Reviewed by Rod McLary
J P Pomare’s previous novels – of which there are seven – are generally set in Australia or New Zealand. A number of them have won awards including the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel for Call Me Evie [2018]; and Tell Me Lies [2020] was shortlisted for both the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction.
His latest – The Gambler – revisits the United States with a private investigator as its main protagonist. Readers of J P Pomare’s previous novels may remember Vince Reid from the author’s 2022 novel The Wrong Woman. In that novel, Reid returns to the small American town which he had left in disgrace some years previously. And that is where this narrative commences. With the US as the setting, this allows the narrative to explore themes such as conspiracy theories, the use and misuse of AI, the plethora of disinformation and the ubiquitous gun-carrying by its citizens. The Gambler is the first in a new series by J P Pomare.
Vince Reid, a police officer turned private investigator with an interesting backstory only alluded to in this novel but explained more in The Wrong Woman, is engaged by grieving parents to find out why their adult daughter Katie was shot dead at a political rally in a seemingly targeted killing. Was it a random act of violence? Was it deliberately planned – and if so, by whom and why Katie? These are the questions now facing Reid – as everyone calls him – and what a complex and dangerous journey he embarks on to get to the truth.
Of course as with all the author’s novels, the journey to truth is far from straightforward and there is uncertainty regarding who is telling the truth and who is not – and of those who are not telling the truth, are they lying by commission or omission? The strands of Reid’s investigations extend as far as the local Amish community, a political campaign and an unsolved shooting from some years previously. Reid is uncertain whom he can trust and even at one point doubts his mentor and life-long friend. But as the narrative progresses, the various elements begin to fall into place and thus some understanding of the reasons for the shooting emerges.
Unlike some of his earlier novels, this one is action-driven with car chases, pursuits through the local neighbourhood, and shootings. It is indeed an exciting narrative with enough character development to add a depth to the overall trajectory of the story.
Recommended for all aficionados of crime novels and particularly those readers who always enjoy a J P Pomare novel.
The Gambler
[2026]
by J P Pomare
Hachette
ISBN: 978 0 7336 5308 7
$34.99; 330pp