Political thrillers expose corrupting personal ambition

12 June 2006

Dead SetKel Robertson, Text Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1921145048, RRP $29.95 Morning's GoneJon Cleary, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0732282624, RRP $32.95 There are two schools of thought on the connection between politics and literature in Australia. One view is that all novels concern politics in the broad sense of power in personal relationships, whether these occur between individuals or within families or any other social institution. The second view is that novelists have tended to ignore the ‘profession’ of politics as practised in parties, election campaigns, parliaments and the machinery of government. The connection matters because fiction reflects reality, defines what is possible and prompts serious questions about what should be. In this context it is interesting and somewhat disturbing, to discover how readily popular novelists regard politics as an appropriate background for crime stories. In Dead Set, by first time novelist Kel Robertson, and Morning’s Gone by the prolific Jon Cleary, the practice of politics in Australia has been corrupted by personal ambition and politicians are regarded with suspicion if not contempt. Both works suggest that politics places intolerable strains on some individuals, and especially on those with active consciences. Neither work suggests that politicians are innocent victims of social pressures. Rather they show that other social institutions such as the family and the justice system are forced to deal with the mess created by politicians. In Dead Set the drama and farce are created by people with evil intentions subverting the political process. In Morning’s Gone, a politician with good intentions encounters difficulties when he meets an insurmountable obstacle. Both novels suggest that certain features of the system are vulnerable to manipulation by powerful forces and the result is that we are deprived of the very people who would be our best representatives. Dead Set is a mostly very readable crime thriller set in Canberra, Sydney and the New South Wales Central Coast. Kel Robertson introduces a likeable and believable character, Inspector Brad (for Bradman) Chen of the Federal Police. Throughout the tale which is told in first person, Chen is on crutches and relies on painkillers, alcohol and the support of his driver, detective Kate Malone. Chen is recalled to duty because the Immigration Minister has been murdered. Chen noted the crowds outside her house and observes that not so long ago, a dozen Ministers for Immigration could have been murdered and there would have been no need to

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Political thrillers expose corrupting personal ambition

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