Canticle Creek

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My review of Moonlight Downs aka Diamond Dove - Emily Tempest #1 - which won the 2007 Ned Kelly award for best first fiction. The rural crime fiction wave continues with this brilliant new arid drama.’ - Australian Women's Weekly In a way I felt the mystery itself, whilst certainly intriguing, played a secondary role in this thriller. I revelled in the vivid way Adrian Hyland presents the cast of various characters amongst the local residents, with the tensions and hidden conflicts between them. Jesse herself is a very cool character – strong and feisty, flawed in some ways, but with a profound sense of justice (I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side!) Nash Baker was once a celebrated cop, but his career was ended when he chose to take justice into his own hands. Now he’s living a quiet life in a small town caring for the local wildlife and trying to stay away from trouble. I enjoyed the characters and their dialect. While at times it took a moment to understand – I loved the speech patterns and local habits.

The witty, funny and descriptive nature of the storyline was interesting and gave way to a good imagination. I loved the characters and how the author focused more on female protagonists. Although Daisy was already dead, author makes us fall in love with a character who doesn’t even make an appearance except in prologue and in memories.Jesse Redpath was a police officer in the small town of Kulara in the Northern Territory where she saw more than most and controlled more than most. Since Jesse took over, crime had greatly lessened in the area. When young Adam Lawson went up before the magistrate once again, Jesse persuaded him to allow Adam to live with her father Ben, and work at the local pub, to work his hours out. If he absconded, he would be arrested and thrown in jail. Adam managed quite some time with Ben Redpath – both of them artists and Ben directed Adam, gave him some pointers. But Adam had itchy feet, apologizing to his mentor and taking off down south. I feel I’d recognise his people if I ran into them in a dusty pub (or an art gallery). His descriptions of characters and landscape are memorable. I really enjoyed this and his two Emily Tempest books. I hope we don’t have to wait another ten years for a new one. He and Garry Disher are both worth waiting for, though. So she leaves the Territories for Melbourne on a period of leave to investigate. Trying to find out why Daisy was killed, and by whom, brings danger to Jesse and all who are trying to help her. The final scenes where the rogue fires are threatening to engulf both evidence and investigators was just amazing. Jesse Redpath has a new job in a new town, Satellite – the stormy weather that greets her first few days on the new beat seems like a sign for what’s to come. A local has died in what seems like an accident, but Jessie isn’t so sure that ‘accident’ wasn’t planned. All evidence seems to point to Nash, but Jessie’s not sure about that either. The writing is fluid, slow and languid at times before a sudden burst of high activity and danger. The action is gripping, quite exhilarating, conveying a genuine sense of urgency and jeopardy. Life and death that almost feels tangible with some remarkably powerful, visceral and disturbing imagery at play.

When Kulara police officer Jesse Redpath learns about the death of Adam Lawson, a young man from her Northern Territory community, the circumstances don’t make sense to her. Serendipitously, an invitation for her artist father to an exhibition in Melbourne, gives Jesse the opportunity to visit Canticle Creek and do a little investigating of her own.

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Jesse’s an appealing protagonist, a thoughtful and capable and police officer, with investigative skills learnt from Danny Jakamarra, the Aboriginal Community Police Officer, whom she works with in Kulara. I liked the character of Possum, the teenage friend of the murdered woman, and the surprise of Nadia’s character. There’s an authenticity to Hyland’s characters generally, both in the way they talk and act, that gives them substance. 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.