Chad Taylor: Shirker

(Canongate Press $35)

Review: Gilbert Wong*

The existential thriller is not a genre that we are accustomed to find set in Auckland. But when the anti-hero is called Ellersie Penrose, then we can expect no less.

The familiar setting provides much of the charm for this third clever novel from Taylor. The streets, buildings and landmarks of the city are a concrete backdrop as Penrose, who works as a financial analyst but seems to spend most of his time as an amateur detective, sniffs after the trail of a mysterious suicide. Or was it?

Penrose, who lives in his dingy office in the Dilworth Building, drinks at the bar of what was the Regent and drives a 1971 De Tomaso Pantera. The cop whose case he treads all over in his handmade shoes is called Tangiers.

From the early pages Taylor is intent on creating a genuine noir atmosphere, complete with mystery blond and an ageing, evil mastermind.

That said the novel dips and weaves through more than one genre and includes more than a healthy dollop of supernatural horror.

In the process he creates what could be called a new genre for local writing - Anomie in the City. As a character Penrose is the epitome of jaded cynicism.

There are moments where the reader is left floundering, but at its best, Shirker is a good example of the best of noir, containing mysteries within mysteries, stories within stories, like a series of Russian dolls, each one opening to reveal yet more detail without necessarily getting to the final one.

This is an accomplished piece of writing from an author who has already gained acceptance from a British publisher specialising in the edgy and fresh. Shirker deserves the good reviews it has received. Recommended.

* Gilbert Wong is the Herald arts editor.