Razorhurst

Razorhurst took a while to get going for me but eventually won me over and I am glad I persevered with it - Razorhurst is a pretty good read.

Set in 1930's Sydney Razorhurst is the story of two female characters who are witness to the aftermath of a savage murder, the story takes place over a period of a day or so and the two characters are dragged through the underbelly of the Sydney's criminal world.

Dymphna is Glory Watson's best call girl who is nicknamed the 'Angel of Death' due to all her boyfriends ending up dead. Kelpie is a young girl who lives on the street. They meet over the corpse Jimmy Palmer, Dymphna's former boyfriend. What follows is Kelpie and Dymphna going on the run from the police and other parties who may or may not have committed the murder. What complicates this further is that Kelpie and Dymphna can both see ghosts...

The setting for this novel is fantastic. It's clear that the author has researched the time period and city, the detail of the city is fantastic. This is a great noir book, it really feels like one of those great gangster films from way back. Two local crime bosses, Glory a former prostitute who 'dragged herself up' and Mr. Davidson a 'respectable' businessman who 'never gets his hands dirty' are trying to control the gambling, illegal booze, the extortion and prostitution in the city. In particular Mr. Davidson wants Dymphna for himself.

I suppose the ghosts are the most interesting hook in the book. The ghosts vary, some can talk, some cannot, some can move, some haunt a specific place, they display a range of emotions and behaviours. In many respects you could cut the ghosts out of the book and still have a great story - in some ways they don't add anything except to move things along at times. They do provide comic relief and do work as a plot device but the ghost element isn't strong enough to justify it's presence.

There is also a plot hook midway through the novel which I struggled to reconcile. I think the reader is supposed to find it difficult but by how the characters were presented I did think it was a stretch.

Nevertheless, the characterisation is great. They all had depth, had complex motives, there are a lot of shades of grey in here and largely they were all believable. Dymphna in particular is a great character and I loved the role of her as a protector who also needs protection.

I struggled a little early on, finding the novel a little bit boring but I was definitely won over. Strong female characters, an exciting story, plenty of action and violence but also a novel tinged with sadness. Great stuff.