Meet Wyatt, a professional criminal with a ruthless streak a mile wide. Wyatt is the creation of Garry Disher and made his first appearance in Kickback when an inside job on a Melbourne solicitors didn't quite go as planned. Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Wyatt has fled Melbourne and is now in South Australia, planning his next heist and hoping to hit Paydirt.

When Wyatt left Melbourne he thought he was on the run from the police and he was right, but only half right. He had interfered with The Outfit’s Melbourne operation and for that they have placed a bounty on his head. So while he is in South Australia planning the contingencies of a payroll job, he is unaware of a man named Letterman who is slowly closing in on him.

Just to add a third dimension of uncertainty, there’s a man named Trigg who lives in rural South Australia. He runs a used car lot in the town of Goyder, but this is just a front for his money lending and drug supply racket. Money’s been a bit tight for Trigg in recent times and he’s being squeezed by his suppliers and no matter how much pressure he places on his debtors he can’t seem to generate cash-flow quickly enough. Somehow you just know that his need for money is going to play a significant role in future proceedings.

Its six weeks after the events in Kickback and Wyatt is working for Brava Construction in the tiny South Australian town of Belcowie, 3 hours drive north of Adelaide. At least, he gives the impression he’s working for them, in actual fact he’s using the job as cover while scoping out the company’s payroll delivery that he is planning to snatch in a week’s time. After giving the setup a thorough going over he believes he can pull the job off and sets about assembling a crew, preparing equipment and planning the getaway. The mark is an armoured car and the hit is going to be as daring as it will be devastating – barring any unforeseen circumstances.

Although there is a lot of planning to be done before the actual heist takes place, the pace of the book is very high thanks to the parallel storylines employed by Disher. While Wyatt is holed up preparing his team, Letterman is going around tidying up loose ends (that’s a hit-man’s euphemism) and bearing down on his quarry (…err, that’s Wyatt remember). At only around 170 pages long, the plotting is incredibly tight and events tend to take place very quickly. Little bother is given to the development of any of the peripheral characters apart from how their greed or deceit will affect Wyattand unnecessary scene description is completely absent.

Paydirt is a typical hardboiled novel complete with unemotional violence with the promise of more to come. It’s completely uncompromising in its toughness, summed up by Wyatt’s promise to one of his more lackadaisical crew members, “if you mess up, I will kill you.” This is a promise and was delivered with no evidence of bluff or bluster and we have already witnessed the evidence that it was no idle threat.

To be sure, Wyatt is an utterly impassive character concentrating solely on the objective when preparing for a job. He doesn’t seem to understand the need to relieve tension with a quick joke or idle chatter and so, tends to withdraw from it. Having said that, then, it’s unusual to imagine that this anti-hero engenders an emotional attachment from the readers, but that is precisely what I felt. You can’t help but admire the thoroughness and control with which Wyatt works.

There is one scene towards the end of the book that I felt weakened the entire story considerably. It involves what I term the “old Batman disposal” method of killing. You know the one: sure I could simply put a bullet in your head and be done with you like I did with all those other guys earlier in the story, but it would be much more fiendish if I were to set up an elaborate scheme that will result in you being left alone to face your inevitable demise. What could possibly go wrong?

Apart from this one annoying little aspect, Paydirt is a wild ride through the dust and dirt of South Australia following the exploits of a tough criminal. Hardboiled readers who are fans of Richard Stark will relish the pitiless style of Wyatt.


Recommended: Yes