Garry Disher: The Dragon Man (USA 2014)

From the Publisher:
Meet Hal Challis, Detective for the Mornington Peninsula police force in Southeast Australia, in the first investigation in this prize-winning crime series
A serial killer is on the loose in a small coastal town near Melbourne, Australia. Detective Inspector Hal Challis and his team must apprehend him before he strikes again. But first, Challis has to contend with the editor of a local newspaper who undermines his investigation at every turn, and with his wife, who attempts to resurrect their marriage through long-distance phone calls from a sanitarium, where she has been committed for the past eight years for attempted murder - his.

Garry Disher: The Dragon Man. A Hal Challis Investigation. Soho Crime, ISBN: 9781616954482 (September, 2014), 311 p., $9.99.

Garry Disher: The Dragon Man (UK 2007)

From the Publisher:
It was as easy as that. Inspired, really. That first one, last week, she hadn't been a challenge at all. Drunk, half-drugged, hitchhiking, she'd been too easy. At least he'd got to use his head a little tonight. His headlights probed the darkness as he carried her away, high above the rottenness that was always there under the light of the sun.

Its summer on the Mornington Peninsula near Melbourne. The heat's ramping up with the usual holiday madness building. Detective Inspector Hal Challis is already recycling his shower water and starting to dread Christmas.

But this year there's something more - women abducted and murdered on the Old Highway, a pall of fear over the scorched paddocks. The media are demanding answers - and Challis' sleepy beat is set to explode.

Garry Disher: The Dragon Man. A Hal Challis Mystery. Bitter Lemon Press, ISBN: 1904738230 (May, 2007), 265 p., £8.99.

Garry Disher: The Dragon Man (USA 2005)

From the Publisher:
A serial killer is on the loose in a small coastal town near Melbourne. Detective Inspector Hal Challis and his team must apprehend him before he strikes again. But first, Challis has to contend with the editor of a local newspaper who undermines his investigation at every turn, and with his wife, who attempts to resurrect their marriage through long-distance phone calls from a sanitarium, where she has been imprisoned for the past eight years for attempted murder.

Garry Disher: The Dragon Man. A Detective Inspector Challis Murder Mystery. Soho Crime, ISBN: 1569473951 (June, 2005), 239 p., $11.00.

Garry Disher: The Dragon Man (USA 2004)

From the Publisher:
A serial killer is on the loose in a small coastal town near Melbourne. Detective Inspector Hal Challis and his team must apprehend him before he strikes again. But first Challis must contend with the editor of a local news-paper who undermines his investigation at every turn and with his wife, who is attempting to resurrect their marriage through long-distance phone calls from a sanitarium where she has been imprisoned for the past eight years for attempted murder. His.

The media is demanding to know what Challis is doing about the killer; his colleagues are either giving trouble or in it; and his past keeps coming back to haunt him. Can Challis and his team nab the Peninsula Highway killer before anyone else gets hurt?

Garry Disher was born in Burra, Australia in 1949. He was awarded a creative writing fellowship from Stanford University in 1978. He has published over 40 books, including novels for adults and children. Disher received the German Crime Fiction Critic's prize for two years in a row, 2000 2001 for this book and Kitty Hawk Down, his second Inspector Challis novel, which has been nominated for the 2003 Ned Kelly Award for Australian Crime Writing. He lives in Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, with his wife and daughter.

Garry Disher: The Dragon Man. A Detective Inspector Challis Murder Mystery. Soho Crime, ISBN: 1569473560 (July, 2004), 239 p., $23.00.