As a member of the community, Hirsch is expected not only to hunt down criminals but also to work on his singing voice for a local performance.

As a result, while the plot never stalls, it isn’t driven at the breakneck speed of some crime fictions.

"[4] Karen Chisholm in The Newtown Review of Books noted some major points of the novel: "As always with Disher, the sense of place in Consolation is incredibly strong.

It is set not among the bushfires and dust of a typical dryland farming summer, but the bone-chilling cold and mud of a wet winter.

It came as a bit of a surprise to find myself smiling and even laughing at quite a few points in this novel – it's not something I expect with rural noir of this kind, and it was welcome and very fitting.