The Dream (Signed Paperback) Gold Coast Quartet Book 2

Absolutely loved this! It was gripping and fast paced right from the beginning. The story was easy to follow with a good amount of twists and turns and characters. A really great read.

The Dream is a different beast from its predecessor. Darker, meaner, uglier and more violent; it reflects a period on the Gold Coast where the rot had well and truly set in, and Iain Ryan doesn't flinch from showing you exactly how bad things could get.

Returning readers will recognise Lana Cohen's partner from The Strip, now one of three central POV characters alongside newcomers Amy Owens and Mike Nichols. It's Nichols' connection to crime boss Colleen Vinton that proves particularly compelling. Vinton feels fully realised here; a genuinely menacing presence operating in the shadows. The result is a world that feels authentically layered; where the real threat is never just one person, but the entire ecosystem they inhabit.

The pacing is sharper than The Strip too, and I found myself tearing through this book in a couple of days.

This is the Empire Strikes Back of the Gold Coast trilogy - bigger, bolder and considerably bleaker. Essential reading if you've made it this far.

DNF. I tried. It gripped me at the start but I have to admit I got bored. Didn't care what happened to these awful people. Not even enough interest to skip to the end.

The era and vibe of crime on the Gold Coast in the 1980s are depicted well but the plot becomes convoluted. So much so that the story has to end with the key villains explaining what you have waded through.

Fast paced crime novel set in Australia in the 80's. It's an easy read and enjoyable, but not something that gripped me.

This book was chosen for Ben's Book Club this month and I was about 1/3 of the way through when I listened to the talk. It encouraged me greatly to read on and it was everything that Iain explained. He is not big on flowery descriptions and when the plot involves fast paced action, the writing is filled with short sharp sentences written as paragraphs. I loved it. Can't say I loved the ending where one of my favourites was killed but I am looking forward to reading the first book in the quartet before the third is released soon.

Set in Surfers Paradise, this is loosely a story about the construction of Fantasyland and the nefarious dealings surrounding it. This book lost me. There were so many characters that I couldn't tell Arthur from Martha. Nor who knew who. Nor what happened, not really. This might work better as a movie. I just couldn't get invested.

A bit too gritty for me.

I'm not sure how it's possible for a second book in a series to fall so far from the first. This felt like a pretentious amalgamation of mystery storylines that didn't really make sense - and was not particularly interesting either. I didn't care about any of the characters like I did in the first book. One star.

A historic Aussie noir, The Dream (2024) by Iain Ryan is another Detective Bruno Karras case set in Queensland in 1982. The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games are on in Brisbane when Dt Karras gets sent a photograph of a blood-stained house. Meantime, Mr fix-it Mike Nicholls is investigating the delays and problems of building a fantasyland theme park. Then there is Amy Owens, a private investigator working for a notorious crime family. These three protagonists get caught up in a sinister conspiracy involving corruption and jeopardises their safety. A riveting story with a suitably fast action narrative and gritty atmospheric capture of the period, makes for a four and a half star read rating.

This was a great second instalment in a series I've really come to enjoy, and has enthralled me even further with this book in the world of Queensland police and political corruption. This was probably better than the strip, and the intrigue with two of the protagonists not being police officers was great. Lots of new characters and old, and the conspiracy was more complicated, I don't think I fully grasped everything that happened and how it all tied in.

I must admit I probably wouldn't have read this book if a publishing mate hadn't given me a copy, but I'm richer for the experience!! Sharp, punchy writing is hard to sustain but this author pulls it off, with aplomb and with a touch of irony and humour. Set in the 70's Gold Coast when if you didn't have a safari suit and gold chains you were probably not a local, the book is very evocative of the times and indeed the rumoured corruption!! A great bit of escapism that ideally will appeal to the targeted audience, if they can find it!!

Fell asleep too many times listening to this audio book so missed half the story and whatever the plot twist at the end was... thought I'd catch-up along the way but too many characters and didn't love it enough to keep going back to relisten.

Rubbish. Bailed at page 26. Superficial plot and characters.

Lots of reminders of Brisbane and the Gold Coast when I was 16 in the pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry era (bent cops and the white shoe brigade). One surprising geographical mistake though: on page 62, Caloundra is placed on the Gold Coast when it's actually on the Sunshine Coast, 170km away. Entertaining fast-paced read regardless. Looking forward to number 3 in the quartet.

As I gave The Strip 3.5 stars and enjoyed this more, 4 stars seemed the relevant rating. Gritty. Well written. Police corruption. Set in the sleazy Gold Coast none of what happens here is beyond belief. Absorbing read.

A fast-paced, tense, Australian crime fiction story.

