JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Bay by Allie Reynolds

Kenna arrives in Sydney to surprise her best friend. But Mikki and her fiancé Jack are about to head away on a trip, so Kenna finds herself tagging along for the ride. Sorrow Bay is beautiful, wild and dangerous. A remote surfing spot with waves to die for, cut off from the rest of the world. Here Kenna meets a mysterious group of people who will do anything to keep their paradise a secret.

Sky, Ryan, Clemente and Victor have come to disappear from life. But what did they leave behind? As Kenna gets drawn into their world, she sees the extremes they are prepared to go to for the next thrill. And everyone seems to be hiding something. What is her best friend involved in and can she get her away? Because one thing is becoming rapidly clear about The Bay: nobody ever leaves.

Allie Reynolds’ second psychological thriller The Bay is largely set within the confines of a secluded Sydney beach, centred around a group of friends who will do anything to keep the location a secret. The Bay is another adrenalin-charged read for fans of thrillers.

Kenna heads to Australia to surprise her best friend Mikki, who is about to marry a man she barely knows. Kenna’s true intentions for visiting are to convince Mikki to end the relationship, but before she’s able to do that she’s caught up in a surfing and camping holiday that Mikki and her fiancé already had planned with their friends. Suddenly, Kenna is without a phone and sharing a beach with Mikki’s mysterious and arguably suspicious group of surfing friends.

“He’s all over her. I’m not convinced there really are any mosquitoes. I think it’s just an excuse to touch her. I glance at Mikki, embarrassed on her behalf, but she doesn’t react. Almost as if he does this a lot.”

Allie always keeps the group of suspects contained within a secluded environment – with Shiver, it was the ‘reunion’ in the French Alps, and here in The Bay, it’s the unknown beach. The group is always a well-maintained number of people, not too large that you start to confuse characters with each other, and not so small that you can easily guess who the culprit is.

As the characters in The Bay start being killed off, the pool of suspects gets smaller and smaller. And yet, at no point did I feel like I knew who the killer was. Each character has the potential to be responsible – they’ve all got a killer instinct, quick reflexes, and a past they wish to hide.

“The shortboarder pulls alongside the longboarder, gesturing angrily. Behind them, the bodyboarder darts about as though intending to cut up the middle. The wave shuts down, sending them flying in a tangle of limbs, boards and foam. I hold my breath until all three heads surface.”

Dispersed throughout the book are flashbacks from the course of Mikki and Kenna’s friendship, which shows just how long they’ve known each other and what they’ve overcome together. Kenna, once an avid surfer, is still reeling from the drowning accident that killed her boyfriend, and this surfing trip with Mikki might be what she needs to overcome her trauma with the ocean. If only she could trust the people around her…

Most of the book is written from Kenna’s perspective, with a few chapters from the other characters and the occasional italicised chapter from the killer’s perspective. There’s something about Allie’s writing that is incredibly compulsive – dialogue is a real strength and does a lot of the groundwork for establishing the dynamic between the characters. We learn a lot about how the characters deal with their trauma by how they talk about it with others, which explains why the group are a little slow to figure out there’s someone willing to kill off other people to keep their beach a secret.

“The hairs on Jack’s thigh rub my ankle. This guy has no sense of personal space. Clemente looks over at us, his expression dark. Then I notice Sky and Ryan watching me too.”

Fans of Allie’s first novel Shiver will be pleased with this follow up. Another compulsive, unique psychological thriller, and this time with an authentic Australian setting. Readership skews 20+

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

The Bay
Allie Reynolds
June 2022
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

Black River by Matthew Spencer

A long, burning summer in Sydney. A young woman found murdered in the deserted grounds of an elite boarding school. A serial killer preying on victims along the banks of the Parramatta River. A city on edge.

