The Drowning (Bryan Brown, A&U)

The accidental drowning death of a local Gumbaynggirr boy—David, from whose viewpoint the book opens—brings a shadow of sadness over a small NSW coastal town. Then a backpacker doesn’t turn up for her shift at the main café in town. Odd, but not uncommon behaviour. Still, Sergeant Tommy Gallagher has ‘a nag’: Could these two incidents be connected? Bryan Brown’s latest book, The Drowning, has a bit of everything: surfing, murder, kidnapping, drugs, bikies, human trafficking and adultery. The book includes First Nations viewpoints and characters, and the author acknowledges individuals from the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative in Nambucca Heads and the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW in assisting him. Brown’s narrative style is unique, disruptive and yet recognisably Australian. The inner monologue of his characters carries the cadence and lilt of a coastal local, and you can almost hear Brown’s own voice coming through the writing. Although there is no central protagonist from one chapter to the next, or even from paragraph to paragraph, the ensemble cast of aging professionals, surfers and misfits works. As they find themselves unwittingly entangled in a series of crimes, each scrambles to hide their own skeletons in the closet before they are exposed. Meanwhile, they’re all grappling with the question: How well do they really know each other? The Drowning is a page-turning, multi-layered Australian crime thriller that will intrigue and satisfy fans of Chris Hammer, Dave Warner and Jock Serong.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Kate Frawley is a former bookseller and a librarian in training. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews