Contemporary Authors

PERSONAL

Female.

ADDRESS

• Home - Melbourne, Australia.

CAREER

Writer, novelist, educator, and musician. Professional classical clarinettist. Music instructor.

AWARDS:

iBooks Australia Crime Novel of 2015, Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, 2016, and Davitt Awards for Best Adult Novel, Best Debut, and Readers’ Choice, all for Resurrection Bay.

WRITINGS

• Resurrection Bay (novel), Pushkin Vertigo (London, England), 2018
• And Fire Came Down (novel), Pushkin Vertigo (London, England), 2018

SIDELIGHTS

Australian writer and crime novelist Emma Viskic is the author of the “Caleb Zelic” series, novels that focus on the exploits of Zelic, a private investigator who has been deaf from childhood. In addition to her creative work in fiction, Viskic is also a classical clarinetist who has performed with notable performers such as the soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. A resident of Melbourne, Australia, she frequently performs with musical groups and teaches music in that city.

Resurrection Bay

Viskic’s debut novel, Resurrection Bay, introduces Caleb Zelic, the profoundly deaf PI. Caleb has learned to make the best of his life despite a significant physical impairment. He has trained himself to be adept at noticing the small details and the physical aspects of situations and other people. The expression on a face, for example, can reveal details about a person that words and sounds cannot. In the case facing him in the novel, Caleb will have to rely on all of his skills to solve the murder of a childhood friend.

The death of Gary Marsden, a senior constable, affects Zelic strongly. Marsden had been a close friend, and the evidence shows that the man was viciously tortured before being killed in his home. Caleb had been on his way over to Marsden’s house after receiving a text saying that someone named Scott was after him. Now, with Marsden dead, he is hit with a strong sense of guilt over not being able to help his friend. The murder scene suggests that Marsden knew his killer or killers, which further suggests that the assailants were willingly let inside his home. Along with the mystery of the person named Scott, Caleb has to figure out the connection between Marsden and his killer. The local police believe that Marsden may have been involved in criminal activity himself and that Caleb should be considered a suspect because of Marsden’s personal and professional relationship with him. With few leads and even fewer people he can rely on, Caleb has to use all of his well-developed observation skills, along with his unique communication ability, to clear his name and find out what happened to Marsden. Unfortunately, what he starts to uncover about his old friend is not something he is eager to hear. Neither, he realizes, is what he starts to realize about himself.

A reviewer on the website Booklover Book Reviews stated, “In addition to a complex yet plausible and gritty mystery, the beating heart of this novel is the acknowledgement that we all have different traits, spanning physical abilities, race, personalities and life experiences.”

In a review on the website Crime Fiction Lover, a writer commented: “This is a most enjoyable read, and Caleb Zelic is a great character. Viskic handles the portrayal of his deafness perfectly, highlighting the problems he faces in actually understanding the people he interacts with and also shining a light on the casual discrimination and abuse thoughtlessly meted out to disabled people.” A Publishers Weekly writer called Resurrection Bay a “terrific debut,” and stated, “Caleb is a sufficiently complex lead to easily sustain a series.”

And Fire Came Down

In the second Zelic novel, And Fire Came Down, Caleb is still feeling the emotional effects of Marsden’s death. Making matters worse, his ex-wife, Kat, is trying her best to avoid him. Nightmares plague him, and depression and stress are constantly making his life miserable.

The murder of a young woman, who was trying to ask Caleb for help in sign language, motivates him to action. The case brings him back to Resurrection Bay to search for answers. While there, he faces the additional tension, unique to the area, of potentially deadly and destructive bushfires. Racial tension is also rife there. With his investigation fully underway, Caleb finds unpleasant information that could scuttle his chances of getting back with Kat. Worse, what he discovers is very likely to put his life in danger.

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Publishers Weekly, February 5, 2018, review of Resurrection Bay, p. 43.

ONLINE

• Booklover Book Reviews, http://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/ (September 17, 2015), review of Resurrection Bay.

• Crime Fiction Lover, http://www.crimefictionlover.com/ (June 26, 2018), review of Resurrection Bay.