Fun, local Murder mystery with a humorous twist. Would love to visit Rusty Bore! ( )

Quirky crime novel set in a drought affected small town called Rusty Bore in Victoria's Mallee. Rusty Bore is down to two shops, Cass Tuplin's takeaway and Vern's General Store.
Even the pub has gone.

Into Cass's takeaway, ordering a hamburger with the lot and chips, in a hurry, which immediately offended Cass's sensibilities, her hamburgers and chips are not to be rushed, came Clarence.
Gripping his briefcase with white knuckled desperation, Clarence further offended Cass by amending the order.
‘Oh, no onions,’ he said. ‘Or beetroot or egg. And I hate pineapple.’

His suit sleeve was torn and he was bleeding on her pristine floor and kept glancing out the door as if he was being followed.
Clarence refused offers of medical attention and asked if there was somewhere quite in the area he could rent to write his book.

Cass remembered Ernie's old shack up by Perry Lake, run down but serviceable. Paying Cass $5,000 in cash Clarence rushed off, asking that she keep his whereabouts quiet.

Then the body turned up, or did it. Cass is forced to solve this mystery on her own when he local Senior Sergent, her son Dean, refused to believe her, on account of the body not being there.

Williams cleverly captures small town people and the everyone knows everything atmosphere. Plot twists and misadventure abounds as more people go missing and Cass's credibility threatens to prevent anyone believing her. It doesn't help that Cass frequently jumps to the wrong conclusions, doesn't listen, and is fearlessly stubborn. ( )

Vern's general store and my place constitute the CBD of Rusty Bore, along with a row of three galvanised-steel silos. It's a town endowed with a royal flush of used-to-haves since the school, the pub and even the op shop closed down.

Sue Williams' writing displays a quirky sardonic tone that she manages to sustain throughout the novel. It shows in the town names - Rusty Bore, Hustle, and Muddy Soak - and in the characters who populate her novel, particularly in her central character Cass Tuplin.

Leading Senior Constable Dean Tuplin is the sole policeman of Hustle and he is convinced that his mother is on the verge of dementia. She has a history of reporting deaths, well she's raised a false alarm once before, and so when she reports a body that then disappears he is not particularly surprised. He blames his brother Brad who lives with his mother for not keeping her under better control. After that Dean doesn't take anything that Cass says seriously, even when her car is stolen, and her takeaway fish and chippery is burnt down. But something very serious is happening in the background and Cass can see that no-one is going to help her get to the bottom of it.

MURDER WITH THE LOT is a farcical romp around the edges of living in Australia's Mallee country, with a murder or two thrown in, and a hefty dose of corruption among those who should know better.

In style the book reminds me of Lisa Lutz and Kathy Lette, so if they are on the list of authors you like you might like to give this Aussie author a try. ( )

In the fictional town of Rusty Bore, Victoria, (population 147) Cass Tuplin runs one of two remaining retail outlets, namely the fish and chip shop. When a dodgy looking young man comes looking for a place to stay, where he can write his book, Cass somewhat reluctantly hands over the keys to her friend Ernie’s shack (Ernie having been placed in a nursing home just recently). But, based on a mixture of her own wild imaginings and the town rumour mill, Cass soon has second thoughts about having possibly let the shack to the wrong sort of person. But before she can evict the new tenant she discovers the body of a woman which goes missing before her policeman son has a chance to see it. With her nearest and dearest thinking she’s losing her marbles and Cass being the ultimate in interfering busy bodies mayhem quickly ensues.

With tongue firmly planted in-cheek Sue Williams has delivered a very Australian novel with loads of chuckles amidst the aforementioned mayhem. Although Cass’ home town and its nearest neighbours are fictional they’re recognisable as not too far from the truth, even to someone who only visits such places occasionally (though all my childhood summer holidays were spent in a town with eery similarities). Cass’ first-person narration with its spot-on observations about the area and its locals and some first-rate dialogue provide an authentically Australian sensibility and are the highlight of the book.

Cass is very funny at times. She is also very annoying at times. Alongside the nicely dry humour and gung-ho attitude she is over-involved in the lives of her two adult sons to a point that would have had me contemplating murder if she were my mother.but I know this doesn’t make her unrealistic. It did make my teeth grate on occasion though which is probably a reflection of my own fierce independence and an entirely different kind of relationship with my own mother. That aspect of her personality aside I did like Cass with her laconic, self deprecating voice and the ensemble cast of characters who surround her are, collectively, a treat (with my personal favourite being her youngest son’s on/off girlfriend Miranda who has a penchant for ferrets and blunt relationship advice).

MURDER WITH THE LOT is the kind of light, fun crime fiction that we don’t seem to produce a lot of in Australia and it’s a fine example of the sub-genre. Of course it veers into far-fetched territory a time or three but that’s part of the fun with this kind of book, and there are some nicely poignant moments which ground the book a little and provide a nice contrast. It’s a nicely paced, gently humoured romp of a tale. Most enjoyable.

MURDER WITH THE LOT is set in the fictional Mallee town of Rusty Bore, featuring Cass Tuplin, fish and chip shop owner, mother, and self-appointed private investigator. The story is told all from Cass's viewpoint, a viewpoint which is somewhat skewed towards a ... how should we put this ... less than realistic outlook. Not only is the Mallee still deep in the middle of the drought that just about broke everyone's spirit, but Rusty Bore is a town that's been hit particularly hard. Loss of people to the "Big Smoke" just down the road, loss of passing traffic, loss of money and even interest from the locals, means that Rusty Bore is quietly rusting to a close. Which doesn't stop Cass from opening the fish and chip shop daily, dolling out the dim sims and a hefty dose of nosiness to the few people she comes across. All the while barracking for her son the cop from the nearest town, and under-estimating her other son, the less successful activist, who comes and goes from the family home. Not that Cass hasn't had her fair share of disappointment, what with the sudden death of her beloved husband, and a passing recognition that there may not be a future in her current life.

Needless to say the storyline of MURDER WITH THE LOT is set up for humour. There are wise cracks and in jokes coming at the reader from all sides. There's the expected red-headed chip shop owner references, the mad mother stuff, the long-suffering son stuff, and the potential merger with the one-armed bloke that runs the General Store... stuff. There's also a lot of slapstick with accidental shootings, much rushing about, car's with non-working door's and love interests who might be a bit dodgy. And there's that good old chestnut - the disappearing body - to be toyed with for quite a long time.

Part of the problem with that sort of first-person viewpoint of everything is that the reader is really going to have to identify with Cass, and she is a very funny character. For a while. Until the point where the humour did seem to become somewhat heavy-handed and repetitive. Which was a pity, as there were ever such tiny glimpses of pathos and self-awareness that just occasionally managed to get their heads above the tide of jokes and thick skin of our Cass.

All of which probably sounds like I didn't really like this book, which isn't strictly true. The central plot was an interesting idea, and I'd be barracking for anything set out here in the bush which doesn't immediately make out that the whole place has mad, toothless locals lurking behind every saltbush just waiting for a city person to terrorise.... I think my real problem with MURDER WITH THE LOT is that I wasn't convinced that Cass needed to play the daft card quite as often as she did. Perhaps it's another book for fans of light-hearted crazy, with a crime at the centre that's less confrontational than you'd think what with shootings, and missing bodies and all. It is, however, probably a book for locals. I suspect overseas readers might be begging for a map, a dictionary of local terminology, a short course in the in-jokes, a compass and probably a tour guide...

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/murder-lot-sue-williams ( )