When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole (Geoff Parkes, Penguin)

Set in Aotearoa New Zealand, Geoff Parkes’ debut crime novel, When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, is a twisting thriller that explores the shadows that lurk behind the quaint façade of a small town and exposes the dangerous people who can hide in plain sight. In the early 1980s in the fictional town of Nashville, King Country, a young Finnish seasonal worker, Sanna Sovernen, has gone missing without a trace. Meanwhile, the recent unsolved disappearance of another backpacker is still fresh in the minds of the local community. A year after Sanna vanishes, her sister Emilia arrives in town to find answers and teams up with Sanna’s former lover, local wool presser Ryan Bradley. Together, they begin to ruffle feathers and discover that there is more than one person with an axe to grind. Parkes’ narrative sometimes feels weighed down by its multiple storylines—which are explored in depth in some cases yet barely revisited in others, with little impact on the central plot. I found that this distracted from the central dual timelines—before and after Sanna’s disappearance—and left several loose ends by the novel’s conclusion. However, Parkes has crafted some excellent characters who carry the story through its many twists and turns, culminating in a tense, final confrontation. The stunning King Country landscape and scenery also imbue the story with a real atmospheric sense of place. Fans of Chris Hammer, J P Pomare and Alan Carter will enjoy this gripping debut.

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.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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