To work, stories need to be structurally consistent, and in the case of fiction be consistent with reality. There are many elements in Jigsaw Bay which are inconsistent in setting, description, and behaviour both within the story and within reality. It is not likely that five-year-old gums would provide a lookout for a group of thirteen-year-olds, nor would a one and a half metre in diameter pipe be too small for Danny’s father to crawl into. Much of it simply doesn’t ring true. I question whether police in this setting, no matter how ‘bad’, would ever shoot at a fleeing boy or that a local politician be as brazenly corrupt as Les Shrimpton. The style of writing is more akin to a script, producing throughout loose melodramatic overtones. And the postscript – why inject a biographical element into a work that is purely fiction?

Characters don’t need to be three dimensional if the story is believable and gripping enough. However, here too Jigsaw Bay disappointed me particularly its stereotypes. Danny’s father is trying to do some quite logical and useful work but is portrayed as the mad scientist with an equally bizarre laboratory. Yoko’s dad, as the Japanese industrialist is a target for racism – the Starkos family is big and noisy and a lot of fun to be with … and Con is a fisherman.

Taking all this into account and despite the overtones of eco-moralism, Jigsaw Bay has a pacy contemporary plot, attractive design, and easy to read layout. It will undoubtedly provide, as it did for me, an entertaining quick read. It is most likely intended to do nothing more.

Garry Disher’s Restless is a collection of six short stories. It also makes for entertaining reading though the subtitle, ‘Stories of flight and fear’, probably more accurately describes expected reader reaction rather than theme. All except one is a variation on the classic ghost story. One is a new story, the others are published in various other collections – all are reasonably recent pieces. This style of short story is the long short story variety, not the snapshot staccato style (my personal preference) which I find intriguing and ultimately more challenging. None the less despite their similarity – common authorship and theme – there is food for thought in these six plots which does add up to some engaging reading.

‘Where the Bodies are Buried’ is the story most different from the others and is my favourite. It is a predictable tongue-in-cheek thriller of the bad cops and good private eye kind. The reader guesses at the outset that somehow Maddy will be reconciled with her father – Ellen Da Costa’s murder will be avenged, and is, with some smart footwork by Maddy. In all six, at the outset, Disher firmly establishes setting, key players, and dues as to plot possibilities. None totally disappoints the reader by predictability/similarity though because of this I found ‘The Isle of Sighs’ to be the least engaging of all. The stereotypical ghost story setting of ‘the house at the end of the world’ and he predictable plot is certainly Disher’s least creative.

Perhaps the most moving of all six is the interaction between the young man and the dogman in ‘The Difference to Me’. In this story there are few clues as to resolution and two recognisable characters with no names. Here Disher establishes a real sense of the loneliness of the big city and at the same time makes a statement about what is important in life.

There are numerous short story collections available for the l2+ reader. Most are collections of stories greatly varied in quality. Many are written around suggested themes solicited by editors from recognised writers. Too often they are tedious and contain writing which falls far short of expectations and which does nothing to enhance the author’s reputation. Restless is not such a collection and for this fact alone it is to be commended. The real winners in the game are those writers who can produce a collection of very different stories. Stories which are individual and contain surprises – stories which flow from creative spontaneous ideas, using fresh techniques, and if there are to be connections, clever or unusual ones – and which probably will have been written over an extended period of time.