Dreamland (Tom Gilling, Text, $32.95 pb, ISBN 9781921145797, June) ***

Gilling’s previous novels have been historicals, set in an early Australia tinged with fantasy, black comedy and a touch of the gothic. His latest is quite a departure, with its contemporary Sydney setting and many of the genre hallmarks of the crime thriller. Dreamland opens with journalist Nick Carmody paying a reluctant visit to an Oxford Street nightclub owned by an old friend. His friend, it turns out, is in all sorts of trouble and Nick stumbles right into the thick of it. From there, Dreamland takes the reader on a ride into territory familiar to any enthusiast of the noir-ish side of crime fiction, but anyone expecting a neat resolution where the ‘baddie’ is punished and the rumpled hero dusts off his battered hat and wanders off into the night is in for something altogether more elusive (and at times a bit frustrating). Text’s publicity material suggests Dreamland is ‘ideal for reading groups’ and the book could certainly generate discussion about identity, genre, ethics, etc. I’d also suggest this is a book that will benefit from careful shelving and hand-selling instore— booksellers should counsel crime fans that they won’t necessarily get what they want, yet those who prefer a more thoughtful, literary read shouldn’t be
put off by any assumption that Dreamland is ‘just another thriller.’

Tim Coronel is deputy publisher of Bookseller+Publisher

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: tom gilling