Wyatt (A Wyatt Novel) Paperback – July 17, 2012

The first Wyatt novel since 1997, it appeared in Australia in 2010 and is just now here in the states.Wyatt is to Australia as Richard Stark's Parker is to the United States. A thief that is good at what he does. Of course things had gotten tougher over the years with more stringent security measures and fewer businesses dealt in cash. Wyatt has a lot of skills, but wire transfers of cash is not one of them. He'd always specialized in jewelry, cash, or paintings.A pragmatic man, he'd never been arrested because he was a planner, a cautious man who would abandon a job if things began to go wrong. Course it wasn't always easy to do that.As the novel opens, he's robbing a harbormaster that uses extortion to gain funds from ship captains/masters. He would quarantine them, but find a way to free them for a $75,000 payment. Wyatt was out to take that payment from him. Only he walks into a police sting set up to take the crooked harbormaster, barely escaping with the loot.There again he's disappointed as the bundles had a hundred top and bottom, but blank paper in between.Then the perfect job seems to fall into his lap. Alan Le Page is an international courier that makes a number of trips into Australia to deliver jewelry shipments to a couple of brothers. Wyatt's contact for the job has learned that amongst the legitimate stuff is stolen jewelry from out of country. The only problem, Wyatt sees, the contact, Eddie Oberin, wants in on the deal. His ex-wife first brought him the job and he'd spent a few months cultivating a female employee of the jeweler brothers. Wyatt recognizes a kindred spirit in the ex-wife and knows that can only lead to trouble.There's several things going on here. This trip there's more than jewelry in the shipment. Millions in stolen bearer bonds and a ruthless courier who'd murdered someone to get them.Of course Wyatt can be a little ruthless when he needs to as well. He's the sort of man who doesn't like crosses. What's the old saying? Payback's a bitch! Wyatt never lets emotion get involved in any revenge he pursues. It's just business. He has a reputation that frightens a lot of people.A fine new edition to the previous six Wyatt novels. One hopes Disher doesn't wait so long for the next one.

This tightly-plotted thriller follows the eponymous and emotionally-stunted Wyatt, an expert thief who is scrupulous in his work -- and has no life outside of it. It mostly takes place in the scrubby suburban sprawl of Melbourne Australia, never previously drawn to be so squalid and unappealing.Wyatt is drawn into what he believes is a jewel-heist with two acquaintances, one of them Lydia to whom he has a faint, scarecely-acknowledged attraction. The heist goes spectacularly wrong. There are no jewels but instead hundreds of millions of dollars in government-issued bonds snatched from the streets of London. A chain of events is set off ending in violence and mayhem. Without wanting to give away spoilers, let me say that Wyatt is drawn into the unfamiliar role of caregiver for the grievously wounded Lydia, awakening some unfamiliar feelings in his icy soul.Other characters are introduced: a leathery, aged female gun dealer who has seen it all and her feckless, burglar-wannabe nephew; a slightly bent police officer; a diamond fence and his deranged stripper girlfriend; an expert French thief and his slightly less smooth Aussie cousins. The author shakes this cocktail into a volatile, explosive mix and then detonates it.I must say I admired the expertise with which the book is constructed. My one criticism is that it is hard to get too involved with a protagonist who is such an emotional stranger even to himself. Still, one is fascinated with his trade craft and street smarts, expertly described.I am intrigued enough to want to follow the series through the next installment.

There's nothing terribly wrong with this book. It is a bit of a mindless crime caper with some double crossing. Wyatt is an impersonal force of nature. Sometimes I really like that kind of character. Here, though, it didn't really work for me. Mostly because I never really understand WHY he's involved in any of this criminal stuff. He doesn't seem to get excited by it; he's not an adrenaline junkie. He's not a career criminal because of his social network: he doesn't have any friends. He doesn't seem to need the money. During the course of the novel he casually mentions that two of the apartments he owns are worth million dollars and he gives a quarter-million dollars of artwork to business colleague as a payment-of-sorts. Hard to imagine why he's starting out the book robbing someone of $60,000 or why he seems continually short of cash.It almost feels like he's a criminal just so there's a book to be had.While I was reading this book, I got the impression that the author is a bit older, trying to write young people, and not always quite hitting the mark. For instance, several times during the book the 20-year old stripper characters looks up someone's address in a paper street atlas. That's right, she doesn't have a smart phone, doesn't have 3G or wifi, and doesn't look at Google Maps. The book is a few years old but even when it was published in Australia, everyone who was 20 had a smartphone and used Google Maps.It doesn't really affect the book but I guess I see that as emblematic. Wyatt is a criminal that has been left behind by the advance of technology and rather than retire he still just keeps on keeping on.

The last Wyatt book, Port Vila Blues, was in line with its precursor. I rated it high. Wyatt was a guy in his mid forties and the story did fit into the earlier ones written in the late 1990th. Now he should be in his early 60th, however, he acts still as a much younger person. The story line has more flaws and more hard to explain turnings. Disher still has nice ideas and surprises and the book is still thrilling, no doubt about this; nevertheless I did not appreciate it as much as the earlier ones, while reading. Now, thinking about it, I could have done without.

