Erskine Falls: a Crime Fiction Novel and Exegesis By CHRISTOPHER MALLON Student ID No: 983478X Dissertation submitted as fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy (Humanities) Swinburne University of Technology March 2020 Abstract This practice-led PhD consists of two elements – a crime fiction novel titled Erskine Falls, and an accompanying exegesis that critically situates the author’s creative practice and the production of the text. Drawing on the traditions of hardboiled detective fiction and noir crime fiction, the novel negotiates the spectrum between these two sub-genres and explores a world which questions the many modern articulations of masculinity. Erskine Falls is a contemporaneously-set novel that follows a private eye who investigates the case of a missing girl who is from the affluent resort town of Lorne, Victoria, Australia. As the private eye moves through Lorne’s world of seaside wealth and tourism, he is simultaneously coming to terms with the post-industrial changes in his own home town of Geelong and dealing with a tumultuous relationship with his deceased business partner’s wife. His investigation eventually leads him into an underground world of criminality that belies the smiling touristic face of Lorne. The exegesis reflexively explores key writerly choices and focuses on genre, masculinity, voice, and place. Building upon the hardboiled and noir crime fiction subgenres, the project seeks to examine how the traditional hardboiled voice and its masculinities are negotiated within a contemporary, post-industrial regional Australian space. Using a practice-led methodology, the exegesis reflexively aims to situate the novel in a contemporary world through the subgenres of hardboiled detective and noir crime fiction. It evaluates the correlation between the novel and a range of scholarly works and critical approaches concerning masculinity by Robert Connell, James Messerschmidt, and Michael Kimmel. ii Acknowledgements Erskine Falls is a work of fiction. The noir world of Frank Carver PI and other characters has been realised and achieved by real people. Their time, patience and enthusiasm for this project has been unquestionable, and here, duly acknowledged. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisors Dr. Carolyn Beasley and Dr. Liam Burke for their time, expertise and interest in this project. Dr. Beasley and Dr. Burke’s knowledge and consideration of the sub-genre has been particularly helpful. I wish to also to acknowledge the writers of the novels and scholarly works that preceded this venture. Their critical, literary and aesthetic lens has had an instrumental influence on my research and writing craft. iii Declaration I certify that the thesis entitled ‘Erskine Falls: a Crime Fiction Novel and Exegesis’ submitted for the degree of PhD contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma; to the best of my knowledge contains no material previously written or published by another person except where due reference is made in the text; and is not based on joint research or publications. Full name: Christopher Dean Mallon Signed: Date: 12. 11. 2018 iv Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ iii Declaration ..................................................................................................................... iv Contents .......................................................................................................................... v Erskine Falls .................................................................................................................... 0 Exegesis....................................................................................................................... 264 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 265 Chapter 1: Genre ......................................................................................................... 271 Why a private eye? .................................................................................................. 271 The morality of the protagonist ............................................................................... 273 Negotiating the Crime Fiction spectrum ................................................................. 276 Finding the noir space ............................................................................................. 280 The limitations of genre .......................................................................................... 286 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 288 Chapter 2: Masculinity as a Conceptual Framework .................................................. 290 How is Carver’s masculinity conveyed? ................................................................. 292 Masculinity and the hardboiled detective in a post-industrial landscape ................ 297 Guilt ........................................................................................................................ 301 Relationships and sexuality ..................................................................................... 304 The gaze .............................................................................................................. 306 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 310 Chapter 3: Voice ......................................................................................................... 312 Establishing verisimilitude ...................................................................................... 312 Creating the narrative voice .................................................................................... 313 Tough, terse and cynical: Carver’s hardboiled voice .............................................. 314 v ‘I felt darkness surround me’: Carver’s noir voice ................................................. 319 “I’m Carver”: a first-person narrative ..................................................................... 323 Introspection and existential isolation ................................................................. 324 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 330 Chapter 4: Place .......................................................................................................... 332 Carver as an observer of place ................................................................................ 335 Geelong ............................................................................................................... 336 Lorne ................................................................................................................... 342 Place as home .......................................................................................................... 347 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 349 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 351 References ................................................................................................................... 355 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 371 vi Erskine Falls By Christopher Mallon Erskine Falls© by Christopher Mallon 2013-2018 N.B.: This work is fiction. Any persons or events depicted in this novel that appear true are purely coincidental. 1 For Patrick and Jo 2 CHAPTER 1 The multi-coloured lights of the beachside ferris wheel were supposed to burn each night until twelve. The next morning, I woke in a kaleidoscopic haze to find them still lit, their normal vibrant reds and green faded and sick in the daylight. I wondered when the carnival would end. When I would stop living this surreal dream? I propped myself up and looked across the bed to find Lauren curled next to me. My head was still swirling from the intensity of last night as she rolled onto her back with a sigh. I sat up and fumbled for my tobacco on the bedside drawers. My hand knocked over something hard and a metallic thump hit the floor. I knew it had to be the photograph of Lauren and Bowman at Lorne beach where she was from. Lyle Bowman – her dead husband and my former colleague. It was a photo that I had done my best to ignore the night before. The room was dark and still. Glimpses of sunlight filtered through the curtains onto the bed and the worn beige carpet. A cigarette hung from my lips as I groped around to find my watch, and squinted at the time on its face: 8.30am. Shit! Janice’s words burned in the back of my head: ‘Don’t forget Mrs Erskine will be in tomorrow morning about her missing daughter.’ I was gonna be late. I wanted to make a good impression for a potential client. I sure as hell needed one; things had been dry for a while. But Lauren was a good enough reason to be late. I flung the watch back onto the bedside drawers with a clunk. Lauren stirred a little. A moment later she woke, gaped