Paul Thomas: Sex Crimes

Reviewed by GORDON McLAUCHLAN

I reluctantly slip into superlatives because, while none from this collection of stories by Paul Thomas is going to make it into any anthology of great New Zealand short fiction, they provided me with the best light and entertaining read in a long time.

It would be easy to call the stories slight but that wouldn't be fair in the case of at least two of them, in which character delineation and the move from motive to action is sophisticated and insightful.

When I reviewed Thomas' novel The Empty Bed in June last year, I praised his professional storytelling but gave him only "a pass mark" for sardonic wit. Well, this time his smart, ribald narrative and side-of-the-mouth dialogue take him to the top of the class.

This sort of writing is a craft Americans have made their own, with Robert Parker, J.D. MacDonald and many others providing slick plots and blackly comical characters that are guaranteed to bring you fun and games. Thomas' plots are as inventive as the best of the Americans and his characters are lively and real even though they are transplanted to the Antipodes.

The last of the seven stories, which is novella length, is the tour de force. A New Zealand journalist, Sophie, joins a newspaper in Sydney and while dining with a colleague, Lee, sees another New Zealander who had raped her at home. She had kept it from the police, but tells her companion. He coolly suggests revenge is indeed sweet and helps her get her own back.

This narrative has depth. The characters come alive, and Sophie's slide from cynicism to evil is credible. The twist in the tale is nicely wrought.

To make too much of these stories would be a mistake. The intent is to entertain and Thomas achieves that with the style and panache that I think ranks him among the best crime fiction writers around. I couldn't put the damn book down.

Black Swan, $26.95