Free World by David Whish-Wilson

Free World is the third Lee Southern novel from David Whish-Wilson, the Fremantle-based crime writer, after True West and I Am Already Dead. It reads fine on its own.

Private investigator Lee Southern goes undercover in a prison. An assassination attempt in a cell kills the wrong man, and Lee is hired to protect the real target, which means finding a killer in a place full of them. It is set in the last weeks before the millennium, with everyone on edge about a Y2K meltdown that may or may not be coming, and Lee's quick in-and-out job turns into his most dangerous yet.

Tight, hard Australian noir for readers of Garry Disher and Peter Temple.