The Dream by Iain Ryan – Review

Australia, Gold Coast, 1982. Brisbane is hosting the Commonwealth Games. The tourist economy is booming. The country is an emerging economic powerhouse, but in the backdrop of this sunny paradise a criminal underworld is thriving. The lives of three people will intertwine in this treacherous climate. Bruno Karras is a jaded detective whose fading interest in police work is suddenly jolted back to life when he is sent anonymous photos of a blood-stained house. Thus begins a mystery that will see Karras cross paths with Amy Owens, an investigator flying too close to the sun, and Mike Nichols, a backroom player whose dreams of the big time are likely to turn sour.

This is the world of The Dream. Noir in an Antipodean setting.

Iain Ryan is one of the most gifted writers in the contemporary Australian crime fiction scene. He paints a vivid portrait of the eighties Gold Coast as similar to James Ellroy’s LA Quartet, in that economic boom times create a veneer of middle-class expansion but are masking a sordid culture of graft, sleaze and constant betrayal. Karras, Owens and Nichols learn to navigate this world of perfidy and vice. Their journey makes for compelling reading. The Dream is one of the must-read crime novels of 2025.