A gripping, excellently written page turner with lots of unexpected twists and turns, Of medium size and thickness, it has a Prologue and Epilogue and is divided into fifty nine chapters , some only a page long . It jumps between the events of ten years ago and now but is perfectly understandable.
For the past ten years, the small mountain town of Edenvillein Victoria’s high country has the horrific murders of five hikers up on Jagged Ridge constantly in the background of their minds , an always looming presence. Who killed them and why? its focus on diverse people undertaking a challenging hike that all goes wrong. Each has their own motives for being there: motives that are intimately connected to the reason they are all killed Was it,as the police reports recorded from the evidence ,Bill ‘Creeper’ Durant, an expert deer hunter terrific with guns , yet rather a bushland hermit and a person with a known reputation for stalking and frightening campers ? It was decided it was murder-suicide. Case closed.
But as the anniversary of the murders gets closer, Detective Constable Sally White – the only officer at Edenville’s small police station – finds herself entangled in the dangerous world of the infamous Durant family.Lex Durant, especially, has begun to publicly protest his brother’s innocence and accuse the police of persecution. As Sally rummages through the evidence recorded at the time ofthe investigation to prove him wrong, it becomes obvious that each murdered hiker had skeletons in their closet – and possible enemies in their past…
Sally is vibrantly brought to life – we feel as if we know her. She is the stepdaughter of Assistant Commissioner Angelo Conti,(with whom she has a rather frosty relationship) who recently moved to Edenville where she is trying to live her life with a handsome new boyfriend, park ranger Jim Brear. She has commendable persistence and is resolutely trying to establish what really happened.
In one scene Sally drinks too much and does the Cossack dance which she was famous for at one stage. The townsfolk accept it although detectives in small country towns are meant to be in control. Suddenly while leaving the pub she is assaulted by someone kicking her in the back.
There are the lots of unexpected plot twists and we learn a lot more about hidden family secrets of the victims and Bill Durant and their families.
Edensville is almost a character itself, with its intriguing town dwellers and captivating small- town outback Australian locale. Sally loves living in Edenville , with its “maple-lined streets and evergreen poplars”, learning her favourite cafes etc , meeting the elderly traveling caravaning retirees , those who have moved from big cities and coping with the heavy influx of tourists at times , which bolsters the development of new businesses while pushing up house prices . There are delightful descriptions of the magnificent views, the landscape the hikers trek over, the lofty wedge-tailed eagle and the alpine herb fields.
A tense, compulsive, gripping read – hopefully we will see more of Sally.
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-creeper-9781761342028
Featured image : Author Margaret Hickey. Pic by Charlotte Guest
