"You warned me off Chislehurst. You knew something was up" - Oscar

Detective Oscar Mariani leads a two party department in the Victorian Police force. Known as "the Disposables" Oscar and his partner investigate crimes that may be attributed to ghostly appearances. For no apparently reason on a certain day the dead began returning, in such numbers that every live person is continually dogged by a dead relative, acquaintance, or just a ghost with an interest. Oscar himself is haunted by the shade of a small boy for no discernable reason. Naturally society has broken down due to the paranormal onslaught, and one wonders if the last days might have arrived.

Finding it difficult to do much when your lead witness is invisible Oscar has an appalling clearance rate, and is being dragged over the coals about it. Oscar gets a second chance when he stumbles upon the victim of a brutal serial killer. Seems young girls with physical deformities are being ritualistically butchered and all roads lead to a former killer who is currently behind bars. Can Oscar work out what is going down before those in Authority shut him out of the case? Things aren't helped when bodies disappear, witnesses are suddenly silent, and assassins from beyond the veil of death make regular visitations to Oscar's home.

First up Irwin mixes and matches two genres, something that will either rock the house down or collapse like the proverbial stack of cards. On the one hand we get a well constructed Detective story with more twists and turns than a room full of rock and roll dancers. Just when you think you might have worked out what's going down, Irwin throws another bouncer at you driving you back from a ready answer. I was actually caught out, to continue the cricket analogy for the moment, with the resolution to this one. I wasn't expecting where the diverse seemingly separate roads might be leading me. And no this wasn't no Da Vinci Code, all roads don't lead to Rome and Stephen M Irwin is much more accomplished writer than Dan Brown could ever hope to be.

Irwin can write a Detective story, his character Oscar Mariani is certainly a match for any of the downtrodden police officers you might care to mention. So if crime writing is your thing then dive on in the water is fine, except maybe a bit more dark than you are used to, with a bit of an undertow, oh and some denizens that are apt to take a bite out of you.

The second element of Irwin's novel is the paranormal influences that pervade the pages in a sort of dark overbearing fashion. Everyone has a ghost, but while this might be a top priority for the Individual, it remains impolite to ask someone about their ghost. An immediately isolating social norm if you think about it. Worse yet for the haunted, their spectre has deep pools for eyes. If the eyes are the window of the soul, then whatever each person has to deal with on a daily basis has no soul. An altogether unnerving backdrop to a novel that already promises plenty of mayhem of the blood drenched kind. Added topping here is a malevolent supernatural element that gets gradually stronger and more dangerous as the novel progresses. As Oscar gets closer to the truth the attacks become more vicious and appear almost as warnings of worse to come for the Detective.

Naturally, and in order to ensure we have a sympathetic character for the Reader to identify with, Oscar comes with more baggage than a Greyhound bus. His wife has left him, he suffers deep remorse for having made an invalid of a girl he ran down while getting over the shock of the appearance of his own ghost for the first time, and to make matters worse his father isn't long for the world. You could say Oscar has a lot more to be concerned about that police work, which is why to an extent the new case invigorates him and is the kick in the arse he needs to get out of his lethargic approach to life. Come the serial killer come the Detective if you will. Oscar remains a sympathetic character throughout as he battles seemingly insurmountable odds, faces personal tragedies, and drills ever closer to the answer at the core of the mystery.

Stephen M Irwin lays down a good line of prose that should have most readers, with the exception of the wine and cheese set who go in for angels on heads of pins at the best of times, rocking along and having a good time. You get a sort of James Herbert vibe from the novel with Irwin perhaps conjuring up one of the modern Celtic dark genre Writers to deliver a very British styled that works like a brought thing in the Melbourne setting the book is based in. This isn't to say that Irwin is not writing white hot at stages, the pace of The Broken Ones doesn't let up, just that the structure of the novel is meticulously constructed. You get the feeling Irwin built a wire frame for this novel and then went rampant while filling in the pieces.

The book comes at us from the good folk at Hachette Australia, who by the way are building a pretty solid dark genre catalogue that is no doubt the envy of some of their rivals. Format wise we're talking one of those oversized paperbacks that are all the vogue in the modern world, mat coloured covers, and solid paper weight throughout. It's a pretty tactile package that you can quite happy read on public transport, in bed, or where ever you normally consume your reading matter. Full marks to Hachette for the delivery, the book is a comfortable read.

Summing up, I had a good time between the covers, dug the multi facet approach being taken, and once again grooved to Irwin's beat. The only problem I now have is the two year wait till the Author gets his next project out of the Publisher's door. Full recommendation on this novel, it'll rock your house down. If you haven't got your Irwin read on yet then grab this book and also The Dark Path.

The Broken Ones is available from all good bookstores, if yours doesn't have it demand to know why not and threaten physical violence if they don't get the novel in ASAP. For further information cruised on over to Hachette or Stephen's home page. Later days, I'm off to start reading the book all over again.