Review - The Cricketer's Arms by Garrick Jones

WWII Army veteran Clyde Smith quit the Sydney police force three months ago so he wouldn't have to put with the corruption that meant he didn't know who he could trust. He's making a modest living as a freelance journalist and private investigator. One day his ex-partner, and former lover, Sam, shows up with news of a strange murder that someone seems to want Clyde's help solving. As Clyde digs into the investigation, he uncovers a complex web entangling gay men, the Italian mob, drugs, and match-fixing.

“The Cricketer's Arms” is set in 1956 Australia. It's a classic detective novel. Something of a homage to Dashiell Hammet's Sam Spade, who gets mentioned a couple of times. There are plenty of mysteries as the story unfolds, but this isn't a typical murder mystery. The people responsible for the murder that kicks everything off are apparent early on. Clyde's challenge is unraveling the tangled knot of criminal activities to get at the how and why of it so the crime can be pinned on the people responsible.

Perhaps the biggest mystery is Clyde's love life. His preference is exclusively for men, and the story is set in a time when gay sex was illegal in Australia. Clyde has accumulated several friends-with-benefits around him. His ex-partner Sam was the closest Clyde came to having a relationship, but Sam couldn't commit and felt he needed to marry a woman to keep up appearances. Many men did at the time. Then the investigation brings Clyde into contact with Harry, a man that seems his perfect complement but who refuses to get between Clyde and Sam. The mystery of who Clyde ends up with and how that happens is the biggest enigma of the story, and one that doesn't get resolved until the very end.

The depiction of gay life in 1950s Australia rings true. It was a time when gay men still married women for appearances, sometimes with the spouse knowing full well what was happening. In some of the descriptions of the ways men met in those days, you can see the beginnings of what became gay baths and then hook-up apps.

“The Cricketer's Arms” is available from Smashwords and Amazon (commissionable link).