JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins

THE PLACE: Seawings, a beautiful Art Deco home overlooking the sweep of the bay in Midtown-on-Sea.

THE CRIME: The gilded Holden family – Piper and Gray and their two teenage children, Riva and Artie – has vanished from the house without a trace.

THE DETECTIVE: DS Saul Anguish, brilliant but with a dark past, treads the narrow line between light and shade.

One late autumn morning, Piper’s best friend arrives at Seawings to discover an eerie scene – the kettle is still warm, all the family’s phones are charging on the worktop, the cars are in the garage. But the house is deserted.

In fifteen-year-old Riva Holden’s bedroom, scrawled across the mirror in blood, are three words:

Make 
Them 
Stop.

What happens next?

Fiona Cummins’ Into the Dark is a fast-paced, high-stakes psychological thriller centred around the disappearance of a family. The state of the house suggests that the family did not plan to leave, and that perhaps they did not leave of their own choice. What ensues is a unexpected series of twists as we learn the truth of what happened to the Holden family.

Stylistically, Into the Dark moves between the past and the present — in the past storyline, we come to understand bits and pieces that explain what the Holden family were going through in the days preceding their disappearance. In the present storyline, we come to understand the role that Julieanne plays in this mystery and how she feels about the Holden’s disappearance.

“None of the teachers ever pressed Emelie into taking their subjects because of her natural talent. She was proud of her friend but sometimes it was a little exhausting to bear witness to Riva’s continued brilliance.”

Whilst the book is populated with rather unlikeable characters, Fiona crafts a compelling psychological thriller. The history of the friendship between Julieanne and Piper evolves over the course of the novel — they bonded over motherhood and parenting, but over time we realise how interconnected their lives now are. What is Julieanne willing to do for Piper, and what is Piper prepared to do for herself?

Into the Dark will please fans of psychological thrillers — Fiona maintains consistent pacing and high stakes throughout the novel, keeping readers engaged. Fiona offers surprises and twists with each passing chapter, turning the initial premise on its head and ensuring readers stay absorbed throughout the novel.

“The most pressing question is not the origin of the blood used in that message — she smiled at hime and he was lost — but finding the person who wrote it.”

Into the Dark illustrates quite an unconventional relationship between Julieanne and Piper — a toxic, co-dependent friendship that holds disastrous consequences for all. Whilst the ending of the novel does feel rather farfetched and unbelievable, it still provides entertainment for the reader. I did feel like the detectives in the novel weren’t overly present – their investigation feels like it holds slim presence in the book.

There is a sub-plot that follows Julieanne and Piper’s daughters, as they navigate their friendship at school and how those events intertwine with the disappearance of the Holden family. I did find this particular sub-plot less engaging that Julieanne and Piper’s storyline, although it does serve as a bit of a red herring as we start to piece together the truth behind the mystery.

“DC Williams fired off many questions. What was Piper’s usual routine? What about the rest of the family? How long had they lived here? Did they have other properties elsewhere? What about extended family?”

Punchy and pacy, Into the Dark is recommended for readers of crime, thriller and mysteries. Readership skews 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Into the Dark
Fiona Cummins
April 2022
Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in ten sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. She helps people overcome everything, from domineering parents to assault. Her successes almost help her absorb the emptiness she feels since her husband’s death.

Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple, until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their 8-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods.

When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

The Golden Couple is the latest psychological thriller from writing duo Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen — another intriguing, entertaining tale that crime and thriller readers will enjoy.

Written in third person but moving between two perspectives — disgraced therapist Avery Chambers and polished but deceitful client Marissa Bishop — The Golden Couple felt interesting in that there actually isn’t a crime, or even the hint of a crime, for most of the novel. In the beginning, Avery is merely employed to help Marissa and her husband Matthew process recent betrayal in their marriage. Sure, there are some suspicious elements to the story — Marissa’s assistant is a little clingy and doesn’t quite seem truthful, and Matthew also doesn’t seem to be entirely honest — but other than that, I couldn’t help but wonder where this story was going. And that was what made it so enjoyable. Avery acted as some sort of private investigator, tailing the Bishop family in an effort to help bring them back together. And over the course of the novel, suspicious events arise that give way to criminal elements.

