Senior Constable Jesse Redpath features in a vivid Australian police procedural. The bush country of Kulara in the Northern Territory is red and hot, so the grey book cover is a surprising contrast. But CANTICLE CREEK tells of the ever-present dread of bushfires, the smoke, ashes, charred bleakness, and ruins of lives.
Young idiot Adam Lawson is lucky to escape jail when Jesse vouches for him and sets him to work helping her father. That doesn’t last, and the lad takes off without warning. Three months later, Jesse hears that Adam was found dead in a crashed car, not far from where his girlfriend Daisy Baker was murdered in Canticle Creek. This is a small town not far from Melbourne in Victoria, a greener and treed landscape, still at risk of fire. The police assume Adam killed Daisy and made a run for it. Adam didn’t seem like a killer, and Daisy was trying to preserve trees from logging, so there might be more to the story.
Along with her resilient artist father, Ben Redpath, Jesse heads to Melbourne for a National Gallery exhibition that features Ben along with work by the late Kenji Takada from Canticle Creek. Here they meet the Asian artist’s family, who invite them to stay. Lucy and Sam are the adults, Possum is their talented teen daughter who rides a powerful black horse, and Nick is their older son who has a girlfriend Nadia from a war-torn background. Along with local police officers and station owners, I found it hard to keep the names straight, as I did not read the book in one go. A few career criminals also feature, they are easy to identify. Sadly nowhere seems immune to what they are peddling.
Jesse is the woman having to outdo the men, who underestimate her and resent interference. While she doesn’t flaunt her qualifications, we’re told she first gained a law degree, then turned to the more lively side of the law. Author Adrian Hyland spends time among the Aboriginal community, so on several occasions we see Jesse putting her lessons from an expert Aboriginal tracker in Kulara to good use. She’s not bad at self-defence either. My favourite character though, is Possum, as bright, nosey, and capable as Jesse; plus she is a horsewoman.
CANTICLE CREEK is Adrian Hyland’s first novel of Australia for some years, and it’s brim-full of characters, packing a powerful punch. The heat ripples off the pages, and the fire, when it comes, pushes suspense over the edge into terror. Easily among the best outdoor thrillers this year.
Two bodies. One long hot summer. A town that will never be the same.
When Adam Lawson's wrecked car is found a kilometre from Daisy Baker’s body, the whole town assumes it’s an open and shut case. But Jesse Redpath isn’t from Canticle Creek. Where she comes from, the truth often hides in plain sight, but only if you know where to look. When Jesse starts to ask awkward questions, she uncovers a town full of contradictions and a cast of characters with dark pasts, secrets to hide and even more to lose.
As the temperature soars, and the ground bakes, the wilderness surrounding Canticle Creek becomes a powderkeg waiting to explode. All it needs is one spark.
A twisty crime thriller set in small town Australia perfect for readers of The Dry and Scrublands.
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