26 February 2022

Review: CANTICLE CREEK, Adrian Hyland

  •  this edition published by Ultimo Press 2021
  • ISBN 978-176115003-6
  • 342 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

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.

My take

It is over 10 years since I have read anything by Adrian Hyland and CANTICLE CREEK demonstrates that he still has the touch.

Jesse Redpath is a Northern Territory outback cop. She is the officer in charge of the station at Kulara. One of the local boys Adam Lawson has gone off the tails a bit and Jesse has put in a word for him with the local magistrate and has set him up with a job at the roadhouse, and boarding with her artist father. Despite getting on well with Jesse's father Ben, Adam takes off for the south and ends up going to Melbourne. The next Jesse hears is that he has been killed in a road crash near Canticle Creek after killing his girlfriend. This doesn't sound like the Adam that Jesse and her father knew.

Ben Redpath is a highly regarded artist.  He has been invited to Melbourne to participate in a joint art exhibition and Jesse decides to accompany him and to go to Canticle Creek to satisfy herself that everything had been done to investigate Adam's death.

This was a very believable book. I really like the new character Jesse Redpath, who always seems to ask those extra questions. Here also is a writer who seems to have a special connection to "country" which he acknowledges himself at the end of the book.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read 5.0, GUNSHOT ROAD

1 comment:

Cathy said...

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Adrian Hyland's name on the cover of a new book. I have missed his books so much! Now I have to start seeing about getting my hands on a copy... Thanks so much for the review.

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