“Avery will be here in less than thirty minutes. Matthew still isn’t home. Marissa desperately wants the half glass of crisp white wine she left on the kitchen counter, which she intended to sip while she finished tidying up.”

Greer and Sarah do well to establish quite a large cast of characters, all of whom seem suspicious. Marissa and Matthew are both withholding secrets, Avery is crossing a lot of ethical lines in an effort to achieve results, Marissa’s assistant Polly is acting suspicious and establishes herself quite early on as a red herring, and there’s also a mystery from Marissa and Matthew’s past that continues to haunt her in the present.

The Golden Couple feels very commercial. Whilst some of the twists feel a little forced and atypical, I think Greer and Sarah know how to craft intriguing premises and engaging characters. This is perfect for a beach or aeroplane read, and a great gift for a reluctant reader.

“Avery already seems to have Natalie’s number. Maybe the marriage consultant knew of Natalie’s existence even before her name came up during the session. Marissa was more than a little unsettled to learn that Avery was skimming through the details of their lives, but if Matthew is okay with it, how can she object?”

The characterisation did seem to waver a bit in the beginning before the story found its groove. Marissa and Matthew’s initial session with Avery felt a bit caricature, and dialogue a little unnatural. But once the suspect built, tensions rose, and the psychological thriller aspect of the novel started to make itself known, the characterisation solidified and it finished on a really strong note.

Additionally, there’s a subplot with Avery and the drug company Acelia which felt a little unnecessary in the book and like it didn’t actually gel within the story. Prior to the events in the novel, Avery acted as whistleblower and divulged to the FDA about Acelia, and now they’re intimidating her into giving up her source. Whilst there is an element of relevance to this at the conclusion of the novel, it feels rather flimsy and far-reaching for most of the book.

“Could this be true? Marissa realizes that in the month or so that Polly has worked for her, Polly has never mentioned a boyfriend or a night out with friends. Her parents live in Milwaukee, and as far as Marissa can tell, they’ve never visited.”

Recommended for readers of psychological thrillers and crime fiction. Readership skews 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Golden Couple
Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
March 2022
Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia

Remember Me by Charity Norman

A heartfelt, page-turning suspense novel from the author shortlisted for Best Crime Novel in the Ngaio Marsh Awards for Crime Fiction, and for Best International Crime Fiction in the Ned Kelly Awards

They never found Leah Parata. Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie. After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.

A close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman’s disappearance twenty-five years ago.

After years of living overseas, Emily Kirkland returns to New Zealand to care for her father, Felix, who suffers from dementia. As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time – and to glimpse shattering truths about his past. Truths she’d rather were kept buried.

Charity Norman’s Remember Me is a hybrid novel — part thrilling cold case mystery story in a small, close-knit town, and part literary story that explores the relationship between a father and daughter, recently reunited in close proximity while one progresses through a debilitating diagnosis.

When Emily leaves the UK and returns home to New Zealand to take care of her ailing father, she struggles with this new role as caretaker. Her siblings, who admittedly have helped their father in recent years more than Emily has, are nowhere to be seen, and Emily feels she cannot put her father in a home or institution. This is his home, and she feels she must stay for the foreseeable future. As her father’s memory starts to muddle and fade, he reveals truths about the past that have Emily questioning his connection to a missing local woman from two decades earlier.

“The study was his sacred domain; we children rarely set foot in there. He’d always been pedantic about keeping it tidy, everything in its place. I grabbed what I could, followed him down the corridor — and stopped dead in the doorway.”

Charity Norman does well to craft a dysfunctional family, not just between Emily and her father but also her siblings. They’ve cared for the father previously and there’s a feeling of exhaustion there, but also misunderstanding about their father’s diagnosis. There are bickering phone calls and heated conversations that any readers who have siblings will be able to relate to.

Additionally, other relationship dynamics include Emily’s mother, who left many years earlier and doesn’t appear to hold regrets, and the townsfolk, who hold significant love for Emily’s father but are also still riddled with despair from the disappearance of Leah two decades earlier.

I think the ending might divide some readers but I rather liked it — despite the truth about Leah’s disappearance initially seeming a little hard to swallow, I think Charity captured a poignant resolution that readers won’t suspect. Leah’s fate also ties in well with the journey of Emily’s father, who has been holding on to his secrets for too many years.

