Port Vila Blues

1

Carlyle Street, Double Bay, 7 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, the
air clean and cool. Behind closed doors in the big houses set
back far from the street, people were beginning to stir, brewing
coffee or standing dazed under showers. Wyatt imagined the
smell of the coffee, the sound of the water gurgling in the
pipes.

But not at 29 Carlyle Street. According to Jardine s briefing
notes, the house would be empty for the next few days. It was the
home of Cassandra Wintergreen, MP, Labor member for the seat
of Broughton, currently in Dili on a fact-finding mission.

Champagne Marxist and ALP head-kicker from way back,
Jardine had scrawled in his covering note. That meant nothing
to Wyatt. He d never voted. If he read the newspapers at all it was
with an eye for a possible heist, not news about political tussles.
His only interest in Wintergreen lay in the fact that she had
$50,000 in a floor safe in her bedroom: a kickback, according to
Jardine, from a grateful developer who d asked her to intervene
in a planning dispute regarding access to a strip of shops he was
building in her electorate.

Wyatt continued his surveillance. Whenever he staked out a
place he noticed everything, no matter how trivial, knowing that
something insignificant one day can be crucial the next; noticing
in stages, first the general picture, then the finer details; noticing
routes out, and obstacles like a rubbish bin or a crack in a footpath
that could bring an escape undone.

There were two gateways in the long street frontage,
indicating a driveway that curved up to the front door then back
down to the street. Shrubs and small trees screened the front of
the house from the footpath and from the houses on either side.
It all spelt money and conviction.

Conviction. Wyatt had grown up in narrow back streets. His
mother had never spoken about his father and Wyatt had no
memories of the man. Wyatt had earned himself broad

Garry Disher is one of Australia's best-known novelists. He's published over 40 books in a range of genres, including crime, children's books, and Australian history. His Hal Challis series is also published in the US by Soho Crime. He lives on the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne.

Praise for Port Vila Blues

Voted one of Deadly Pleasures Magazine s Best Mystery-Crime Novels of 2012.

To Disher s usual brisk pacing, add heaps of noir...a banquet for those who like it uncut and unsparing.
Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"The scheming that goes into [Wyatt's] heists is outstanding in its originality."
Toronto Star

"Folks who are fans of Richard Stark's Parker will find much to like in Wyatt."
Reviewing the Evidence

Recommended.
Spinetingler Magazine

Praise for the Wyatt series

"Like an Australian Bob le Flambeur, Disher's titular robber is smooth, calm and planning a big heist."
Entertainment Weekly