Review: TO THE RIVER, Vikki Wakefield

• 
  this edition supplied by Text Publishing
• published 2024
  
• ISBN 9781922790590
  
• 347 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

The Kelly family has always been trouble. When a fire in a remote caravan community kills nine people, including 17-year-old Sabine Kelly’s mother and sister, Sabine confesses to the murders. Shortly after, she escapes custody and disappears. Recently made redundant from marriage, motherhood and her career, journalist Rachel Weidermann has long suspected Sabine made her way back to the river—now, twelve years after the ‘Caravan Murders’, she has the time and the tenacity to corner a fugitive and land the story of the year.

Rachel’s ambition lights the fuse leading to a brutal chain of events, and the web Sabine weaves will force Rachel to question everything she believes. Vikki Wakefield’s compelling psychological thriller is about class, corruption, love, loyalty, and the vindication of truth and justice. And a brave dog called Blue.

My Take

Twelve years after she, 17 years old, confessed to the 'Caravan Murders', Sabine Kelly wants to tell her story and obtain justice for her mother, her sister, and the other 7 innocents who died then. An opportunity presents itself when Sabine realises that journalist Rachel Weidermann is living in the property next to Sabine's grandfather Ray on the river. The time has come to reveal the truth. Ray is dying. The policeman who lost his son in the fire has retired. And Rachel has time on her hands.

From the start Rachel sees Sabine as steps to her own redemption in the journalistic world where her career has flagged. She had begun an investigation a few years ago, but didn't get very far because she couldn't locate Sabine. But now Sabine has re-appeared. There is a reward on Sabine's head and Rachel could simply turn her in. But there is more money to be made from the story. But what Rachel doesn't realise is that just as she is playing Sabine, reeling her in, so Sabine is manipulating Rachel to her own ends.

The author has created her setting from the Murray River backwaters in South Australia. Sabine and Rachel are the primary voices telling the story, while the time frame flits between 2007 and 2019. The characters are much alive, also including Sabine's dog Blue.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.3, BALLAD FOR A MAD GIRL
• 4.6, AFTER YOU WERE GONE