A reflection from Dave:
A number of years ago I started reading Donald E. Westlake’s Richard Stark series where the dark protagonist was Parker. At that time I had an infected foot and was told by my very caring doctor that my foot had to be elevated. I started reading the Richard Stark series and after ten days in bed I started to run out of the titles that I had in my collection. So bibliomania took over and I started obtaining
more titles and within a couple of weeks the books were not arriving as quickly as I was devouring them.
At one point I ordered a Richard Stark title from a paperback dealer who said, "If you like the Richard Stark series so much, you should read an Australian author by the name of Garry Disher and his Wyatt
series." At that point I have never heard of Garry Disher so I ordered two of the titles from the paperback dealer. Garry Disher’s Wyatt series was published and available only in Australia and they were paperback originals.
I started reading the Wyatt series and again I was devouring the series faster than I could obtain the titles I was missing. After a few years I rounded up a complete collection of the Wyatt series titles and also some other Disher titles.
First edition, first printing copies of the Wyatt series are very uncommon in very good to fine condition and the prices of some of the copies have reached $85.00 and up . There are very few signed copies of the Wyatt series. So if you have been enjoying the Richard Stark series, now is the time to collect the
Australian Wyatt series, so you'll have the books around to enjoy.
The Wyatt novels are:
Kickback (1991)
Paydirt (1992)
Deathdeal (1993)
Crosskill (1994)
Port Vila Blues (1995)
The Fallout (1997)
Wyatt (2010) (the only title published in the U.S.)
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| Garry Disher |
As a footnote, we were very pleased to meet Garry Disher in Boston a few years ago at an event hosted by Kate’s Mystery Bookstore, featuring several Soho Press authors. Garry Disher signed more than forty titles for us that evening, so we also have signed copies of his Challis & Destry series of police procedurals set in Australia.
Wyatt is really good fun, a bit like the feeling you get from a Clive Cussler superhero bloke, only not so fantasyland. If you like Garry disher, seek out the entire series of 6 novels in the Challis & Destry series: the first being The Dragon Man, then work from there. We read the first book Chain of Evidence, as the first Disher we read only last year, and were absolutely blown away by his no nonsense crime writing.
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful Australian crime writer Michael Robotham: begin with "Bleed for Me". Wonderful stuff, I dare you to not want to read them all in these little series.
Thanks for your information page! I encourage you to explore the above.
Not read enough of them. I'm glad he's written another one maybe two in the series. I also read somewhere the Dan Simmons Joe Kurtz books are similar although Kurtz isn't a thief from memory.
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