Adam Bowman, a battling journalist who grew up as the son of a teacher at Prince Albert College, might be the only person who can uncover the links between the school murder and the ‘Blue Moon Killer’. But he will have to go into the darkest places of his childhood to piece together the clues. Detective Sergeant Rose Riley, meanwhile, is part of the taskforce desperately trying to find the killer before he strikes again. Adam Bowman’s excavation of his past might turn out to be Rose’s biggest trump card or it may bring the whole investigation crashing down, and put her own life in danger.

Matthew Spencer’s Black River is an enthralling, engaging crime thriller set in Western Sydney. A young girl has been murdered and found on the grounds of an elite boarding school in Parramatta, and with a serial killer already terrorising Gladesville, Sydney is on edge. Is this the work of the Blue Moon Killer? Or is this a copycat?

Another journalist using their writing skills to craft a page-turning thriller, Spencer wrote for The Australian for over two decades. As a result, his writing is taut and meticulous. He crafts a story with intrigue and he brings to life characters that feel three-dimensional and authentic. There is a lot of insight into the police investigation, as well as the media coverage around this new murder. Additionally, Black River uses a fresh setting – Western Sydney – that I haven’t recently come across in Australian crime.

“A cloying drawl. Repulsion slithered in Riley. Who had who in whose pocket? Sydney was a corrupt town, and Canberra would be worse. It was a slimy game and Bishop was a player.”

This police procedural moves between the lead investigators, Rose Riley and Steve O’Neil, and established journalist Adam Bowman, who has lived in the area most of his life and whose traumatic childhood helps uncover potential truths about the latest murder.

One of my favourite parts of the book was the working relationship between the police detectives and journalist Adam Bowman – it showed how a symbiotic relationship can benefit both parties, and hopefully draw out the killer. It’s not something I’ve seen examined in crime fiction to this level of detail; the book illustrates how police detectives form those deals with journalists to control and manage the release of information to the public. Black River shows great intimate knowledge of the Australian media landscape.

“The new constable, the Parramatta detective, was first in, sitting at the end of the row of desks with a laptop. Riley had noted her at the school on Thursday and again yesterday and liked what she saw: diligence and intelligence.”

The resolution does indeed come at a rush – we’re almost through the entire book when we discover the truth about the murder. Part of me wondered if it happens too quickly, because the pacing of those final pages doesn’t match the pacing of the rest of the book. But at the same time, I did enjoy how we felt we’d understood what happened to the young girl and then Spencer throws a couple of unexpected twists at the reader.

Initially I did find it confusing grasping the details of this murder vs. the details surrounding the established Blue Moon Killer. For most of the novel, people can’t seem to decide whether this murder is the latest work of the serial killer, and the moving back and forth between the two possibilities does give the reader a bit of disorientation.

“The front oval with the media pack was down to the right. Network vans, camera crews, tents, desks, cables, a mobile canteen, newspaper and radio reporters, photographers, bloggers. A police media tent stood in the middle, the big top at the circus. Bowman was on the highwire, looking down. To stay on the trapeze, he needed the cops.”

Taut, tense, gripping and highly compelling, Matthew Spencer’s Black River is for readers of crime, thriller and mystery fiction. Readership skews 25+

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

Black River
Matthew Spencer
June 2022
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor

On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together. Esther never makes it home.

Ronnie’s going to find her, she has a plan. Lewis will help. Their friend can’t be gone, Ronnie won’t believe it.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels can believe it. She has seen what people are capable of. She knows more than anyone how, in a moment of weakness, a person can be driven to do something they never thought possible.

Lewis can believe it too. But he can’t reveal what he saw that afternoon at the creek without exposing his own secret.

Five days later, Esther’s buried body is discovered.

Hayley Scrivenor’s debut rural crime novel Dirt Town follows the disappearance of 12-year-old Esther Bianchi, who disappears after school on one blistering hot afternoon. Set in a remote New South Wales town nicknamed Dirt Town, Esther’s disappearance ripples through the small town. This close-knit community that parents once considered safe, suddenly doesn’t seem to be.

