Black Tide Jack Irish Plot

Peter Temple has a distinctive voice as a writer. As with its predecessor, Black Tide not only takes on a complicated tangle of shady operations that keep you guessing as to who's trustworthy and who's not, while the author manages to keep his well-crafted plot under a great deal of control. Temple holds the reins tightly as the disappearance of one man slowly begins to branch out into even more nefarious dealings, so that everything that Jack uncovers fits into the main plotline without going off into tangents. The author also weaves in different facets of Melbourne's population, from the very wealthy who prefer that the tradesmen use the back entrance to the aging Aussie rules football club fans who've lost their local team
Anything by Peter Temple is always an enjoyable read. A special voice in Australian crime. ( )

Jack Irish is living his life as he usually does lately - part time carpenter, part time lawyer, part time horse racing syndicate member (or lawyer for one anyway). A big part of the story revolves around this - it is what makes Irish who he is.
Until a friend of his father comes to him with a plea for help - his son is missing, he is about to loose his house and he has noone else to turn to. And he has stories - of the father that Jack does not remember, about the first meeting of his parents, about the old days. Jack decides to help - and gets himself in a middle of a really big mess. And then decides not to listen to the number of people that are trying to warn him off. He survives at the end of course but not for lack of trying to get himself killed.
It is another very Australian novel from Temple. Jack Irish is a fascinating character and the language and setting are so Australian that in may be hard to read if you are not used to the terms. It is an author I really like - despite the bleakness of his characters and settings (because even Jack is not the most positive character in the world and most of the others are not even close). Betrayals are just part of the story - both personal and as part of the case. Jack finds love again though - despite the one from last book ending not so nicely.
PS: Reading the first one before this one helps a lot with the setting and characters. ( )

A very smooth and down to earth book and easy to read. My first Temple book. Looking forward to reading the others. The TV series prompted me to grab the book. Very Aussie.Good stuff. ( )

In this second series installment, Jack Irish returns to do a favor for an old friend of his father, Des Connor. Des shows Jack pictures of his father and mother, and regales him with stories about his father, the dad Jack grew up not knowing. Des also has a son, Gary, and loaned him some sixty grand which Des now needs back to repay the bank for a mortgage Gary took out on the home, where Des now lives. If he's not able to pay the bank, Des will be homeless; Gary defaulted leaving it up to Des to clean up the mess. But Gary seems to have disappeared, and bighearted Jack decides to go find him to get the money for Des. As was the case in the previous novel, Jack's search for the missing Gary leads him into a very messy and complex situation -- this time involving money laundering, other missing people, hush-hush organizations and once again, finding someone to trust is becoming harder and harder. While Jack tries to get to the bottom of Gary's disappearance -- no easy task -- his lady love Linda has moved on to Sydney, where she has not only a new job, but apparently a new man, leaving Jack wondering about any kind of future with her.
As with its predecessor, Black Tide not only takes on a complicated tangle of shady operations that keep you guessing as to who's trustworthy and who's not, while the author manages to keep his well-crafted plot under a great deal of control. Temple holds the reins tightly as the disappearance of one man slowly begins to branch out into even more nefarious dealings, so that everything that Jack uncovers fits into the main plotline without going off into tangents. The author also weaves in different facets of Melbourne's population, from the very wealthy who prefer that the tradesmen use the back entrance to the aging Aussie rules football club fans who've lost their local team, to people who buy sandwiches on plain white bread, no focaccia sold here. The problem with this book is that in terms of the basic setup, it's much like Bad Debts, but sadly I can't disclose why without giving away important details. Let's just say that there seems to be a pattern that follows from book one to book two that made it easy to figure out something important; I'm hoping that with book three the author will fall out of that trap and move on to something slightly different. All the same, even with this most annoying matter of personal contention, Black Tide managed to hold my interest to the last action-packed minute and beyond. Considering that I tend not to like this sort of fast-paced rockem-sockem type thing, I'm drawn to the main character and his immediate circle enough to where I can't help but want more.
I can definitely recommend Black Tide -- the plot appeals to the mystery solver in me, and the writing makes this an intelligent read that doesn't fail to engage. ( )

Jack Irish - gambler, lawyer, Australian gunshoe - is still recovering from a foray into the criminal underworld when he gets a call from Des Connors, the last living link to Jack's father. Connors's son has gone missing, and Jack agrees to find him. It's an offer he soon regrets, as he discovers that prodigal sons often go missing for a reason, and they always have something to hide.
The second book in Peter Temple's Jack Irish series, Black Tide takes us back into a brilliantly evoked world of pubs, racetracks, and sports - not to mention intrigue, corruption, and violence.
Temple is certainly one of the best Australian writers of crime fiction. ( )

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