Last night I started reading The Build Up which is a crime novel from Phillip Gwynne, whose previous books have included Deadly, Unna and Nukkin Ya.
It features Detective Dusty Buchanon - a female cop in the very male world of the Northern Territory Police Force.
From the blurb:
"When the body of a young Thai prostitute is found in a billabong near a camp of disaffected Vietnam Veterans, Dusty knows this is what she's been looking for - a spectacular case to get her back on top after the debacle of an infamous British backpacker murder trial that almost destroyed her career.
But when the body disappears and her colleagues turn against her, Dusty gets help from an unlikely source: a handsome German bird-watcher holidaying in the Northern Territory, who just happens to be a cop. "
First lines:
"Jimmy casts and he's thirteen again, king of Tathra wharf. Standing in his spot, Jimbo's spot they call it, nobody else game enough to get up there, standing high on the south pylon, below him the other fisherman, a carpet of hats, a thicket of rods. He pulls up fish after fish after fish - salmon, bonita, mackerel, all clean and flapping as he flicks them onto the deck. None of the others catching a thing, glaring at him like he's got voodoo or something."