Donna Malane

My Brother's Keeper is a readable but not compelling book. Diane Rowe, a private detective was contacted by an ex-convict, Karen, to locate her 14 year old daughter, Sunny, to make sure she is OK. Having served seven years in prison for murdering her young son, Falcon (she plunged a car into a river with Falcon inside it...Sunny was rescued), she is out and wants to insure that Sunny is safe. Karen got Diane's name from her ex-cellmate, Vex, who is serving time for murdering Diane's younger sister. (It gets a tad complicated.)

Diane quickly finds Sunny, who wants to see her mother, but before that can take place, Karen is found dead. I don't think that's giving too much away. Diane now needs to solve the murder.

Diane does a lot of flying between Auckland and Wellington. She does a lot of driving. She doesn't, however, do a lot of sleuthing.

It's not a cozy mystery and it's not a police or detective procedural. It got good reviews somewhere and that's why I read it. But it is merely OK.… (mais)

The first book in the Diane Rowe series, SURRENDER is part of a two book series (MY BROTHER'S KEEPER is out now), set in Wellington, New Zealand, featuring a private investigator scenario that makes a huge amount of sense.

Diane Rowe is an ex-cop and now missing person's expert. Her marriage to still serving cop Sean fell apart as she struggled to cope with the murder of her younger sister Niki (all of which happened before this book), and now Sean now finds himself investigating the murder of the man everyone believes is Niki's killer. Which investigation Rowe cannot help but interfere with - even though she's warned off by everyone.

Told from Rowe's point of view, the action is fast moving and the style is witty, pointed and nicely nuanced. Rowe's a strong character who will be the sort of wise-cracking, self-doubting, frequently daft but undeniably brave, and dedicated female character that reader's are either going to get, or hate. But she does work really well - holds the central viewpoint strongly, is believable and understandable. There's a strong sense of humour built into Rowe - even when she's grieving her sister, even when she's just got herself into a tricky situation. Her relationship with her now ex-husband is really well done, as are the trials and tribulations of someone you love moving on, and what Rowe is going to do about her own personal life.

It doesn't hurt that she's an animal lover and now owner of an ex-police dog who is a character in these books in his own right. It also doesn't hurt that the central investigaion is balanced against the discovery of a long dead body, deep in the New Zealand bush, who Rowe is called upon to identify.

As happens all too frequently around here, I read the second book first, which really made me want to go back to the start of the series and get Rowe's backstory from the outset. The missing person expert angle is an elegant way of getting Rowe into all sorts of situations, and the style with it's lighter touch, and slightly wacky female protoganist is increasingly common in the mystery world. Which means that fans of this sort of book have lots to choose from, particularly with a more local flavour.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-surrender-donna-malane… (mais)

MY BROTHER'S KEEPER is the second Diane Rowe book from New Zealand author Donna Malane, and it's a really strong idea for a protagonist. Rowe is a PI who specialises in looking for missing people, which seems like such a believable, unsurprising thing to do, even in this cyber-connected-technical-no-fault-divorce world, that it gives the character gravitas from the outset.

Not that she's an overly sober or considered woman. Rowe comes across as someone of great compassion, and concern for her clients, but flawed and a bit chaotic. She's a straight talker, and prepared to go the extra mile, but she's also not bullet-proof or perfect. Her personal life is just crazy enough to be believable, her professional instincts strong enough to give her credibility, her determination to continue makes her very likeable.

The book isn't all about Rowe though - Sunny, the daughter being sought, is also a strong character. A realistic 14 year old, with the sort of fragile core that seems to go with the aftermath of her mother's actions. At the same time, she's a teenager with a protective father and a fractious relationship with her stepmother. When her life starts to spiral out of control again, her turning to Rowe for support makes sense.

Finding Sunny for her mother is only part of this plot, as that doesn't take too long. Convincing Sunny and her father to meet with her mother after all these years isn't the easiest task, and Rowe has to work hard to convince everyone. Along the way the situation at Sunny's home starts to become clearer, and her father, and stepmother are soon under question. Not as much as Sunny's mother Karen though.

Whilst this plot is intricate and heads off in a lot of directions, it's reasonably strong. Even though there's a real possibility that reader's could guess the truth, getting it confirmed, and understanding the why is as important as who and what. There is even a strong romantic thread built in for fans of that sort of development. Set in both Wellington and Auckland it's possible to get a bit of a feeling for both those places. There's also a very good, dry, wry sense of humour built in. Interestingly the author is a producer and script writer, but in this book she's balanced the effects of that background by compressing the action into a number of days, without giving the entire thing a film script treatment.

Definitely a great series for fans of something slightly lighter, yet not completely cozy and fluffy, MY BROTHER'S KEEPER is a really enjoyable outing which doesn't seem to suffer from not having read the earlier book.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-my-brothers-keeper-donna-malane… (mais)

Diane Rowe finds people for a living. Whether it be for family members, PI firms, lawyers looking for witnesses, insurance companies, television shows or the cops Diane’s job is to find people who have gone missing. In the case that threads through SURRENDER some decades-old remains are found in a remote part of the Rimutakas, a mountain range on New Zealand’s North Island, and Diane is tasked with discovering who the person was.

But Diane has something else on her mind as the book opens. Her ex-husband Sean, a Wellington policeman, arrives at her house with the news that a fresh body has been found. It is the body of a lowlife called Snow, the man everyone thinks (but can’t prove) responsible for the murder of Diane’s younger sister Niki a year ago. As Snow has been murdered in the same way that Niki was it seems likely there is a connection but Diane seems unwilling, unable even, to allow the police investigation to take its course without getting involved herself.

Both stories open strongly and though they remain unconnected except by Diane’s involvement for the length of the book, Malane manages to switch back and forth between threads with ease; combining them into a snappily paced book with much to offer readers. The missing persons case proves to have several false starts and though the methods used to start narrowing down the possibilities are a little more mundane than depicted in TV shows like Without a Trace I found this aspect of the book fascinating. Diane’s dabbling in the investigation of Snow’s death, or to be more precise Snow’s life as it pertained to her sister, is equally absorbing. Again there are several points at which it seems things are resolved only to find that there is yet another twist in this satisfyingly complex tale.

Another strong element of the book is the character of Diane who narrates her story with an attractive mixture of humour, self-deprecation and introspection. She’s quite straight forward in taking responsibility for her marriage breakup, fully admitting that she was impossible to live with in the aftermath of her sister’s death, and this frankness lulls the reader into thinking that Diane is as self-aware as she will ever be. But as the book progresses and she learns more about her sister’s life Diane also learns more about herself and the ways in which her own behaviour might have failed her sister. The reflection that we often don’t know people as well as we think we do, even those closest to us, is a tough lesson but one most of us have to grapple with at some stage. Malane teased this aspect of the story out sensitively but without straying into maudlin territory and it’s all the more compelling for the restraint shown.

I always worry when I mention that a book has humour that people will think the whole thing a barrel of laughs so I’ll be clear and say this book has dark moments too. I don’t want to give spoilers but I can say that at one point Diane is personally endangered and attacked. The way she deals with the aftermath of this, though perhaps surprising for a procedural-y kind of story, had an air of authenticity and helped make the book a memorable one for me.

SURRENDER was the winner of the inaugural NZ Society of Authors award for best unpublished manuscript in 2010 and (for once!) I can see exactly what the judges were thinking in bestowing the prize. This is a very assured piece of writing that offers intelligence, humour and suspense in equal measure and there’s a strong sense of physical place, a hint of romance and a wonderful canine character. I look forward to more of all of this from Donna Malane.… (mais)