Surely as the smart man he's supposed to be he would use any means available, including help, to get the information he needs. A bout of meningitis as a child left him profoundly deaf so he copes with lip reading, not always successfully, and hearing aids which he only seems to use intermittently but that's not the strange thing about him, in fact I found the novel very enlightening on this subject, it's more that he doesn't take account of his limitations and insists on interviewing people he can't understand. There is racial violence, mysterious gunmen and several attacks on Caleb himself, not all by the same people.Ĭaleb Zelic is a bit of a strange protagonist. It all makes sense at the end but it's rather random during the read. There are times when the plot seems muddled and slightly difficult to navigate but this is deliberate as the novel is told strictly from Caleb's point of view and he is suffering from a lack of information and a cohesive thread to his investigation and the rash of events. On the other hand I feel that the backstory is sufficiently explored to make this novel work as a stand alone. I think I would advise any reader looking to read this to read the series in order. This novel makes many references to the events in it so I won't be going back to read it until my memory has faded and I can approach it with less knowledge than I have now, otherwise it would be a wasted read. I have not read Resurrection Bay, despite owning it, which can be viewed as either good or bad. I thoroughly enjoyed And Fire Came down which is a good mixture of thriller, suspense, action and social commentary. Without his hearing aids he has little idea of what she said or wanted before she died but he is determined to find out who sent her to him and what she wanted of him, especially when he discovers she came from Resurrection Bay. I would like to thank Netgalley and Pushkin Press for an advance copy of And Fire Came Down, the second novel to feature PI Caleb Zelic, set in Melbourne and his small hometown of Resurrection Bay.Ĭaleb is out running in Melbourne when a vagrant accosts him with a note with his name and address on it and ushers him into an alley where a woman unknown to him signs to him and asks for help but before he can do anything her pursuer chases her out into the street and into the path of a car.

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