Karen
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?
More of this review on my website.
Originally posted at www.austcrimefiction.org.
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?
More of this review on my website.
Originally posted at www.austcrimefiction.org.