Canticle Creek by Adrian Hyland
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.
About the author
Adrian Hyland is the award-winning author of Diamond Dove, Gunshot Road and Kinglake-350, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award for non-fiction in 2012. His books have been published internationally, including in Britain and the US, and translated into a variety of languages, including German, French, Swedish and Czech.
Review
‘Canticle Creek’ is full of tension, suspense and has a kick-ass female protagonist to boot! This is the first book that I have read by this author but it won't be the last as I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Hopefully, this is the start of a series as I would love to read more about Jessie Redpath!
Jessie Redpath is a cop in the Northern Territory, Kalura. Since she took over crime has fallen dramatically and she has her own unique way of doing things. When Adam Lawson goes up against the Magistrates she asks that rather being sent to prison, he should be allowed to live with her father, a local artist and work at the local pub as his community sentence. Both Adam and Ben Redpath are artists and Adam settles down for a time. But when he falls in love with a girl he heads down to Melbourne to be with her breaking his parole. When Jessie is told that Adam has been found dead and that he also killed his girlfriend, she is shocked. She doesn't believe that Adam is capable of this. So her and her dad head to the place he was found, a small town near Melbourne to unofficially look into the deaths.
Jessie is a great person to have your back! Loyal to the end, full of life and love and highly intuitive and intelligent. I loved her as a person and an investigator. The relationship between her and her dad was amazing and it was a breath of fresh air for a crime novel to have this. Jessie is a normal human without the usual tropes of crime fiction and was a great character because of this!
I was hooked by this book from the start and despite being ill I devoured it in a couple of days. It has such a sense of location and history. I found it to be captivating and alluring actually. It deals with a lot of dark issues but manages to put a positive and hopeful spin on them which isn't easy to do. It was unpredictable and I definitely did not see the twist coming until that final reveal!
Hopefully, this is the start of a series as I would willing read anything about Jessie.
Let me know if you pick this one up!