There is quite a large cast of characters who pivot through the story. Esther’s friends Ronnie and Lewis, who struggle to understand the events of her disappearance, and Esther’s mother Constance, who gravitates towards her best friend Shelley to help process her grief. We also have Sydney-based detective Sarah Michaels, tasked with solving the crime.

“Sarah found that, in general, people were less leery of unmarried, childless female police officers in her line of work than they were of single men. Even if some of them guessed she might be gay, even if that wasn’t their cup of tea, they were less suspicious of her than they were of Smithy.”

Dirt Town is worthy of its praise, offering a suite of complex and three-dimensional characters and presenting an ending that felt fresh and unique.

Hayley Scrivenor perfectly captures the barren landscape of regional New South Wales, moving POV between all of the characters who circle Esther’s disappearance. Because the book blurb tells us Esther’s body will eventually be found, we know where the story is headed. We know, at the end of the four-day plot, Esther will be discovered and we will be close to uncovering her killer.

“Constance’s eyes moved of their own accord to the tall woman’s choppy haircut. The short hair had been dyed an unnatural, fire engine red and was peppered with auburn and blonde streaks. It was one of those haircuts where, however it turns out, at least you can’t be accused of not making an effort.”

Hayley’s writing is observant and taut. Each point of view not only addresses Esther’s disappearance, allowing the plot to propel forward, but we also learn more about that character’s past – their history in the town, their relations with other characters, and their potential involvement with Esther on the day she disappeared.

Whilst I did find the order of events to be a little confusing – Hayley moves between past and present in quite a staccato, chaotic manner – the characters do anchor the story and keep you turning the pages. Hayley’s writing is poignant, with plenty to offer the reader.

“I’d wanted to tell the detective more about Esther. That her parents worried too much about her, not seeing that she could, in fact, do anything. Of course, I couldn’t have said I sometimes pretended that Esther’s dad was my father when he drove us to and from swimming.”

Atmospheric with a tightly wound crime and a pacey plot, Dirt Town is recommended for readers of rural and outback noir, crime thrillers and small-town mysteries. Readership skews 25+

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

Dirt Town
Hayley Scrivenor
June 2022
Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia

The Island by Adrian McKinty

The Island is the next thrilling adventure from the mastermind behind The Chain, and a family story unlike any you’ve read yet.

You should not have come to the island.
You should not have been speeding.
You should not have tried to hide the body.
You should not have told your children that you could keep them safe.
No one can run forever . . .

Adrian McKinty’s The Island is a psychological thriller set largely on a remote Australian island off Melbourne, after a British family become trapped there during a holiday from hell. When they accidentally kill a local young woman, the chaotic, unhinged family of Australians who live on the island start to hunt them down.

When Tom and his children, along with his second wife Heather, travel to Australia off the back of a business trip, they’re unexpectedly thrust in to a life-and-death cat and mouse chase through remote Australian terrain.

“She could feel herself sinking. She was so thirsty. Everything ached. She was sitting cross-legged on the ground. A blood trail was making its way toward her through the dust. She tried to breathe. Breathing hurt. Her ribs hurt. The air was thick.”

I really wanted to like this book, and there were elements of the premise and the plot that intrigued me, but the writing is flawed and the story thinly developed. The dialogue is cliche and caricature, and there’s very little depth to the characters. Every conversation felt like something out of an action movie, not at all realistic nor believable. The main characters were so one-dimensional I didn’t like any of them – even the young teenage girl read much younger in some sections, like a scared child rather than the impressionable teenager she’s meant to be.

I know Adrian spent some time living in Australia, but this reads like someone who hasn’t spent enough time here. He wrote Australians to be so stereotypical and over-the-top. It’s rare to find an Australia who actually says ‘fair dinkum’ once, let alone regularly in a conversation. Even the British family weren’t overly likeable. The husband, Tom, freaks out about not getting his chosen hire car, but the main character talks about him like he’s an amazing husband and father — her feelings and his personality don’t match up.