Set on the Gold Coast in Queensland, during the 1970's and 1980's, within a community gripped by recession, and impacted greatly by drugs, violent bank robberies and murder. This story tackles the tangled web of corruption, power, deception, ambition, betrayal and revenge.

This book is a sequel to The Strip, although this also reads well as a standalone storyline.

I enjoyed listening to this Australian crime novel. Twisted cops, people and plots.

A great crime novel set in Queensland, in what seems to be a thinly veiled look at the state government from the 1980s and the crime that underpinned the booming development in the Gold Coast.
The cast of characters on the police side, and the criminals, and some who seem to occupy both categories are written well, and the story moves at a terrific pace.
There is violence galore and then more....
A good read that keeps you interested and horrified, but well done. Recommended.

Loved it! Fast paced, short chapters, wild characters, no idea what all the clues mean until they come together!
Fantastic Australian read!
Reading The Strip isn't necessary but would help (this is the 2nd installment).
I cannot wait for the next one!!

Iain Ryan is carving out his own Ellroyesque quartet, doing for the Gold Coast what Ellroy did for LA. 1980s Queensland is the perfect time and place, so much so I can't believe it hasn't been done before.

This is his LA Confidential. Some similarities of character and plot, the Disneyland subplot in particular, but there's enough originality to make it more than a retread.

A distinctive Australian style and humour here too.

The first book I read this year was The Strip. It was appropriate that I bookend my reading in 2024 by finishing the next instalment an hour from midnight. And this is my book of the year, with the prequel a close second - a searing noir rendition of the cesspit of corruption that was early 1980s Queensland. Iain Ryan has taken a narrative approach that James Ellroy failed terribly at and made it work wonders. Stone brilliant.

Fast paced and entertaining Queensland crime novel. Setting the book in the 1980s enables a lot of licence about crooked cops, property developers, politicians, etc. And all very believable based on my experience of living there in 1990/1. Corruption reigned. But I thought it introduced a few too many characters too quickly, so I found myself going back a lot in the first half to check on who was who (and wished it had been "cleaned up" a bit to enable more development of fewer characters). Anyhow, onto the next instalment ...

This was hard work. A loose plot and written in the Australian vernacular, it took me till well over 30% to work out what was happening. I kept hoping it would get better... If you're not an Aussie, then you might have trouble understanding many of the Aussie idioms and innuendos. However, I did finish it, so I guess that means something.

The best fictional rendering on the page of Queensland's not so distant criminal past that I have read (admittedly, there is not a huge amount of competition, but, still). Very Strong on vibe, perhaps slightly less so on plot, but a great noir read nonetheless. Thoroughly recommended.

It is 1982, and the Gold Coast is a hive of activity. The Commonwealth Games was about to being together the country, meter maids were walking the street of the Gold Coast along side beat cops. Brothels and drugs seemed to ruled the streets, and dirty cops worked hand in hand with the underworld. Banks were being hit by robberies, high rise buildings were slowly starting to fill the skyline, and the new theme park called Fantasyland was set for completion, with or without investors.

This is a vivid book, as much as the scenes are garish and graphic. No character is safe, nor are they aware of just how connected they all are. This book brought this sin city to life, where criminals, the corrupted, and the wronged are all out for blood. It is a great exploration into whether morality actually exists.

It is a sequel to The Strip, yet you don't need to have read it to sink your teeth into The Dream. Thank you #ultimopress for the #gifted copy.

Ryan does it again with another action-packed, suspense-filled thriller that keeps you hooked from cover to cover. He drops you right into a chaotic world of crime and corruption, full of secrets that'll keep you guessing until the very end.
The story is super layered - there's a lot happening - which adds a ton of drama and depth you don't always get in a typical thriller. That said, it did feel a bit overwhelming at times, especially early on while trying to figure out who's who. But that complexity makes for a jam-packed plot that keeps you on your toes.
I loved the Gold Coast setting and the wild, loose behavior of the corrupt cops from the '80s - it adds a gritty, retro vibe to the story.

It is 1982 and Australia is deep in recession. Set on the Gold Coast in a Queensland, this is a dark and messy crime novel that is very easy to get lost in. It follows on from last year's book, The Strip, but can easily be read as a standalone story.

There is corruption everywhere, in the police force, in the government. Some really bad men are taking control of the strip and not for the better. Drugs and prostitution are rampant, there are murders and underworld figures. And in the middle of it all is a new theme park being built.

I loved the 80s setting, memories of the Mike Walsh Show, Dame Edna, these new ATMs and VCRs, no mobile phones, no emails. It was also the year of the commonwealth games in Brisbane at QE2 stadium. A step back to a different time.

Thanks Ultimo Press for my copy of this book to read.