City of Light

City of Light is the first crime novel written by Dave Warner. Snowy Lane investigates a number of crimes over the years, initially as a young constable and then as a private investigator. The novel is written in three sections - 1979, 1986 and 1988. When the novel begins there have been a number of murders of young women by a killer named by the police and the press as Mr Gruesome. Eventually the police identify and arrest the killer and Perth breaths a sigh of relief. During the investigation Snowy begins to learn of the network of corruption occurring in business, politics and the police force in Perth.

As a private investigator Snowy works on a variety of cases over the years but his mind keeps taking him back to the Mr Gruesome case and the feeling that something was missed in the investigation. He also continues to discover examples of corruption in high places. When a colleague is killed he is determined more than ever to discover the truth. Then the murders begin again.

There were times when I felt that this novel was too long and began to lose interest, but at the end when  parts of the story are unravelled and explained I became more involved in the story line. There are also many descriptions of sexual encounters but most of them end up being relevant to the story and the characters involved.

City of Life is often referred to as number one in the Dan Clements series but Dan Clements does not appear as a character in the book. However in Clear to the Horizon both Snowy Lane and Dan Clements work on a case. City of Life is therefore the first of Dave Warner's series of crime novels set in Western Australia containing the characters of Snowy Lane or Dan Clements or both.