Nice Try (2003)

By Shane Maloney
I can’t really find much to say about this book. I very much enjoyed Maloney’s two previous books in this series, Stiff and The Brush Off. Nice Try is cut from the same cloth but somehow lacks the spark of the previous two. Our hero, David Wenham, I mean Murray Whelan, is still in the employ of Angelo Agnelli, Minister for Water Supply and the Arts, but is borrowed for a week by mates in the Melbourne Olympics Bid, Incorporated, to sort out some issues that could affect Melbourne’s chances for the 1996 Games - issues that include an Aboriginal activist and a semi-psychotic bodybuilder pumped up on steroids. Also, Whelan is on a health kick and feeling increasingly estranged from his son, Red, who lives in Sydney with his Mum, so there’s some personal stuff going on too. (Not a bad name, Red, only of course it’s short for Redmond and I’m not sure I could name potential future sons Redmond in case he copped flak at school for being named after the bloke that hung Ned Kelly). Whelan’s style of getting things done is still refreshing though – upfront, free of menace and table-thumping; he’s essentially a humble man who wants to get along with people, and that makes a nice change from a lot of crime fiction.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10
A pleasant entertainment, but not much more.