Amongst the Dead - Robert Gott

In Good Murder he was unleashed on the unsuspecting Queensland community of Maryborough. In A Thing Of Blood he was back home in Melbourne but no less despised. He is William Power: actor, private inquiry agent and, yes, total dickhead. Robert Gott has sent Power north into the wilds of Australia’s top end for the 3rd mystery in the series titled Amongst the Dead (pub. Scribe Publications).

William Power is a triumph of human incompetence rolled up into a self-satisfied, foppish, prig of a man who has a singularly powerful ability of drawing attention to himself for all the wrong reasons. Set in 1942, and with Australia fearing an imminent Japanese invasion, Amongst the Dead is another delightfully unreliable first person narrative in which Power bumbles his way in and around a multiple murder investigation.

William Power's flaws are many and his complete unawareness of his effect on people is what has made this series so relentlessly entertaining. I recommend you get your hands on the first two books and read them all, but if you can't then a rewarding alternative is to just read Amongst the Dead and have a good laugh.