Cop-turned-author P. M. Newton's second crime fiction novel investigates the human cost of the 1990s war on drugs in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta.
Beams Falling picks up from where her first novel, Old School, left off - still in Sydney's west, this time during the dark days of the war on drugs in Cabramatta during the 1990s.
Its main character, Vietnamese-Australian detective Nhu `Ned' Kelly, wants to be more than a political pawn of the police and politicians trying to gain the upper hand on Asian crime.
But coming from the same background as the Vietnamese drug gangs running the local heroin trade doesn't make Kelly's job any easier.
She has empathy for a community finding its way, but the cop is also determined to catch the teenage dealers responsible for violent home invasions and tit-for-tat score settling.
Part police procedural, historical fiction and social commentary, Beams Falling looks at the human stories behind the headlines of Sydney's recent history.
* Beams Falling, P.M. Newtown. Published by Penguin Viking in February 2014. RRP $29.99.
