In the sequel to An Apricot Colonel, Cassandra Travers, the freelance editor and part-time crime solver, is living the coupled-up life with her husband Al, aka the Colonel, in Canberra. After a family friend’s uni student daughter, Fern, dies of a suspected drug overdose, Cassandra discovers her manuscript. It turns out to be the memoirs of Fern’s secret life as a prostitute. Al gets involved when it becomes clear that someone wants their hands on the manuscript and threatens the couple. A near-accident on the road and an attempted kidnapping shows that clearly someone has something to hide and will go at all lengths, however amateurishly, to do so.

As murder-mysteries go, Halligan keeps the pace up with added subplots and a who’s who of suspects. Added into the mix are bureaucratic cover-ups, a potential child sex slave ring and drugged up uni students. Who said Canberra was boring?

Cassandra is a gentile narrator, offering her moral perspective on the crime at large and on her friends, relationship and life in Canberra. On a side note though, throughout the novel Cassandra refers to Al gushingly, even calling him a stunning woman when he’s dressed in drag. It’s akin to listening to a friend talk about their new boyfriend, cute at first but gratingly annoying.

Nevertheless Murder on the Apricot Coast is a breezy murder mystery. Despite the subject matter it lacks a level of grittiness that one expects having watched too many episodes of CSI. This novel is likely to appeal readers who appreciate a feminine touch to their Aussie murder-mysteries. Otherwise, read it with a cup of tea and some tim tams and it will go down a little more easily.

Image courtesy of Allen and Unwin.