Review: DIRT TOWN, Hayley Scrivenor

• 
  this edition published 2022, Pan Macmillan Australia
• made available to me by my local library
  
• ISBN978-1-76098-719-0
• 359 pages
• Ned Kelly Award short list best debut title 2023

Synopsis (Publisher)

My best friend wore her name, Esther, like a queen wearing her crown at a jaunty angle. We were twelve years old when she went missing.

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.

What do we owe the girl who isn't there?

Character-rich and propulsive, with a breathtakingly original use of voice and revolving points of view, Dirt Town delves under the surface, where no one can hide. With emotional depth and sensitivity, this stunning debut shows us how much each person matters in a community that is at once falling apart and coming together.

Esther will always be a Dirt Town child, as we are its children, still.

My Take

There is a lot going on in this book, very complex plotting, more than just a missing child. Very carefully layered story, overlapping (and challenging) time frames. Lots of secrets too, and things that the "town" knows, but that the investigating police don't necessarily. Even the police investigators have their own secrets.

The narrative is told through several points of view, and so taking notice at the beginning of each chapter of the date and identity of the narrator is important right from the beginning to the reader's understanding and appreciation. The multi-dimensional structure of the book is demanding of the reader. It is a book that requires a high level of concentration.

Highly recommended!

My rating: 4.7

Awards

WINNER OF THE ABIA GENERAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2023 FOR DEBUT FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA THE MATT RICHELL AWARD FOR NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DAVITT AWARDS ADULT CRIME NOVEL 2023
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DAVITT AWARDS DEBUT CRIME BOOK 2023
FINALIST FOR THE 2023 ITW THRILLER AWARDS FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 CWA ILP JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 MARGARET AND COLIN RODERICK LITERARY AWARD 

About the author

Hayley Scrivenor is a former Director of Wollongong Writers Festival. Originally from a small country town, Hayley now lives and writes on Dharawal country and has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong on the south coast of New South Wales. Dirt Town is her first novel. An earlier version of the book was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize and won the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award.