Garry Disher's Consolation

Garry Disher is the author of more than fifty titles. Garry Disher is the author of more than fifty titles. He was nominated for the Booker Prize for his 1996 novel The Sunken Road and has a lifetime Ned Kelly award. And today I want to share with you the latest in his rural noir series centering on his protagonist Constable Paul Hirshhausen. Hirsch is the only cop in the poorly heated police station in Tiverton. He was run out of Adelaide when he turned whistleblower on corruption leaving behind a promising career in the city. But the town has come to know him, they even trust him enough to play Santa on the annual parade, but there’s always an edge when police are around. Consolation opens with Hirsh investigating a Snowdropper - that’s when someone sneaks around stealing women’s underwear in the night. It’s the sort of weird crime that Hirsch knows can escalate. When you’re the only cop and everyone knows your number it’s not hard for things to get busy pretty quickly; Hirsch is called to a house where a homeschooled child is being neglected, then back to town where a disgruntled father is taking it out on the teachers. I recently spoke with Garry ( and you can catch that conversation on the Final Draft podcast _wherever all good podcasts are found). He wrote this novel during lockdown and even though he deliberately avoided going into our Covid times (although he teased the next novel would) Garry was clearly interested and influenced by ideas that have been percolating for many of us. Consolation asks questions about how we work as a community. The ties that bind and who we trust. Even small towns have their mystery and Consolation explores the divide between the public and the private sphere - who and what are we responsible for? What do we owe each other? Technology plays a big role in the novel. It’s power to connect is juxtaposed with the ways it can be used for abuse. There’s an interesting subplot where Hirsch (whose number is always freely available to the townsfolk of Tiverton) suffers unwanted and escalating attention via txt. Most fascinating is the way that Hirsch is exposed as vulnerable and has his conviction that he can handle the situation challenged. This book felt like an opening up of Hirsch’s character. We see a delicate balance of thoughtful and tough which makes for a genuinely engaging portrait of a series detective. Garry Disher’s rural noir series featuring Hirsch is an incredibly satisfying look at everyday Australia.