There have been a number of Australian crime fiction books recently that are tackling the effects of poverty / deprivation / loss and family breakdown in small towns, on small boys in particular. A TOWN CALLED TREACHERY is following, successfully, in the footsteps of authors like Mark Brandi and Stephen Orr, all three of whom have delved deeply, and sympathetically into damage, and resilience.
Life is very hard for eleven-year-old Matty Finnerty. Mother dead, father's absent even when he's around, and his grandfather is slipping further and further into dementia, he's not got a lot to be proud of, or to seemingly look forward to.
Which makes his chosen role-model an obvious, yet disconcerting choice. Stuart Dryden is a rundown, drunken journo, more attached to the pub (where he lives) than his job, his interest finally twigged by a grisly local murder. Or is it Matty, with his disposable Kodak camera and a way of sneaking in under people's guard that is intriguing him?
An unlikely pairing a ... friendship ... working relationship .... .something connects Dryden and Matty over, unfortunately, the murder of Matty's favourite teacher - Wendy. It's a bit more than just the photos that Matty manages to capture at the scene, it's a lot more than Matty's father being the town's prime suspect. And it's definitely nothing tacky or uncomfortable. Maybe Dryden's grateful when Matty's photos give him a chance for a bit of reputation restoration, and some career prospects. Maybe it's Matty seeing the possibility of a guide to the future. Probably it's more that two misfits with not a lot else in their lives stumbled across each other and somehow a friendship, as an unlikely as that may seem, formed. Maybe there's a bit of respect, especially as the investigation into poor Wendy's dreadful death, starts to flush some of the secrets many in the town have worked overtime to keep undercover.
The setting and feeling of small town life in A TOWN CALLED TREACHERY is spot on, with the complicated back stories, past connections, inter-generational problems and difficulties with economic hopelessness sadly believable.
The characters are perfectly imperfect, with ways in for most readers to find connection and understanding. That's not to say it's sugar coated. People in this book lead difficult lives and there are plenty of knock downs from which too many of them have to get back up again.
Now I just need to stop feeling so surprised that this is a debut. It's so assured, so clear, so beautifully written. This is an author to be watched.
A Town Called Treachery
A brutal murder in a town called Treachery? It's a story most journos would kill for, but for Stuart Dryden, it's a major inconvenience. He didn't take the gig at the local rag for its bustling crime beat. He'd sacrifice a career-making story for happy hour at the pub, but not even he can let a grisly murder through to the keeper. Especially when he keeps getting scooped by a persistent kid with a disposable Kodak.
Life's tough for eleven-year-old Matty Finnerty. His mother's gone, his father's gone most of the time and, as hard as he tries, he just can't get the kids at school to like him. When his favourite teacher Wendy Millburn turns up dead at the beach, it puts his dad Robbie in the crosshairs of a town that never liked him anyway.
Worse than the bricks through the window, the dead rabbits on the lawn and the fish heads in the mailbox is the fact no one seems to be looking for Wendy's killer. Matty starts to wonder whether Robbie knew her better than he's let on. He needs a hero, and Dryden will have to do - that is, if he can just stay sober for a night or two. He might even cast off the ghosts of his own past.
As they stumble their way to answers, can they find the truth about Wendy - and what they're really made of?
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