Cathy Cole: Skindeep

By MICHELE HEWITSON

Nicola Sharpe is a lawyer turned Balmain-based private investigator. She scores a job guarding the daughter of a well-known Australian artist. The daughter, Ella, is a political activist whose left-wing group has in its targets right-wing politician Len Smith, who has run on a successful anti-Asian migration platform.

Meanwhile, a woman is found murdered, her body covered in flowers, and a young Asian woman is missing.

Skindeep is set in Sydney in the summer: it's hot and sticky and there is about to be trouble at the Easter Show where Ella and her fellow protesters gather to heckle Smith. Nicola uncovers a connection between Smith and Ella's mothers, and some dodgy art world dealings come to light.

A good yarn with some interesting characters, of which Sydney itself is most endearingly depicted, is weighed down with writing made pedestrian with an over-emphasis on metaphor. And the political stuff is as subtle as, well, a policy statement on Asian immigration by Pauline Hanson.

Duffy & Snellgrove

$29.95