The Safe House, Cameron Ward

A psychological thriller with a hefty dose of more than willing suspension of disbelief, THE SAFE HOUSE is one of those bare knuckle roller-coaster rides of a reading experience that may lead to a loss of sleep and a strong desire to avoid anywhere in the bush during long hot summers.

The novel starts out with Jess returning to her native Australia, taking a break from her job as an analyst with the London Metropolitan police. By way of a convoluted back story, she's accepted a stint as a caretaker of a luxury walled off property near Apollo Bay in the Otways region of Victoria, which is owned by a multi-millionaire tax fugitive. The back story is explained, it seems a bit odd, but then again, this is a thriller and some odd can often be expected. Anyway, as Jess heads towards her retreat, her mother, living on the other side of the bay is aware that she's on her own, a friend back in the UK knows what's going on, and it's summer, in the Otways, so there are large fires looming in the distance.

The house and its surrounds are indeed, epic. There's everything here - and it's luxurious and huge. But Jess isn't there on her own for long, as various stragglers, hikers, broken down camper van traveller's and eventually, people fleeing the encroaching bushfires make their way to the compound, and into what rapidly becomes a nightmarish situation - not just because the fires are heading their way. There's something very odd going on in this group as well, and needless to say Jess isn't too sure who to believe or trust, but definitely sure she's invited the enemy in. Although whose enemy and why isn't ever quite so clear.

Jess's sense of confusion and fear is shared with the reader as the tension and flat out weirdness of this situation ramps up. At the centre of all of this is a mysterious vault in the basement of the house, and that missing multi-millionaire. With each new arrival the atmosphere shifts, with each new threat, the potential answer becomes murkier, and as the fire gets closer, and the household gets tenser, and things just get more and more peculiar.

As a psychological thriller, it's important that the reader is able to have some sense of connection with somebody - and as the threats both from the fire, and the people within the house get more and more intense, Jess has the same problem. Her choices for connection, and hopefully, somebody who can a) help and b) not be part of the problem become more difficult to ascertain. The characterisation in this novel is really good - especially that of Jess. She's very easy to identify with, and cheer for, and many of the other "guests" very easy to distrust, which always leaves the question - who do you believe / who would you trust / what's going to happen to this group if the fires hit and teamwork is required to survive what is surely, a bigger, more immediate threat to them all.

Wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started THE SAFE HOUSE, and will admit to being very leery of yet another "oh but the evil lurking in the bush..." scenario. Which made the sense of real threat from fire, and the descriptions of the havoc inflicted by a bushfire of the size and ferocity depicted here very believable. Which meant that my focus shifted to a vault, a supposedly missing man, and a group of strangers, and how that all fitted together. Very well is the short version. Cracking pace & characters, crackling sense of threat and urgency, added up to a captivating thriller read.