Snapshot

It takes months for Australian social psychologist Janine McQuarrie to succumb to her husband’s pressure to attend spouse-swapping parties, but eventually she gives in. Then, driving with her young daughter one day, she gets out of her car to ask directions and is shot and killed. The little girl escapes when the gunman's pistol misfires.

 Inspector Hal Challis of the Crime Investigation Unit is assigned the case, but his efforts are thwarted by his boss. The dead woman was Superintendent McQuarrie’s daughter-in-law, and he  seems to be more interested in protecting his son than in finding his daughter-in-law’s murderer. Who might have a motive to kill this attractive young wife and mother? One of her clients? One of the swingers she’d gotten together with at a party? Or, the obvious suspect, her husband?Praise for Snapshot

“Disher’s stories are tough-minded, character-rich, and strong on social conscience . . . For me, a writer like Disher—old-fashioned in the best sense of the term—is the most satisfying.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“[Disher’s] police procedural novels rival American notables for crisp plotting and strong emphasis on character.”
—Baltimore Sun

“Full of surprises . . . [Disher] has packed this police procedural with the kind of detail that enthralls fans of the genre and with deftly sketched characters . . . the coolly contemporary and finely grained Snapshot lives up to the immediacy of its title.”
—Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

Praise for the Hal Challis series

"This series boasts careful, realistic casework, but there’s enough darkness and ambiguity to suit John Harvey fans and a kind of which-way-is-up sense of the police force that recalls early James Ellroy. Moody, inventive, and extremely hard to put down." 
—BooklistGarry Disher is one of Australia's best-known novelists. He's published over forty books in a range of genres, including crime, children's books, and Australian history. His Hal Challis and Wyatt crime series are also published in the US by Soho Crime. He lives on the Mornington Peninsula, southeast of Melbourne.