Jack Irish by Peter Temple.

I have been reading some of the Jack Irish books over the summer. These are about a hard core detective from Melbourne Australia. Each book has 4 themes going through them. 1) The main plot. 2) Horse racing. 3) His girl-friend at the time, and their horizontal sports and finally 4) His woodworking.
He does his woodworking for an old crusty guy named Charlie. Charlie does things the old fashioned way, and forget about anything else. There is just enough about woodworking to make it interesting.
Brought up with the Queens English, these books need my attention because of the Australian English. Sometimes a lot of fun just trying to figure-out what they are talking about.

All in all very enjoyable books if you like mysteries.