...rob coolbloodedly as always - other robbers. This thriller has been masterly written by Garry Disher around the year 2010. The release had in some way totally passed me by, and I found it only a couple of weeks ago on my kindle. When I bought the newest Wyatt adventure, called "The Heat". Which is really another highlight in the series. But that's a review which I will write in a couple of days.Melbourne's underworld without Wyatt Wareen has not been fully complete in my eyes. Now our gangster with high principles has re-surfaced. But his first hit that should bring him 75.000 $ - the wink came from Eddie Oberin for a fee of 500 $ - goes down the drain. Because someone tipped off the Cops. With the coup there goes Wyatt's .32 gun, too - unused, a real shame. For his next hit on a couple of jewellers - this one's Eddie's idea, too - he urgently needs new heat, so he goes to Ma Gadd. There he meets Tyler, her nephew snd a real good-for-nothing. Who urgently wants to work with The Best - Wyatt. But our hero has no need for another loser. Because Eddie too is not perfect at planning a coup. The inside information brings in Lydia Stark, his Ex-wife. The jewellers to be hit have sorrily something very big to hide and to lose. A French cousin, killler and robber on the run from Europe with British treasure bonds worth 26 Million £, needs their help to place these papers profitably in Australia. So nothing goes as planned. Lydia, being a co-worker in this deal - is not very well seen by Eddie's new flame Khandi - a most of the time drugged full-blood psychopath. Who starts to shoot with intention to kill first at Lydia, and then at Wyatt, too. Big fat fault, Khandi-Baby! Because Wyatt has some really straight principles and one of those is to help the injured - Lydia in this case. And another is even more urgent to him: to take his revenge on traitors like her and Eddie...A really perfect and also very hard-boiled thriller in the tradition of the former Wyatt adventures. The hero here is different - not acting brutally, but he simply wants his payback. And is perfectly able to wait for the very right moment to call for it. Even if that means he has to go to the other side of the globe...Garry Disher has delivered once again the proof that crime does pay - back! Read the this thrilling page-turner and learn more about this fact.

...rob coolbloodedly as always - other robbers. This thriller has been masterly written by Garry Disher around the year 2010. The release had in some way totally passed me by, and I found it only a couple of weeks ago on my kindle. When I bought the newest Wyatt adventure, called "The Heat". Which is really another highlight in the series. But that's a review which I will write in a couple of days.Melbourne's underworld without Wyatt Wareen has not been fully complete in my eyes. Now our gangster with high principles has re-surfaced. But his first hit that should bring him 75.000 $ - the wink came from Eddie Oberin for a fee of 500 $ - goes down the drain. Because someone tipped off the Cops. With the coup there goes Wyatt's .32 gun, too - unused, a real shame. For his next hit on a couple of jewellers - this one's Eddie's idea, too - he urgently needs new heat, so he goes to Ma Gadd. There he meets Tyler, her nephew snd a real good-for-nothing. Who urgently wants to work with The Best - Wyatt. But our hero has no need for another loser. Because Eddie too is not perfect at planning a coup. The inside information brings in Lydia Stark, his Ex-wife. The jewellers to be hit have sorrily something very big to hide and to lose. A French cousin, killler and robber on the run from Europe with British treasure bonds worth 26 Million £, needs their help to place these papers profitably in Australia. So nothing goes as planned. Lydia, being a co-worker in this deal - is not very well seen by Eddie's new flame Khandi - a most of the time drugged full-blood psychopath. Who starts to shoot with intention to kill first at Lydia, and then at Wyatt, too. Big fat fault, Khandi-Baby! Because Wyatt has some really straight principles and one of those is to help the injured - Lydia in this case. And another is even more urgent to him: to take his revenge on traitors like her and Eddie...A really perfect and also very hard-boiled thriller in the tradition of the former Wyatt adventures. The hero here is different - not acting brutally, but he simply wants his payback. And is perfectly able to wait for the very right moment to call for it. Even if that means he has to go to the other side of the globe...Garry Disher has delivered once again the proof that crime does pay - back! Read the this thrilling page-turner and learn more about this fact....rob coolbloodedly as always other robbers.Melbourne's underworld without Wyatt Wareen lately has not been fully complete in my eyes. Now our gangster with high principles has re-surfaced. But his first hit that should bring him 75.000 $ - the wink came from Eddie Oberin for a fee of 500 $ - goes down the drain. Because someone tipped off the Cops. With the coup there goes Wyatt's .32 gun, too - unused, a real shame. For his next hit on a couple of jewellers - this one's Eddie's idea, too - he urgently needs new heat, so he goes to Ma Gadd. There he meets Tyler, her nephew good-for-nothing. Who urgently wants to work with Only The Best, Wyatt. But our hero has no need for another loser. Because Eddie too is not perfect at planning a coup. The jewellers to be hit have sorrily something very big to hide and to lose. A French cousin, killler and robber on the run from Europe with British treasure bonds worth 26 Million £, needs their help to place these papers in Australia. So nothing goes as planned. Lydia Stark - Eddie's Ex and co-worker in this deal - is not very well seen by Eddie's new flame Khandi - a most of the time drugged full-blood psychopath. Who starts to shoot with intention to kill first Lydia, and then Wyatt too. Big fat fault, Khandi-Baby! Because Wyatt has principles and one of those is to help the injured - Lydia in this case - and to take his revenge on traitors like her and Eddie...A really perfect and also very hard-boiled thriller in the tradition of the former Wyatt adventures. The hero here is different - not acting brutally, but he simply wants his payback. And is perfectly able to wait for the very right moment to call for it. Even if that means he has to go to the other side of the globe...Garry Disher has perfectly delivered once again the proof that crime does pay - back! Read the book and learn more about this fact...

I only discovered Garry Disher recently and since then his books have been a revelation. Well written. Well researched and utterly believable. This is no exception. Rather than a main character flawed and pursued by demons Wyatt is who he is. The story flows easily and the book is hard to put down. Best of all you just know that it was not written by a ghost writer. Brilliant

I like the character, Wyatt: clinical, almost psychopathic. There's a touch of that in us all, I suspect. I like the settings and the observations Wyatt makes of them and the people in them. It's an incisive and a coldly refreshing perspective.