Review: Amongst the Dead (William Power Mystery, #3)

It’s hard to feel positive about a book where the main character is ‘a special kind of dickhead’. And William Power really is exactly that. He has an ego the size of Uluru and absolutely no self-awareness. In other words, he is not pleasant company.
However, this third book in the series (I haven’t read any of the others) is rescued from being a total disaster by Gott’s ability to make you feel like you are in the tropics where the action is. Set during World War 2, Will Power is sent undercover to the tropical wilderness of northern Australia to investigate the murder of three soldiers. (I have to question why they’d send him in the first place, as he’s obviously an incompetent investigator.) The descriptions of the appalling conditions: constantly being wet due to monsoonal rain and humidity; sleeping in the mud, in the rain and the incessant whine of mosquitoes - I felt I was there too.
Power draws all the wrong conclusions, and his prejudices and snobbery are quite unappealing. Although competently written, I won’t be spending any more time with William Power.

• Review
• Robert Gott