Greenlight Paperback – 3 Sep 2018

I found this an enjoyable enough read, but not an easy one. It's hard to explain without spoilers, but it's written in such a way that I had to keep going back to work out what the hell the importance was of some apparently vital element. The shoe, for instance. Obviously 'planted' evidence, but planted when, why, by whom? And so on. Most of the characters are engaging and real, and the author has a nifty turn of phrase and some excellent bits of humour. I'd call it a good debut but not outstanding as a crime novel. Some bits ring true, others don't, was my feeling. One of the crimes in the book (no spoilers) is amusing and clever, and will horrify all wine-drinkers, but it's not original: taken from real events and a "CSI" episode. The flashbacks aren't necessary and get in the way of the narrative. But on the whole, while it's not quite up to the publishers' hype, it's enjoyable and kept me wanting to find out whodunnit, even if I had to read the final chapters twice to make sense of them.

For a comedian Ben has outdone himself as a writer. So many twists and turns and suspects. Is the wine story based on a true Australian crime? Well done Ben, looking forward to your next book.

In the Hunter Valley vineyard region north of Sydney, New South Wales, an itinerant grape-picker was brutally murdered. Four years have elapsed. Curtis Wade, Eliza Dacey’s employer, was arrested almost immediately and subsequently convicted of her murder. Enter Jack Quick, producer of true-crime documentaries. Jack knows that conspiracy theories rate well, especially if there’s a suggestion of incompetence or bias on the part of the police investigation. After all, Curtis Wade was only convicted on circumstantial evidence. Just before the final episode of his documentary, Jack uncovers a piece of evidence that might just prove Curtis guilty. Jack disposes of the evidence rather than run the risk of ruining his show. His show proposes that Curtis Wade is innocent, and Curtis Wade is released from gaol.

‘.. you get to be the truth-teller if no-one is there to contradict you.’

After Curtis Wade’s release, another woman is murdered in a similar way. Jack realises that he may have helped free a guilty man from gaol. Jack also realises that as he has destroyed evidence, he is the only one who can right this wrong. How?

Jack Quick is an interesting character. He has his own demons, including an ongoing battle with anorexia and bulimia, as well events from his childhood. The story itself has plenty of twists and turns and while some aspects worked better for me than others, I thought this an impressive debut novel.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

GREENLIGHT works extremely well as an audio title as the conspiratorial way it has been written lends itself beautifully to that platform of intimacy. In our ears it’s all quietly confessed secrets and the discovery of lies as we move around with producer Jack Quick in the shadows of a country town. This is not necessarily a sleepy town. This is wine country.

The success of Jack Quick’s initial podcast investigation into the death of Eliza Dacey surprised no one more than Jack himself. Curtis Wade was never the most popular person in the community, being newly cashed up (just tacky) and difficult to deal with, but the speed of his arrest and conviction for the murder of a young vineyard worker screamed ‘fit up’. The degree to which Jack is willing to suggest a conspiracy to his listeners may involve some… finesse. Ratings are everything. How far Jack is willing to go involves some deep diving into a soul that was already troubled before the investigation into the death of Eliza.

Curtis Wade made a convincing villain for one murder and upon his release, is once again regarded as a suspect when there is a second killing. Jack’s reporting on Eliza’s murder, stylistically slanted and edited of course for maximum dramatic effect, had suggested the existence of simmering town prejudices and that the most of inept of country cops had been tasked with investigating Eliza’s murder. Jack now has cause to question his own ethics, and whether his presence had been a catalyst for more violence. Wrongs must now be addressed.

If you’ve ever stayed in an Australian wine region, you might feel that you recognize the (fictional) setting and some of the townsfolk who feature in GREENLIGHT. Wine towns ride on the back of tourism, but the locals aren’t always friendly to anyone who rides in to dabble in the business of winemaking, or to involve themselves in transactions of buying and selling wine. In Jack Quick we have someone trying to do right whilst acknowledging the wrongs that had been tactically employed along the way. He’s a curious character, and not the alpha male we normally see leading the charge in crime fiction. We’ve had enough of those. People who are able to mess up, be beaten up, and then get up again when required are way more interesting to read of.

GREENLIGHT combines the appeal of the two fastest growing forms of digital entertainment that we have right now - podcasts and audio books. Today’s time poor readers have leaped on to both of these mediums with increasing gusto in the last two years or so and it’s all to the good. GREENLIGHT is an absorbing work of fiction that gives us the required time with each character, somehow managing to gallop us past what we should have been paying our most keen attention to. Multiple voice actors are used here in the podcast excerpts that are inserted judiciously into Jack’s narrative. The lead voice actor here is brilliant at differentiating the characters he plays in Jack’s scenes, so there’s never any confusion as to whose voice it is that we are hearing.

The mental health issues raised in this novel are not often addressed in fiction in relation to the males of our species. This is quite enlightening to read of, as negotiating your everyday working life around a full blown eating disorder is just another difficulty to your day. Jack’s character and life outside of his career are fully fleshed, and the read is all the better for it.

GREENLIGHT is a polished debut work of crime fiction that offers up the trifecta of entertainment; it is engaging, topical, and satisfying. The excellent voice work in this Audible production adds much to the experience of being immersed in the struggles of Jack as he questions his own motivations and the cost of success in our entertainment obsessed world.

I love doesn't this book. Twists and turns all the way. I nearly died at the end. Loved it. Can't wait to read more from this author.