High and dry

Former journo's tense, compelling crime novel is one of the best to come out of Australia in recent times.

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Australian author Michael Brissenden joins a long line of celebrated crime writers - Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwall, Steig Larsson and Brissenden's hugely successful compatriots Chris Hammer and Jane Harper among them - who got their start in journalism.

Brissenden spent decades as a foreign correspondent for the ABC, then worked as an investigative reporter for the prominent current affairs show Four Corners before turning his hand to crime fiction in his 50s. In an illustrious career, he uncovered corruption in Papua New Guinea, was stationed in Moscow, reported live from New York after 9/11 and covered innumerable world conflicts.

That experience ensures his prose is lean and focused in his fourth thriller, which centres around corruption, societal polarisation and family. He writes that his aim was to examine disadvantage, poverty, extremism and the pressures placed on small communities at a time of rapid and often unnerving change, with a special focus on the disinformation that has grown up in rural Australia around energy transition.