“Then I prowled around the car in the harsh light, cursing myself for throwing away the moral high ground. Why did I always do that? I’d been doing it since we were children. Well, I wasn’t going to call back and apologise. Never had. Bloody well wasn’t going to start now.”

Sensitivity is given around Felix’s Alzheimers, which Charity crafts with compassion and care. She also illustrates the emotions that can come with Alzheimers — the lack of understanding from the person but also their family and friends, the frustration. There is also a sense of community that can result when someone is going through this illness, as people rally together to help the person (and the family) in need.

One other notable mention includes the way that Charity captures the experience of ageing parents and watching your parents age with each passing month — that can be something we all understand, or will come to understand.

“I made my decision at three o’clock in the morning. It appalled me, but it was the only one I could make. Then I law awake, thinking about the practicalities and dreading Mum’s reaction. I finally fell asleep as the first birds began to stir.”

Heartfelt and captivating, with an engrossing mystery at its core, Charity Norman’s Remember Me will appeal to fans of family sagas like Jodi Picoult. Whilst the crime keeps the story propelling forward, I wouldn’t classify this as your regular mystery novel. Literary readers will also enjoy Charity’s writing and characterisation. Readership skews 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Remember Me
Charity Norman
March 2022
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Cane by Maryrose Cuskelly

ONE MISSING GIRL. NO SUSPECTS. A TOWN ABOUT TO IGNITE.

Quala, a North Queensland sugar town, the 1970s.

Barbara McClymont walks the cane fields searching for Janet, her sixteen-year-old daughter, who has been missing for weeks. The police have no leads. The people of Quala are divided by dread and distrust. But the sugar crush is underway and the cane must be burned.

Meanwhile, children dream of a malevolent presence, a schoolteacher yearns to escape, and history keeps returning to remind Quala that the past is always present.

As the smoke rises and tensions come to a head, the dark heart of Quala will be revealed, affecting the lives of all those who dwell beyond the cane.

Set in a Queensland sugar town in the 1970s, Maryrose Cuskelly’s rural crime The Cane centres around a missing teenage girl amongst cane fields. Weeks pass and with no real leads, townsfolk are growing nervous and anxiety is building. What happened to Janet? And could it happen to another young girl in the town, if they don’t catch the person responsible?

The 1972 disappearance of fourteen-year-old Marilyn Wallman in Mackay was the inspiration behind The Cane, as well as countless other unsolved teenage abductions that have occurred in small Australian towns.

“Carmel would have preferred to wear a cotton shift, but the pantsuit gives her a more professional look, more masculine too, which she knows translates to authority. At least Patterson hasn’t insisted she wear a uniform.”

Stylistically, we move between different perspectives in the novel. Each voice allows for a different perspective on the town, its inhabitants, its history, and its secrets.

Maryrose captures the racism and sexism of rural 1970s, largely through the attitudes from townsfolk when speaking with female constable Carmel Maitland, who arrives in town to investigate Janet’s disappearance.

A common thread in rural crime is a sense of mistrust between locals and the character tasked with solving the mystery. Often that investigator is an outsider, arriving into the fractured community and attempting to penetrate the close-knit community to find out long-held secrets or information that may solve the crime. In The Cane, whilst there are some characters willing to help Carmel, many of the townspeople have given up hope of finding out what happened to Janet, and they’re not too quick to trust that Carmel will be the one to uncover answers.

“Janet McClymont’s disappearance has brought back memories — not just for the Creadies, but for all of us locals. Except for the younger kids and a few of the blow-ins, all we could think about was the day Cathy Creadie went missing while swimming off Danger Point.”

Admittedly, I did find the pacing a little inconsistent in the novel. We spend a lot of time moving between past and present, and I feel like Carmel’s presence in the novel felt a bit thin. I even felt like the ending of the novel was a bit of luck for Carmel — she seemed to stumble upon the truth rather than deduce it entirely herself. There is a lot of description in the novel and I think more could’ve been captured in terms of characterisation and potential suspects. The cane fields, for example, were a big focus in the novel and I would’ve loved more attention to characters and their place in the town.

