December 3, 2012
There is not one palatable character in Gee’s debauched murder mystery set on the Bay of Fires on Australia’s Tasmania coast, a clever way to ensure that each is a suspect in the deaths of two young women. Sarah Avery, home for Christmas after beating her boyfriend bloody and walking out on her job, finds the body of a young backpacker washed up on the shore. When she questions the disappearance of another young woman who went missing the summer before, she begins to mistrust the odd assortment of folks she’s known forever in her parents’ beach community: the nosy shopkeeper, the middle-aged vamp and her horny son, the weathered innkeeper who smokes too much, and redneck campers who return year after year. The investigative journo who shows up to report on the crimes is a middle-aged scaredy-cat, a terrible driver who has to be drunk to muster the courage to be with a woman. But he falls for our hard-drinking, tough-girl heroine and just might end up saving the day. Gee’s debut follows some shopworn formulas: lots of red herrings, dead ends, and suspicious behavior by everyone, including the village misfit who bears the brunt of the community’s fears. And there is a titillating whiff of sexual violence. It’s a testament to this writer’s diligent story building, however, that we endure so much blustery weather, spitting, vomiting, inebriation, slimy fish guts, and sand in the shoes to find out who done it. Agent: Julia Kenny, Markson Thoma Literary Agency.
December 1, 2012
A close-knit beachfront community in Tasmania is threatened by a killer who might be one of the neighbors. Sarah, 35, a devoted fisherwoman and natural athlete, is staying with her parents at their "shack," or beach cottage, on the shores of the titular bay. Formerly a foreman at an inland fish farm, the hard-drinking Sarah left her employment after beating up her co-worker and lover, Jake. People assume she was the abused party, and she lets them. The action begins on Boxing Day at the height of Tasmanian midsummer. The badly decomposed body of Anja, a Swiss tourist, has been found near a tidal rock pool that is one of Sarah's favorite haunts. In fact, Sarah was the last to see Anja alive and now feels guilty she didn't tell her to avoid the rock pool, knowing someone had fouled it recently with fish remains. Hall, a grizzled reporter for a tabloid, is sent to Bay of Fires to investigate Anja's murder and its possible links to the earlier disappearance of another young woman. Sarah and Hall form a tentative attachment, but each is too damaged by previous relationships (his wife left him for his best friend) to make a definitive move, even after a drunken one-night stand. Sarah's ill-advised tryst with Sam, 17-year-old son of a rich American neighbor, further complicates her chances for a normal love life. Number one on the beach-dwellers' short list of suspects is Roger, an eccentric recluse. However, transient summer campers, a crayfish poacher, the ex-husband of a local lodge owner and even Sarah's university professor father are all possible culprits. But Gee's preoccupations are less with the mystery than with the psychological profiles of the members of this ingrown society, such that the whodunit is forgotten for long stretches. Despite graceful writing and well-informed descriptions of fish lore and seascapes, the plot lacks both momentum and menace. Tasmania's culture, flora and fauna are paramount here--the thriller aspect feels extraneous.
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Starred review from January 1, 2013
Reeling from a near meltdown in both her personal and her professional lives, 35-year-old Sarah Avery is spending a miserable Christmas holiday at her parents' beach cottage on the Tasmanian coast. Then the mutilated body of an attractive European tourist washes up on the beach, and the seemingly close-knit community fractures as everyone falls under suspicion. With betrayal and dark secrets spinning out of control, Sarah becomes obsessed with solving the crime. She soon finds an ally in Hall Flynn, a diffident but kind-hearted journalist covering the story, and their friendship deepens as they uncover the sinister truth about the tourist's death and its link to the mysterious disappearance of a local teenage girl. VERDICT Although this debut novel by Australian author Gee appears to unfold as languidly as a beach afternoon, she deftly creates a delicious atmosphere of mounting suspense. Gee's magic touch is clearly evident in her indelible characters, especially the prickly Sarah, whose feelings of self-hatred and loneliness are absolutely real. Readers who appreciate nuanced characters grappling with complex relationships will find that Gee is a newcomer to watch.--Kelsy Peterson, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 1, 2013
A year after a 16-year-old girl goes missing from the Bay of Fires on Tasmania's northeast coast, the body of a visiting young Swiss woman washes up on the beach, and locals and tourists alike fear a serial killer. Sarah Avery, the second person to come upon the body, becomes intent on finding the killer while keeping secrets about the relationship she ended and the job she quit just before joining her family at their holiday shack. An independent and impetuous woman, Sarah connects with Hall Flynn, the journalist who arrives to cover the story and has his own secrets, notably an inability to get over the girlfriend who betrayed him with his best friend seven years earlier. As suspicion swirls around a strange local man, Hall must decide whether to write the story of his life or to protect a person he has come to care for. While Gee's debut is nominally a mystery, this is no action whodunit with a slam-bang conclusion. Instead, the novel's appeal comes more from its unusual sense of place and well-drawn, fallible characters. Enjoy at leisure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)
December 13, 2012
Murdered girls washed up on picture-postcard Tassie beaches. You could joke about not telling Tourism Tasmania, but sadly this novel takes some of its inspiration from real events, specifically, the murder of Italian tourist Victoria Cafasso and the disappearance of German tourist Nancy Grunwaldt in the early 1990s. Both cases remain unsolved. In her debut novel, Poppy Gee writes about an idyllic holiday spot in remote coastal Tasmania, where no more than a dozen shacks line a lagoon and secrets are hard to keep. That our protagonist Sarah Avery has returned, having left her boyfriend and her job, is cause for gossip in itself. When the bikini-clad body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach just a year after another teenage girl went missing, journalist Hall Flynn is sent to investigate, and all too quickly the close-knit community turns on itself. I have a few reservations with Gee’s writing style, as at times I found her depiction of Sarah’s unlikeability a bit overdone. The grim undercurrent to descriptions of the locals and the landscape also felt a bit laboured, though I do appreciate that Gee is providing us with a clearer view of paradise: not everyone is happy, not everyone behaves well and all beautiful seaside communities have a rubbish dump. Nonetheless, this novel has stuck in my mind, and I will be recommending it as a compelling, dark summer read for fans of thought-provoking dramas. (Read the interview here.)
Catherine Schulz is an indie bookseller at Fullers Bookshop in Hobart