, 1990, eighteen-year-old Isobel Vine was found dead in her house in Osborne Road, South Yarra. She was slumped, naked, on the back of her bedroom door, hanging by a man’s tie that had been wrapped around her neck and secured to a solid brass hook on the door. The Coroner gave an open finding, unable to decide between suicide, self-inflicted accident and murder. Her father Eli always maintained that she was murdered and was convinced that four police constables and a local businessman were implicated. Twenty-five years later, one of those constables is in line to become the next Police Commissioner, and needs to be shown as squeaky clean. Current Commissioner, Copeland Walsh personally recruits ex-Homicide detective Darian Richards, now retired to Noosa, to conduct the investigation into this decidedly cold case. Darian enlists Senior Constable Maria Chastain, knowing he can rely on her; his IT expert, Isosceles, is challenged but not defeated by the lack of electronic records in 1990; Maria’s ex-(?)criminal, tattooed bikie boyfriend, Casey Lack may be a complication or an advantage. The team quickly rules out suicide, but the list of possible suspects is not small, and tracking down witnesses after twenty-five years is no minor task. Trace evidence, too, is lacking as first responders assumed suicide. This gripping novel is full of twists and red herrings. None of the characters is quite what they first seem and the reader kept guessing to almost the end. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, often provided by Isosceles and also by Casey, but readers are warned that there is also a quite graphic depiction of a rape and murder. Cavanaugh heads his chapters with interesting titles, and Darian’s obsession with murder is demonstrated with his running commentary of violent crime linked to each location they pass as he and Maria travel through Melbourne, which is, according to Darian, a city of murder. While this is the fourth book in the series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. But he is a complex and interesting character, and fans will not be disappointed with this next dose of Darian Richards; first-time readers of this author will very likely want to seek out Cavanaugh’s backlist. The description of this novel as “top notch Aussie crime” is certainly apt: this is a riveting read. With thanks to Hachette and TheReadingRoom for this copy to read and review.

Marianne Vincent