“Olivia buried herself in Heather’s chest. She’d never really hugged her before except that one time at the wedding, before Christmas. And that was only out of politeness.”

On top of that, you have characters who make foolish decisions based on false beliefs (like believing, after the locals have killed people they love, that they might actually let them go if they surrender?). Other inconsistencies include the family on the island not actually being very good at tracking or hunting, even though they’re supposed to live and breathe this terrain? And why are the villains so overwritten? Jacko is ridiculous and so is Ma, to name just a couple of them. Unfortunately this just wasn’t the book for me.

“Heather watched helplessly as the children were sat down on the floor, their hands tied in front of them, and a noose run from each one’s neck to a hook in the ceiling. Another rope around the neck tied them to the wall of the shearing shed.”

The Island is suited for thriller and crime readers. Readership skews male, 25+

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

The Island
Adrian McKinty
May 2022
Hachette Book Publishers

Those Who Return by Kassandra Montag

Amid the desolate wilderness of the Great Plains of Nebraska, a region so isolated you could drive for hours without seeing another human being, sits Hatchery House. Having served as a church, an asylum and an orphanage, Hatchery is now a treatment facility for orphaned or abandoned children with psychiatric disorders. Haunted by patients past and present, only the most vulnerable find a home within its walls.

Dr. Lorelei ‘Lore’ Webber, a former FBI psychiatrist, has almost grown used to the unorthodox methods used at Hatchery House. But when one of her patients is murdered, Lore finds herself dragged into the centre of an investigation that unearths startling truths, shocking discoveries, and untold cruelty. And as the investigation unravels, Lore is forced to confront the past she’s spent her whole life running from – a secret that threatens to undo her entirely.

Kassandra Montag’s Those Who Return is a psychological thriller exploring guilt and redemption within a desolate and remote landscape. Largely taking place inside a mysterious treatment facility, with nowhere to run these characters are forced to accept their fate within the confined walls of this facility.

Protagonist Lore is a physiatrist at the facility, working with disadvantaged children until they are ready to return to their home. Some are evidently more trouble than others — manipulative bullies that prey on the younger children in the group. And so when one, and then two, children end up murdered on the grounds of the facility, there is a long list of potential suspects.

“I hoped it was nothing more than a shadow that had startled her. Carly was scared of everything, so anything could set her off. She was so terrified of going outside that she sometimes wore paper bags over her head.”

Those Who Return features a large suite of characters, which kept me guessing right until the end. I didn’t feel an ounce of predictability about this story, and thought Kassandra brought a unique offering to the psychological thriller genre.

The secluded and remote setting deliberately feels claustrophobic for the reader, building tension and pace with each chapter. We know things are going to get worse before they get better. And Lore did feel like a compelling protagonist — as an ex-FBI psychiatrist still reeling from a traumatic death, she had to battle her demons in her to solve the murders in the book. There was certainly enough richness to her character to carry through the book and keep the story feeling multi-dimensional.

“I reached out and touched her arm and she trembled against my hand, her whole body vibrating like a harpsichord that’d been plucked. She gripped a single tomato so tightly that its juice dripped to the dirt floor in soft plops.”

Whilst the story is a bit slow to start, I did like the time that Kassandra dedicated to setting up the backstory, the characterisation and the dynamic between the children. It allows for an enriched plot and does help the reader later on when the events grow chaotic and start to spiral out of control.

Admittedly, I did feel like Cedar’s presence in the novel felt underdeveloped — his connection to Lore was strong, but he got swallowed by the other characters in the book and I couldn’t help but feel like he was too forgettable.

“Other people couldn’t stop the hallucinations, so what was the point in telling them? Everyone lives with things: obsessions, tragedies, disruptive thoughts. I wanted to believe everything could be treated for all people, but knew there were limits, or at least, limits for me.”

Tense and fast-paced, Those Who Return is recommended for readers of mystery and psychological thriller. Readership skews 25+

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

Those Who Return
Kassandra Montag
April 2022
Hachette Book Publishers Australia