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y separately published work icon The Way It Is Now single work   novel   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 2021... 2021 The Way It Is Now
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A stunning new standalone crime novel from one of Australia's most revered writers

'Set in a beach-shack town an hour from Melbourne, The Way It Is Now tells the story of a burnt-out cop named Charlie Deravin.

'Charlie is living in his family's holiday house, on forced leave since he made a mess of things at work.

'Things have never been easy for Charlie. Twenty years earlier his mother went missing in the area, believed murdered. His father has always been the main suspect, though her body was never found.

'Until now- the foundations are being dug for a new house on a vacant block. The skeletal remains of a child and an adult are found-and Charlie's past comes crashing in on him.

'The Way It Is Now is the enthralling new novel by Garry Disher, one of Australia's most loved and celebrated crime writers.'(Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Text Publishing , 2021 .
      image of person or book cover 3440289151489517815.jpg
      This image has been sourced from Booktopia
      Extent: 384p.
      Reprinted: Aug 2022
      Note/s:
      • Published 2nd November 2021
      ISBN: 9781922458162, 9781922458704
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Serpent's Tail ,
      2022 .
      image of person or book cover 5838260353945756815.jpeg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 384p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 4 August 2022.
      ISBN: 9781800811386 (hbk), 9781800811393 (pbk), 9781800811409 (ebk)

Works about this Work

The Strange Case of Australian Noir Gillian Bouras , 2024 single work column
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 20 May vol. 34 no. 10 2024;

'The Way it is Now, by Garry Disher, Text Publishing, Melbourne 2021 Exiles, by Jane Harper, Pan Macmillan, Australia 2022 I have a friend who says that in her (not very) old age, all she wants to read is biography and crime/detective fiction. My reading range is somewhat wider, but I confess to an addiction to detective fiction, my mother having introduced me to the novels of Agatha Christie when I was about 11 years old. She herself had read all of them, and I think I have too. Mum was also a big fan of John Dickson Carr, he of the locked-room mystery fame, and Earl Stanley Gardner, creator of the fascinating Perry Mason. I no longer read Christie but remain a dedicated admirer of A. Conan Doyle. This devotion also started quite early, because Doyle’s famous story The Dancing Men was in a high-school anthology. Perhaps genes will out: my third grandson, aged 11, is a great admirer of a German series, which he reads in Greek: it involves (hooray) a detective who has various adventures and solves numerous crimes. Detective fiction as a category came fairly late to English literature. American Edgar Allan Poe is credited with writing the first novel in this genre: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which appeared in 1841. Charles Dickens is assumed to be the first writer to use the actual word ‘detective’, and a detective story is an important thread in his novel Bleak House, which appeared in serial form in 1852–53. His contemporary and friend Wilkie Collins is famous for The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868). The latter was lavishly praised by Dorothy M. Sayers, herself no slouch in the genre: she believed The Moonstone was the finest detective story ever written, and T.S. Eliot agreed with her.' (Introduction)
Book Review : The Way It Is Now, Garry Disher Erich Mayer , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , January 2022;

— Review of The Way It Is Now Garry Disher , 2021 single work novel

'A mystery fiction that's more a whydunnit than a whodunnit.'

Looking for Good Books to Read in 2022? Here Are Some Tips from Renowned Australian Authors Dunja Karagic , Hamish McDonald , Simon Leo Brown , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , January 2022;
Crime Has Its Place Barry Reynolds , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4 December 2021; (p. 31)

— Review of The Way It Is Now Garry Disher , 2021 single work novel
Carnage in Portsea : The Mirror of Crime in Garry Disher’s Latest Novel Tony Birch , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 438 2021; (p. 37)

— Review of The Way It Is Now Garry Disher , 2021 single work novel

'A year before his death in 2015 following a cancer diagnosis, the writer–playwright Henning Mankell responded to a question about his love of the crime genre. He stated that his objective was ‘to use the mirror of crime to look at contradictions in society’. Mankell’s mirror was evident in his Kurt Wallander series (1991–2009), in which the detective was faced with contradictions not only in the landscape of crime and murder but also in his own domestic life. Great crime fiction does not need to focus a lens on the overlapping worlds of the private and the public. But well written, the genre’s interconnected spheres address the moral complexities that drove Mankell’s passion for crime fiction.' (Introduction)

The Way It Is Now by Garry Disher Review – Provocative Whodunnit Interrogates Small-town Misogyny Bec Kavanagh , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 3 December 2021;

— Review of The Way It Is Now Garry Disher , 2021 single work novel

'Disher’s story of a burnt-out cop investigating his mother’s disappearance asks complex questions of its male characters.' (Introduction) 

Carnage in Portsea : The Mirror of Crime in Garry Disher’s Latest Novel Tony Birch , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 438 2021; (p. 37)

— Review of The Way It Is Now Garry Disher , 2021 single work novel

'A year before his death in 2015 following a cancer diagnosis, the writer–playwright Henning Mankell responded to a question about his love of the crime genre. He stated that his objective was ‘to use the mirror of crime to look at contradictions in society’. Mankell’s mirror was evident in his Kurt Wallander series (1991–2009), in which the detective was faced with contradictions not only in the landscape of crime and murder but also in his own domestic life. Great crime fiction does not need to focus a lens on the overlapping worlds of the private and the public. But well written, the genre’s interconnected spheres address the moral complexities that drove Mankell’s passion for crime fiction.' (Introduction)

Crime Has Its Place Barry Reynolds , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4 December 2021; (p. 31)

— Review of The Way It Is Now Garry Disher , 2021 single work novel
Book Review : The Way It Is Now, Garry Disher Erich Mayer , 2022 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , January 2022;

— Review of The Way It Is Now Garry Disher , 2021 single work novel

'A mystery fiction that's more a whydunnit than a whodunnit.'

Looking for Good Books to Read in 2022? Here Are Some Tips from Renowned Australian Authors Dunja Karagic , Hamish McDonald , Simon Leo Brown , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , January 2022;
The Strange Case of Australian Noir Gillian Bouras , 2024 single work column
— Appears in: Eureka Street , 20 May vol. 34 no. 10 2024;

'The Way it is Now, by Garry Disher, Text Publishing, Melbourne 2021 Exiles, by Jane Harper, Pan Macmillan, Australia 2022 I have a friend who says that in her (not very) old age, all she wants to read is biography and crime/detective fiction. My reading range is somewhat wider, but I confess to an addiction to detective fiction, my mother having introduced me to the novels of Agatha Christie when I was about 11 years old. She herself had read all of them, and I think I have too. Mum was also a big fan of John Dickson Carr, he of the locked-room mystery fame, and Earl Stanley Gardner, creator of the fascinating Perry Mason. I no longer read Christie but remain a dedicated admirer of A. Conan Doyle. This devotion also started quite early, because Doyle’s famous story The Dancing Men was in a high-school anthology. Perhaps genes will out: my third grandson, aged 11, is a great admirer of a German series, which he reads in Greek: it involves (hooray) a detective who has various adventures and solves numerous crimes. Detective fiction as a category came fairly late to English literature. American Edgar Allan Poe is credited with writing the first novel in this genre: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which appeared in 1841. Charles Dickens is assumed to be the first writer to use the actual word ‘detective’, and a detective story is an important thread in his novel Bleak House, which appeared in serial form in 1852–53. His contemporary and friend Wilkie Collins is famous for The Woman in White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868). The latter was lavishly praised by Dorothy M. Sayers, herself no slouch in the genre: she believed The Moonstone was the finest detective story ever written, and T.S. Eliot agreed with her.' (Introduction)
Last amended 7 Aug 2024 08:41:11
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