This review first appeared in The Christchurch Press on 15/9/12
The Midnight Promise. Zane Lovitt. 2012. Text Publishing. Pp 283. $37.
Ken Strongman
The subtitle of ‘The Midnight Promise’,
Zane Lovitt’s first book, is ‘A detective’s story in ten cases.’ There are indeed ten cases described for John
Dorn, who styles himself as a private inquiry agent. Mostly, the cases involve stuff-ups, either
for the person in trouble, or for John Dorn or simply for life in general in
the western suburbs of Melbourne.
Each case is unique and each involves one
of life’s imponderables and yet they build inexorably to the final case in
which John Dorn meets his midnight promise.
This final case is grittier than the others, but still revolves round
some surprising puzzles.
The publisher’s blurb describes this as
“The outstanding literary debut of the year”. Setting side the hyperbole that
typifies such comments, this might well be the best first book to appear in
Australia this year, and it is definitely interesting and unusual as an example
of crime fiction, but ‘outstanding’? Almost.
John Dorn is a typical private eye, going
from non-paying case to non-paying case, helping the abject and the bereft in
the true Robin Hood style. He has a
seedy, run-down office, that, as his life worsens, eventually doubles as his
living quarters. He struggles to stop
thinking about the woman to whom he was once engaged. He struggles to remain un-envious of a
successful layer friend who attempts to throw him crumbs of financial
comfort. Above all, he has a wryly
self-deprecating view of life – the stuff of internal smiles rather than
guffaws.
‘The Midnight Promise’ is, then, nicely
amusing, particularly in the tortuous conversations that John Dorn has with his
clients as he makes his slightly bemused way around suburban Melbourne. But its
singularity comes from Dorn’s way of looking at life. He sees merit where others do not, he sees
angles that remain obscure to others. In
many ways, he gets himself into situations that beset all other fictional
private inquiry agents, but for all the wrong reasons. And it is this that makes the book unique.
The final puzzle for Zane Lovitt is what he
will do next for John Dorn. There have
to be further cases. To predict their direction is hard, but they will be
singular. Lovitt is a new voice in crime
fiction.
