‘A body is found. And then another. And another.’
The novel opens in Brisbane in 1999. The Brisbane River is rising, the weather is hot and stormy, and the rain won’t stop. And then bodies are found near the Brisbane River. All men, all affluent, each with a family. Each has had his throat cut. The murders seem ritualised and they are gruesome. There’s a serial killer on the loose, and the tabloid headlines shout: THE VAMPIRE KILLER STRIKES AGAIN!
Detective Sergeant Lara Ocean and her partner, veteran Detective Billy Waterson work the case. Three suspects are identified, and Jennifer White, a seventeen-year-old girl, is arrested and convicted. But is she really the culprit? The evidence is flimsy, but the murders stop after Jennifer is arrested.
Twenty years later, Jennifer White is about to be released. Lara Ocean is now the Queensland Commissioner of Police; Billy Waterson has retired. Will the murders begin again? Can Lara find the truth?
There are a few twists in this story. I needed to concentrate at times to keep track of the characters as the story unfolds through a shifting first-person perspective.
I grew impatient with the middle part of this novel, between Jennifer’s conviction and release. But I very much enjoyed the characterisations of Lara Ocean and Billy Waterson.
And the killer? I suspect that some readers will be as surprised as I was, while others will work it out much earlier.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Tasmanian Bibliophile @Large 