Bronwyn Parry proves once again that crime is not just the provenance of cityscapes in her genuinely chilling third romantic suspense novel. Dead Heat tells the story of a wounded ranger looking for space and peace in the bush, and a place to start over. Instead, she finds a burgeoning drug cartel, with all the inherent violence this implies. Leading the investigation of the cartel is a former undercover cop, damaged and with a few demons of his own. Fans of Parry’s previous novels will notice a darker tone to Dead Heat, a willingness on Parry’s part to push deeper into the crime aspect and the most sinister side of humanity. New readers should enjoy the extra layer of suspense that the growing emotional connection between the main characters provides. Dead Heat is a well-crafted novel that makes excellent use of its wild setting—and a plot so successfully suspenseful that I stopped reading it before bed!
Kate Cuthbert is publishing manager for the Australian Library and Information Association. This review first appeared in the Feb/March issue of Bookseller+Publisher Magazine.
Christine Harris and Ann James have collaborated on an ‘Audrey of the Outback’ series for primary-school aged children, and It’s a Miroocool! features the same plucky protagonist, only this time the picture book is for younger readers. It’s a lovely creation, from James’ water-coloured drawings to Harris’ simple yet effective narration. Right from the outset, you know that Audrey lives not in suburbia, nor in a concrete jungle, but somewhere in the Australian outback because her feet ‘kicked up red dust as she ran’. In fact, so far away is she from everyone else that poor Audrey is worried that the tooth fairy wouldn’t be able to find her. The book uses iconic Australian terms—a ‘billy’ is used as storage for Audrey’s tooth—and Indigenous fauna such as emus and dingoes also feature. The rural homestead is gorgeously illustrated through the vista of red earth, spinifex, silo and windmill against a sunset. The ‘miroocool!’ refers to the surprise gift the tooth fairy leaves behind for Audrey. Luckily it managed to find Audrey despite the dust storms erasing her footprints and the wind blowing away the note pinned to her cubby. This is a sweet book for preschoolers about a resourceful girl who does her best to help herself.
In his amusing poem ‘Open Book’, Australian Book Review editor and former OUP publisher Peter Rose self-deprecatingly describes himself being caught reading poetry aloud by a young couple inspecting flats in his block: ‘suspicious was their look,’ he writes. It’s a nicely judged moment. The poet is in thrall to high art but at the same time aware that his pleasures are decidedly un-mainstream, even alienating to others. The artefacts of a cultured life—fine music, art, great architecture— and the mundane seem juxtaposed through much of this enjoyable collection (a boy reads Piratology on a plane while the poet looks forward to a performance of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio). Not that the real world is an unwelcome intrusion in Rose’s work: indeed, his poetry grows warmer, more affecting and looser in its explorations of kindred and friendship (a high-water mark is the title poem of the collection, dedicated to his mother). While his memoir Rose Boys (2001) and his novels (including last year’s Roddy Parr) have garnered more attention, Rose has been publishing poetry since 1990’s The House of Vitriol. Crimson Crop is a timely reminder of his powers.
Robert Power’s debut novel In Search of the Blue Tiger was shortlisted for the unpublished manuscript category of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in 2008. Early promise has germinated into a significant work which perhaps falls between Life of Pi, Under Milk Wood and Gus Kuijer’s disturbing children’s novel, The Book of Everything. Oscar Flowers’ childhood is distorted by his parents’ violent fights. He believes they are animals in human form, were-animals, and finds consolation in his literal and metaphorical search for the blue tiger, which will enable him to become fearless and powerful. His quest leads him to the library where a special friendship develops with the sympathetic Mrs April. He also becomes the focus of insular twins, Perch and Carp Fishcutter, who embroil him in their Jehovah’s Witness cult of Armageddon and sacrifice. Other surreal experiences seem to be inspired by theosophy or mysticism. The narrative belies recent criticisms of literary fiction as being plotless. Oscar is swept into a compelling journey, relayed in part by his scrapbook of tiger legends and facts. The writing is subtle, connotative and composed. Its craftsmanship embraces and extends this audacious depiction of an escape from childhood.
Raven Lucas used to have a normal life, until that all changed without warning. Raven’s father has disappeared under suspicious circumstances, and no-one seems to think he’s coming back. The police aren’t interested in Raven’s theories, her mother is slowly sinking into another nervous breakdown, and Raven’s uncle Gerald— her father’s business partner—is getting a little too close to the family. But Raven is not going to sit and wait for her father to show up. With the help of her friends, she starts searching for clues. She doesn’t have to look far to find out how little she knew about her dad. Christine Harris is a prolific children’s author whose books have been published in Australia and internationally. Raven Lucas is a refreshing female character who references Nancy Drew, and yet is much more up-to-date. Raven’s bright, colourful world is believable and engaging, and the secondary characters are fun, if a little stereotypical. Harris’ short chapters and punchy scene changes create a high-tension storyline, full of surprises. The romantic tension is well-crafted, which will appeal to the story’s 10-plus demographic. This is a strong new series for its age group.
