|
| |
OFF THE SHELF - Plenty of murders
Edition 1175, September 20, 2007 |
Australia’s Forgotten Prisoners
Christina Twomey
Cambridge University Press
$37.95
Melbourne historian Christina Twomey can trace her interest in World War II prisoners of war in Asia back to when she was 10 or 11 and the daughter of an Australian serviceman in Malaysia.
Dr Twomey, a senior lecturer in the School of Historical Studies at Monash University, has written a book entitled Australia’s Forgotten Prisoners about civilians interned by the Japanese.
It’s a tragic story. The Japanese armies captured about 1500 Australian civilians in South-East Asia at the onset of World War II. These civilians suffered death, beating, starvation and deprivation – not unlike their military counterparts. Yet these Australian victims of war have never had a book dedicated to examining their stories.
Dr Twomey’s father, Peter Twomey, was in the Air Force for more than 20 years and one of his postings during her childhood was at Butterworth in Penang. During this time, in the late ’70s/early ’80s, there were family trips to Singapore and Thailand and Christina saw for herself the horrific remnants of Changi and the Thai-Burma Railway.
Years later, she stumbled upon documents that threw light on the plight of the many civilians rounded up and interned by the Japanese in Asia in World War II. She realised these were innocent people far from home, just like she and her family had been in Butterworth.
These people lost their livelihoods, their possessions, their health and sometimes their lives.
At war’s end, in contrast to the treatment afforded military POWs, captured civilians returned home to little fanfare and some were even initially forced to pay the cost of their repatriation.
“Australian civilian internees received a somewhat limited form of sympathy on their return,” Dr Twomey said. “As citizens of a country fixated on the military experience of war, there have only been limited places where the voices of civilians affected by war might be heard.”
3.5/5 stars
– John Martin |
| |
|
| |
Justice in Jeopardy
Debi Marshall
Random House Australia
$24.95
This is the true story of one of Australia’s most shocking unresolved murders.
On the night of Friday 13, 1973, 17-month-old Deidre Kennedy was abducted from her cot while her parents slept.
She was found the next morning on top of a concrete toilet block in a nearby park. She was dressed in women’s underwear, was covered in bite marks and had been raped, beaten and strangled to death.
In 1985 former Air Force technician Raymond John Carroll was found guilty of her murder and later acquitted on appeal. In 2000, he was found guilty of perjury on the grounds that he lied when he said he did not kill the baby. Acquitted for the second time – this time on double jeopardy – the case went all the way to the Australian High Court, which dismissed the Crown’s appeal. He could never be re-tried again.
A disturbing read using interviews with Raymond Carroll, Deidre’s family, police, lawyers and forensic scientists.
3.5/5 stars
– SGT Damian Griffin |
| |
|
| |
Golden Serpent
Mark Abernethy
Allen & Unwin
$29.95
Action-packed fast-paced international terrorism, intrigue and adventure – this one’s attempted them all.
Former Australian Penthouse magazine editor turned novelist Mark Abernethy, has tied together not a bad yarn using the traditionally appealing recipe of action, adventure and international intrigue, but I’m afraid it’s left me a little underwhelmed.
Alan McQueen (AKA Mac) is a tough Aussie bloke (do they make us any other way?) who is the poster boy of the global intelligence community after killing number-one bad guy Abu Sabaya (the world’s most dangerous terrorist).
But wait! Abu Sabaya isn’t really dead. He’s back, and he’s teamed up with CIA bad egg Peter Garrison and they’re armed with, yawn, stolen VX nerve gas.
I’m tipping you’ve worked out where this is going.
It’s not completely crap, but it’s a lesson in why you should be wary of books that have anonymous quotes on the cover such as “must-read thriller of the year”.
2.5/5 stars
– SGT Damian Griffin
|
| |
|
| |
The Last Assassin
Barry Eisler
Penguin
$29.95
Ok. I must have had my head stuck in the sand to have never have heard of this guy before.
This is the fifth in a series of thrillers about John Rain, a Japanese/American assassin who cruises around doing cool stuff in exotic locales while meting out death using his martial arts.
In The Last Assassin, Rain discovers that his former lover, Midori, is living in New York with a child he didn’t know he had. Rain sees a chance to reconcile the relationship, and senses in doing so an opportunity to seek redemption for his past sins. But his past isn’t willing to let him go as he attempts to elude his enemies.
Throw into the mix a beautiful and exotic Israeli intelligence agent, Delilah, and Rain needs to cut through both a tangled web and his enemies.
You can tell from almost the first page that Eisler is good at his craft. For those who’ve been waiting for this, you won’t be disappointed – and for first timers like myself, I’m sure you’re going to find a new favourite with Eisler.
4/5 stars
– SGT Damian Griffin |
| |
|
|
|
