Author pic Rebecca Lim
Confession: This is my first Rebecca Lin book and 30 pages in its the most original Aussie crime debut I’ve read in yonks, given its searing stake driven into Australia’s dark colonial heart. Its unflinchingly moving, not allowing this reader to deviate from the page. I found it unsettling, yet audaciously funny- a legal thriller with serious brains and just enough bite.
Its a kicker of a start that is more about a woman’s story of exorcising her demons from a traumatic experience. But first things first. Fe Fei Chou wants to prove herself in her new job at a prestigious law firm. She is about to prove she’s there because she has earned her right to be there, not because she’s a ‘diversity hire’ or because the boss has a fetish for Asian women. While looking through access files she comes across a mysterious cattle station in Central Queensland whose accounts were handled by the law firm that now employs her. Newly hired as a graduate, Fei will now use her position to dig further in the firm’s records and connections—and for the reader’s interest—uncover the rapist’s identity.
Author, Rebecca Lim introduces our protagonist feisty persona slowly considering we meet Fei entry as a meek and insecure graduate, unsure where to begin her quest for revenge, and even, if she is capable of executing it. As her anger and frustration grows, furious at the trauma she and many young girls have endured and the injustices that go unchecked, but primarily at the blatant prejudice she confronts at work every day. The book is not a seamless ‘whodunit, eminently conveying just how personal these crimes are to her while tracking how she matures into a confident woman in her own voice and unwavering in her mission for revenge.
As the newbie at the firm, Fei is an outlier at the prestigious law company. She is too quiet. She wears too much makeup. She’s only there because the boss has a thing for Asians. Fei isn’t there to climb the corporate ladder- her mission is revenge. The event so long ago, propels her to find him buried deep in the firm’s records. Deliberately placing herself in harm’s way, she uncovers a secret history of power and privilege that haunts not only her firm, but also the nation itself. The story and narrative is taut and blackly humorous, and a roiling thriller, masterfully dark with the revenge razor-sharp that blows the whistle on the cutthroat world of corporate law. Lim’s characters are vivid, her humour dry and morose with dialogue that has a rapier intensity. Part horror, part detective novel, the humanity of Fei shines through.
Its the ultimate insider job. As for the meaning of PAUKEAHO…. It will haunt you till the satisfying last page. Thunderous accolades to Rebecca Lim for this juicy read. She is an Australian writer, illustrator and editor, the author of over twenty books.