This collection of short stories, poetry, images and nonfiction, aimed at children aged 12 and up, comprises new and established authors from the Asia-Pacific region. The styles vary, but most contributions evoke an enchanting sense of place or interactions between cultures—for example, stories about refugees and migrants—which gives the collection an overall focus. Some inclusions are weaker, especially some of the poetry, although Doug MacLeod’s humorous verses are a highlight. Some contributions are suitable for younger readers, while others track first forays into love or are quite violent and even morbid, such as Peta Freestone’s ‘Milford Sound’, which deals with abuse, sorrow and death (it is wonderfully wrought and one of the standouts); Sofie Laguna’s ‘Learning to Fly’, in which the protagonist jumps from a roof; and Pat Lowe’s ‘Yinti’s Kitten’, in which the narrator feeds the brains of a cat to its own kitten, then abuses the kitten in a fit of frustration (this sounds horrific, but is actually a powerful fable). Chris Wheat’s hilarious ‘Guide to Better Kissing for Australian Teens’ is another highlight. In all, the collection feels imperfect, but there are some gems, and the idea behind it is fantastic. It would make a great series.
Seventeen-year-old Dodie Farnshaw just wanted to finish high school, sit her Year 12 exams and get on with the rest of her life. Delivering a very important dead guy to Sydney just two weeks before her final exams was not in the plan. Neither was her parents going missing, becoming a fugitive and falling in love. And she certainly wasn’t anticipating a road trip that would change her life. Funny, vibrant and at times incredibly moving, The Reluctant Hallelujah is a beautiful novel about finding faith in the strangest of places. With a quirky cast of characters, this novel captures a wide range of relationships and skilfully explores that time in a teenager’s life when everything is changing. Sharp, clever and surprisingly amusing for a book about a dead man, Gabrielle William’s latest YA adventure is a bittersweet story filled with characters you’ll never want to leave behind, and a road trip you’ll wish was your own. This book will appeal to a 15-plus age group, and is a must-read for fans of William’s widely acclaimed first YA novel, Beatle Meets Destiny.
Mercifully, this book is not another rustic renovation saga. Shamus and wife Gill certainly decide to go to Italy but end up settling in Catania, one of Sicily’s largest, shabbiest, most poverty-ridden cities—and a far cry from bucolic Tuscany. Gill provides their only income, teaching at a private college, and Shamus is house husband while supposedly working on a biography of an ancient Roman, which he never finishes. In this entertaining and different look at modern Sicily we learn plenty about local customs, cuisine, quirks and attitudes; and we travel with the couple, and some of their friends, across the island, sharing their delight when they discover unexpected beauty and their frustration at entrenched behaviour patterns that bamboozle the non-local. Shamus can be dismissive if a site or experience doesn’t quickly meet his expectations—but with clever use of language and a light touch. He can be very witty, however, both he and Gill are sometimes guilty of imposing Australian expectations on their island home, expecting, as an example, the local beaches to be tempting and pristine in mid-winter and accommodation to be open out of season. That said, this is a new warts-and-all look at the island from which travellers, both real and armchair, can learn much and be entertained at the same time.
Tony Taylor is a long-retired Sydneysider with a deep love of nature and a lifelong obsession with fly-fishing. He travelled widely while studying paleontology and petrology and teaching at universities and institutions in England and Australia. In 1968, at the age of 40, he found himself on the Cowichan River, in the southern part of Vancouver Island, just off the west coast of Canada. In May 2008, at the age of 80, he returned to the Cowichan to spend time with his eight-year-old grandson Ned, whom he had not seen since he was an infant. For Tony it is an opportunity to share the profound joys of fly-fishing and to reconnect with his family. While waiting for Ned to arrive Tony reflects upon his earlier trip and recalls times spent fishing and the people who shared his passion. For Tony, fishing had always been far more than a sport; he displays a deep knowledge of the history of fly-fishing and refers to the work of scientists and fishing writers throughout. His book is a reminder of the importance of nature and continuity in all aspects of our lives. It will appeal to readers of Robert Hughes’ A Jerk on One End and will make an excellent present for anglers and grandfathers.
This is the debut novel from Chris Flynn, founder of literary journal Torpedo and currently fiction editor at Australian Book Review. The book is narrated by Billy, a young man from the roughest part of Belfast who has ended up in South-East Asia, drifting from place to place and enjoying brief sexual encounters with backpackers. It soon becomes clear that Billy is on the run after something bad that happened back in Northern Ireland, and gradually parts of the back-story are revealed. After misadventures with a French mercenary in Bangkok, Billy takes himself off to a silent Buddhist retreat: experiences at the monastery and a subsequent drug-fuelled dance party mark a big change in Billy’s attitude. Tension rises toward the end of the book as we find out more about the pivotal, tragic event in Billy’s history, and there is a sense of dread, that something is going to happen. What does happen at the book’s climax is certainly unexpected, and some readers may well find it anticlimactic. Early publicity for A Tiger in Eden is describing it as a cross between Trainspotting and The Beach, which is simplistic but pretty accurate.