Additionally, there was a sub plot involving a male teacher that felt out of place in the novel. I’m not sure if his presence in the novel, and the suspicions raised about him, were supposed to act as a red herring in the story, but overall I felt his character didn’t seamlessly gel in the story. Other than that, I did find myself absorbed in the story and the mystery — this is certainly a genre I enjoy reading, and Maryrose has crafted an engaging rural thriller that will entice fans of the genre.

“What happens between bodies is dangerous, the contortions grotesque and strange. What she had caught a glimpse of in the barn was the least of it. When people speak about what might have happened to Janet, it leaves Essie with the same sick feeling.”

Recommended for readers of rural fiction — crime, mystery and thriller. This is Maryrose’s first foray into fiction after a string of non-fiction publications. Readership skews 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Cane
Maryrose Cuskelly
February 2022
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

Wild Dogs by Michael Trant

In the drought-ridden rangelands of Western Australia, Gabe Ahern makes his living trapping wild dogs for local station owners.

Still coming to terms with his wife’s death – and the part he played in it – the old bushman leads a solitary life. Until one morning, when he rescues a young Afghan man, Amin, from certain execution.

Now, with a gang of people smugglers on his tail and the lives of Amin’s family on the line, Gabe is drawn into a ruthless game of cat and mouse. His main opponent is Chase Fowler, a kangaroo hunter with bush skills as wily and sharp as his own.

As the old dogger and roo-shooter go head to head, Gabe will need all his cunning to come out of this alive…

Michael Trant’s Australian outback thriller Wild Dogs centres around an unlikely alliance between a hard-headed dog trapper and an Afghan refugee deep in the drought-ridden rangelands of Western Australia.

Gabe is the kind of man who functions alone. He minds his own business, and doesn’t work to interfere with others. He’s also still processing the death of his wife and his role in the tragedy. When he ventures out one day to lay and check traps for wild animals, he stumbles upon a planned execution of two Afghan refugees. He intervenes, and suddenly finds himself drawn into a dangerous people-smuggling operation secretly operating in Western Australia.

“Gabe watched as the insects crawled in and out of nostrils and open mouths, and felt ill. He was no stranger to death. If it wasn’t trapped or gunned-down dogs, it was the carcasses of emaciated livestock who’d succumbed to the dry, or a kangaroo he’d shot to make baits or for his dinner.”

Trant captures the remote, vast landscape with ease — the small town vibe, and the close-knot relationships that come with living in such an area. Additionally, the premise of the novel feels fresh in this genre. I’ve never come across a novel where the protagonist is tasked with hunting wild dogs, let alone being set in Australian bushland. It also felt different because most regional or rural Aussie novels centre around a mysterious murder, with an investigator as the protagonist, but Wild Dogs centres around the attempted murder of a refugee and the highly skilled local hunter working to keep him alive…

Whilst the circumstances surrounding Gabe and Amin’s paths crossing seemed a little easy, Trant brings a lot of grit, action and speed to his novel — Wild Dogs would work well for reluctant male adult readers, perhaps those looking for a holiday read and need something engaging.

“By the time they reached the abandoned well, the sun was almost below the horizon, casting an orange hue across the sky that faded to deep purple as the first of the many starts materialised.”

Admittedly, there were a few elements to the novel that felt a little too signposted and therefore predictable. The crooked cop for one, and the nurse accidentally being drawn into the story because she wasn’t quite switched on enough to realise there was danger surrounding her. The final few chapters, which is where most of the action happens, did provide a lot of tense interactions with characters and increased suspense, although with such a large cast of characters drawn into the fight, it felt a little convoluted at times. I wonder if Trant could’ve stripped back the number of characters present in those final, chaotic scenes.

This certainly felt like a personal response because I can’t find any other reviews that mention this, but I did wonder if Trant leant a little too heavily into Gabe’s ignorance around race and class. Gabe didn’t need to be so ‘tough’ or unaware of Amin’s cultural history to still be an effective protagonist. At times, Gabe’s dialogue, which may indeed match what men do really say, translated on the page a little forced and awkward.

“Amin paled at this suggestion. Gabe could see him wrestling with his thoughts, and the look of resigned guilt on his face told him that the man was blaming himself.”

High stakes, pacy, and dripping with tension, Wild Dogs is recommended for male readers, and is the perfect gift for father’s day or a father’s birthday. Readership skews 35+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wild Dogs
Michael Trant
February 2022
Penguin Random House Book Publishers