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Bantam Press, July 2007
Reviewed by Kerrie Smith
Newly promoted Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson of the New South Wales
Police force has a deep hatred of paedophiles and the "squirrels" who
procure children for them. When Jill was twelve years old she was abducted
and held in a basement for three days. During that time she was abused by
men who were never caught. Even now, over twenty years later, she has
recurrent nightmares, and unpredictable panic attacks. She is very
security conscious and has also developed techniques for dealing with
unwanted memories. Exhaustive exercise is one of her strategies.
David Carter, paedophile and voyeur, is found beaten to death in the sand
dunes where he was watching a young couple. There have been two other
bashing deaths with similar MOs in the Sydney metropolitan area. Jill's
colleague Scotty Hutchinson is as committed as Jill is to hunting down
paedophiles. Jill and Scotty believe there are connections, perhaps even a
serial killer who is hunting down paedophiles.
Mercy Merris is a psychotherapist who has treated both Jill and other
trauma victims - not, it seems, particularly successfully. She is
conducting a vendetta against those involved in paedophile rings,
particularly those known to have been responsible for the misery of some
of her patients. Her patients tend to be survivors of childhood sexual
abuse.
VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE seems to me to be rather thickly populated with
unpleasant characters, including a colleague of Jill's, whose brother she
gaoled in the amphetamine bust that resulted in her promotion. Jill has
many enemies and needs all her physical and mental strength to win
through.
The subject matter of this novel is extremely unpleasant. We are told that
VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE, "though inspired by real Australian crimes, is a
work of fiction". Author Leah Giarratano is a psychologist who has
obviously drawn on her experiences in working with victims of sexual
offences. In this, her debut novel, the plot is tightly constructed, and
the action violent. However for me Jill Jackson is just a little too
larger than life. At 34 years of age, too many bad things have happened to
her. I am surprised that she actually made it into the New South Wales
Police force, although Giarratano has built a very strong case for this
being her mission in life. Giarratano's next book is due to be released in
July 2008.
July 2007 review, originally published on Murder and Mayhem
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