Reading Sunset Village I was reminded of D'Arcy Cresswell's reaction to Sargeson's first book Conversation With My Uncle when it appeared in the mid-thirties: 'it was as though the first wasp had arrived, a bright aggressive little thing with a new and menacing buzz'. Sargeson has retained the wasp quality (no pun intended) in Sunset Village but oh what a delicate sting it now possesses. How tenderly he explores the idiosyncrasies of his characters, how elegantly makes manifest their foibles. (p. 316)

Loosely speaking Sunset Village is a murder story, a thriller, but to leave it at that would be very loose speaking indeed. Although it contains the essential ingredients: a murder, an intrigue, a faded but glamorous corpse, two painstaking detectives, plenty of suspects and even (a master stroke) the piquancy of an event involving a macabre and mysterious doll, these do not add up to a dish...