After years away from his hometown of Melbourne, Luke Harris is back on track. All he wants is a normal job, his own house and a dog.
But Luke is a man with a past, where life was anything but peaceful and his skills ran to the dark side. A past not easily forgotten – or forgiven.
When he crosses paths with Gus Alberici – the brutal criminal he worked for as a teenager – he's dragged reluctantly back to his old life. Luke's father has vanished, along with a chunk of Gus's cash. And something is up with his new girlfriend's father ...
As his past and present collide, can Luke keep his long-held secrets – and outsmart a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants?
Stillwater, Tanya Scott
It seems, to this reader at least, that there are a couple of main "types" of crime fiction these days. The new, unusual, clever idea stuff that breaks new ground and the tried and tested world of old ground. The problem with the old ground version is that it's sometimes very easy to sound like same old same old. Which adage most definitely does not apply to STILLWATER.
Here we have a man from a troubled, difficult childhood, who is attempting redemption and a new start, but is dragged back into the world of drugs, violence and standover men as a result of a chance encounter, and that past. It's oldish ground definitely, but in STILLWATER it's delivered with aplomb, with an engaging central character, with a few twists to his life that are just different enough, and a backstory and potential future that the reader is really able to get on board with. No matter what he has to do to ensure it happens.
Years spent away from Melbourne allowed Luke Harris to reinvent himself. New name, new career, new potential. After his much loved mother died of a drug overdose, and his very estranged father stepped in, he's been mostly raising himself from the age of 10. In and out of various schools, houses and foster care, his father Quin's a real loser. Would be musician, petty criminal and general idiot, he's tied at the hip to his lifelong friend Kevin, whose mother, turns out to be a very small bit of stability in young Luke's life of chaos, violence and madness. Until brutal criminal and opportunist Gus Alberici steps in. Luke soon finds himself as a general dogsbody for Alberici, who in turn provides him with boxing lessons, money, and some (granted weird) sense of stability. Until things get impossible and Luke makes a run for it, and a new identity, new life.
Which, for reasons that sort of make sense and then again you think what the hell are you doing, means he finds himself back in Melbourne, new name, new University course, working in disability support and care. Here you see a different side of a very calm, caring young man who steps into a fractured family situation with a difficult to manage Autistic adult son, Phil, a distant and quite nasty father, and a young, very attractive daughter Emma. And an encounter on a night out that brings Alberici back into the picture, dragging Luke into the hunt for his father and his best mate.
Lot happening then, the pace is high in this one, as is the violence. These are people who shoot, punch and generally belt their way out of situations that involve dodgy goings on, large amounts of cash, complicated debts and connections, and a lot of past sins / future jeopardy. All of which Luke is trying to tiptoe around, whilst studying a Commerce / Accounting degree, falling for the wrong girl, and annoying Alberici and the girl's father sometimes in equal measure.
The action moves backwards and forwards through time, and place, with father and son initially living with Kevin and his mum, spending holidays and time away at Kevin's block up in Castlemaine, then back in Melbourne and forward in time, at Luke's scruffy old St Kilda flat, to his job in a posh house in Brighton, and time in cars. Lots of time in cars, chasing people, doing "jobs" for Alberici, running around looking for Quin and Kevin (who Alberici wants found - in a hurry). All while Luke just really wants a normal life, a place to call home, and a dog. Oh and the girl, it turns out, would be nice as well.
The pace really works in STILLWATER, as do the characterisations (worth noting the author is a doctor and medical educator with years of experience working in mental health care). Luke is capable of absorbing a ridiculous amount of physical damage, yet his calmness, control and focus make a lot of that believable. He's also a very engaging person, aware of the damage that has bought him to this place, and the causes of that trauma, his hyper-independence identified, discussed, out there for him to understand and work with. He's as in control of a bad situation as he can possibly be, although there are times when you can't help but think this is not going to turn out well. For who, and how is what makes this such a roller-coaster of a ride.