Recommended by Dunsborough Book Chat Club
‘She wasn’t the first and she wouldn’t be the last; swallowed into the deep, dark recesses of the King Country bush, never to be seen again.’
It’s January 1983. Ryan, a law student, returns to his small rural hometown in New Zealand during his summer break to work long punishing hours as a woolpresser. Ryan is haunted by memories of Sanna, a Finnish backpacker and his secret lover, who worked with him in the shearing shed the summer before – then vanished without trace. Now Sanna’s sister Emilia has arrived from Finland, determined to get answers – and as he’s the workmate who reported Sanna missing, she wants Ryan’s help. Emilia knows her sister was not the first female traveller in the area to disappear.
A gripping murder mystery, where everyone in the small town is a suspect, and appears to have a motive. The story is told from different character perspectives, and during internal dialogue, we see the secret vices each character possesses. However, this novel, while interesting, does paint a rather negative picture of men in rural towns. For example, some of the internal dialogues of various male characters relate to perverted and illegal behaviour (spying on women/couples naked or having sex and violence). I believe this is to make them appear suspicious, but it seems a little stereotypical.
4/5 Stars