When I started reading this book I kept wondering if my copy was missing the first couple of pages? It starts starts in a way no other book I’ve read does, in that a murder has happened but you know nothing about those involved and when you are told who each character is it is so boring and confusing you don’t care. Turns out there this is one of many story telling flaws in that book. Gary is laying dead bleeding all over Caleb. Gary texted Caleb. Caleb didn’t kill Gary. Caleb runs a security company with a alcoholic drug addict female partner who once was a cop. I also kept wondering was this book part of a series and I should know these people. If felt like the reader was supposed to already know who these people were and why they acted the way they do. It turns out it is just bad storytelling.
Here is why this book, in my opinion got so much press. Political correctness!
Caleb has a handicap- he is deaf.
His ex wife is aboriginal whose mother is a surgeon.
Here is what is wrong with the book.
1. The story starts with a murder that is meaningless to the reader
2. Not one interesting character and zero character development.
3. Sadly in addition to being deaf Caleb is also stupid.
4. The plot/storyline is boring, the crime is far fetched, the criminals completely 2 dimensional, stereotyping throughout the story. The ending is so idiotic I thought an 8 year old wrote it.
This book was a complete waste of time.
( )

An award-winning Australian crime novel - the first in a series featuring Caleb Zelic. This was the first novel I’ve read where the hero (Caleb) was profoundly deaf. This added a different slant to a quick, engaging thriller about drugs, addiction and betrayal. ( )

The speed with which I read this is a great indicator of its quality. Tightly written, short sharp prose gives it that sense of thrill. Will definitely read more in this series. ( )

Emma Viskic burst onto the Australian crime writing scene back in 2015 and I'm just catching up now. Winning a bunch of awards, Resurrection Bay is the first in the series featuring Caleb Zelic.

Caleb has been deaf since childhood and has learned to adapt by lip reading, closely observing his surroundings and by actively interpreting other key signs and signals. Caleb is an investigator and runs his business with an ex-cop by the name of Frankie.

Caleb is such a fresh and unique character I immediately warmed to him. Caleb's deafness is very much part of who he is and reading about him and the danger he soon finds himself in really helped me to understand the challenges those hard of hearing inevitably face every day.

I can't recall a character like him in crime fiction, perhaps with the exception of John Stefanovitch; a New York cop confined to a wheelchair after being shot and left for dead in the 1989 novel The Midnight Club by James Patterson.

I found myself invested in Caleb way more than the plot, and knew early on this was a series I would continue reading. There's plenty of action, tension and diversity as well as Aussie references and recognisable settings in this debut.

I've already read the next in the series - And Fire Came Down - which I believe is better than this one, which has directly informed my rating below. I'm giving it 3.5 stars rounded down. Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic is highly recommended for crime fiction fans. ( )

4.5 stars.

With outstanding characterization, an intriguing mystery and a wonderful setting, Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic is a spellbinding debut. This first installment in the Caleb Zelic series is fast-paced, engaging and impossible to put down.

Caleb Zelic and his partner, former police detective, Frankie Reynolds, own and operate a security firm, Trust Works. Assisting them from time to time is his best friend from childhood, Senior Constable Gary Marsden. When Gary is brutally murdered, Caleb is stunned to discover the investigator assigned to the case, Detective Tedesco, is convinced his friend was a dirty copper. Equally shocking is the discovery that since Gary was working on a case with him, Tedesco and Detective Sergeant McFarlane also believe that Caleb is involved in some type of illegal activity. When Frankie unexpectedly goes missing, he is afraid she will meet the same fate as Gary and Caleb turns to his ex-wife Kat to help him after he is attacked. They then return to their hometown in Resurrection Bay but will this protect them from the people who determined to silence Caleb?

With a profound hearing loss, Caleb sometimes misses key parts of conversations but he is a force to be reckoned with following Gary's murder. He stubbornly refuses to stop trying to figure out who killed his best friend and he knows beyond any doubt that Detective Tedesco's assertion that Gary is involved in something illegal is wrong. But Caleb is a little puzzled by some of the phone calls Gary made right before his death, and he is soon quite busy trying to uncover the truth.

Caleb is very surprised to learn that his brother, Anton, is one of the people whom Gary phoned. Caleb's relationship with Anton is not very close due to his brother's problems with drug addiction. They have been somewhat estranged for quite some time so Caleb is a little taken aback when he realizes things with Anton have changed for the better. Yet given his brother's history, Caleb is rather skeptical that he can be fully trusted.

The next person Caleb questions gives him reason to doubt that he knows Gary as well as he believed. The information that is revealed to him is eyebrow-raising but this unexpected revelation does not necessarily mean his friend would cross the line and do anything illegal. Caleb continues to be loyal to Gary's memory but will another inconsistency discovered by Detective Tedesco change his mind?

Meanwhile, Frankie finally turns up unharmed and they are quickly embroiled in a quest to see if there is a link between their current case and Gary's murder. As they re-examine every bit of evidence they have unearthed, they learn that two other people connected to their investigation have also turned up dead. When Caleb finally stumbles onto the truth, he is absolutely stunned by the identities of the people who are involved.

Resurrection Bay is a fast-paced and riveting whodunit. The characters are quite unique and superbly developed. Caleb is a fantastic protagonist who is a little naive but he is very personable with some well-honed instincts. The investigation into Gary's murder is very interesting and Emma Viskic brilliantly obscures the perpetrators' identities until the novel's action-packed, dramatic conclusion. Fans of the genre will be impatiently awaiting the next installment in the Caleb Zelic series. ( )