Canticle Creek

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an entertaining and engrossing novel. Hyland has written the ideal story for a long, hot summer, where fire always seems a possibility.’ ― The Canberra Times All of these elements, together with a few well-placed twists, combine to make Canticle Creek another enjoyable Australian rural noir procedural. Robert Goodman The action steps up, and at one point, just when I thought everything was wrapping up on a pretty good yarn, it heats up again and gets even better. When Northern Territory cop, Constable Jesse Redpath, hears the news of Adam Lawson's death she's devastated. Despite Lawson being a well-known local criminal, police officer Jesse had always believed there was more to Adam Lawson than petty crime. So much so, she found work for him and when the chips were down, Jesse stood up to the magistrate on Lawson's behalf. However, Jesse, despite everything she did, can't help but feel responsible for Adam's death. Even more so when she discovers Lawson is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Daisy, before accidentally running off the road and brutally ending his own life. Jesse feels her only course of action is to visit Canticle Creek herself and try to put things right. But when Jesse arrives and starts asking probing questions, the small town clams up. Jesse's arrival and subsequent off-the-books investigation certainly ruffles a few feathers! Because the people of Canticle Creek have secrets of their own. Secrets they will do anything to keep... The rural crime fiction wave continues with this brilliant new arid drama.’ - Australian Women's Weekly

When Jesse heard through her boss that Adam had been found not far from Melbourne in Victoria, she wasn’t prepared to hear he was dead. She also wasn’t prepared to hear he’d murdered a woman and had crashed a stolen car into a tree while fleeing the town. Jesse was certain the Adam she knew wouldn’t have a bar of killing, so she and her dad headed for Melbourne, then a small town about an hour north-east of there, called Canticle Creek, to unofficially look into the deaths. Hyland, a seasoned firefighter, ensures the climactic inferno takes your breath away. More please.’ - The TimesI chose to read and review a free eARC of Canticle Creek. The above review is my own unbiased opinion. Jesse was told that the evidence against Adam was clear and that the case was fairly conclusive, but after reading all the police reports, she just wasn’t convinced; She knew this boy, and didn’t believe that he was capable of these crimes…nor was her father convinced.

Jesse Redpath has a new job in a new town, Satellite – the stormy weather that greets her first few days on the new beat seems like a sign for what’s to come. A local has died in what seems like an accident, but Jessie isn’t so sure that ‘accident’ wasn’t planned. All evidence seems to point to Nash, but Jessie’s not sure about that either. Fire is never far from people’s minds and lingers as a threat throughout the book until Hyland uses his knowledge and experience to bring its dangers vividly and viscerally to life.Jesse Redpath is a good cop working in the remote Northern Territory town of Kulara, at the top of Australia. Change plays an important role too. Nadia wants to change her life; Sam suddenly broadens his artistic horizons so late in life and Dom wants to redevelop the area to boost the local economy. At the same time there are those resistant to change and what it entails, the logging that scars the landscape and building work that destroys natural flora and fauna. Daisy Baker’s love of nature is clear from her artwork and activism, her murder was not the senseless crime it first appears. Seemingly disparate elements all skilfully woven into a storyline that is cautionary and modern but also with a rich vein of old-fashioned power and greed running through it. So much for the city folk. But while admiring Takada’s painting, they meet his daughter, Lucy, with her husband Sam and teen-aged daughter Possum. They invite Ben and Jesse to visit the Bluehouse, their home, if they’re ever in the Canticle Creek area. The readers of Canticle Creek will learn about how small communities can interact with each other. Also, the readers will understand that they can not save everyone if they do not want to help themselves. Trying to help likeable young tearaway Adam Lawson find a better future, Northern Territory police woman, Jesse Redpath convinced a judge to suspend his sentence provided he took a job at the local roadhouse and a room at her father’s house nearby. With her father being a well-known artist, she also hoped he would encourage Adam to take his obvious artistic talent more seriously. However, a week later Adam had run away, following a woman he met to Victoria and three months after that Jesse heard he had died in a car crash after murdering a woman called Daisy Baker and stealing her car. Knowing this didn’t sound like the Adam she knew, Jesse and her Dad headed to Canticle Creek, the small Victorian town where Adam had been living to find out more about what happened.

I quite enjoyed this Aussie crime novel. I found the lead character, Jesse, a likeable and intelligent character. When Jesse hears that Adam is dead and allegedly killed a woman, she and her dad head to Canticle Creek to find out more because they knew Adam and can't believe that he would commit murder. There they meet some intriguing characters including artists, welcoming families, aggressive loggers and ex drug addicts. With some very tense scenes, Jesse is determined to find out what really happened in relation to Adam's death, and someone else out there is equally determined that she doesn't... Adrian Hyland is the award-winning author of Diamond Dove, Gunshot Roadand Kinglake-350, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fiction in 2012.His books have been published internationally, including in Britain and the US, and translated into a variety of languages, including German, French, Swedish and Czech.Award winning Australian author Adrian Hyland makes a return to the publishing scene with Canticle Creek, an evocative and tense crime fiction novel. In the midst of a scorching Australian summer, a policewoman, Jesse Redpath, finds herself outside of her jurisdiction. She’s trying to find out whether the local police’s initial conclusions are true: that Adam, someone she believed in and vouched for, has just murdered a woman and killed himself. This investigation will lead her to the discovery of many local secrets… and straight into a literal inferno.

It’s been a decade since I have read Adrian Hyland’s Gunshot Road and Diamond Dove yet both Australian crime novels remain favourites, so I jumped at the opportunity to read Canticle Creek.

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When two dead bodies are discovered, the local police are convinced that Adam Lawson, a stranger to town is guilty. It appears to be an open and shut case. Adam murdered Daisy and while escaping the scene he killed himself by running a stolen car off the road. However, Jess Redpath – not a local to Canticle Creek – knows Adam and she does not believe him capable of murder. Enduring the unbearable local heat, Jess is determined to prove that Adam did not murder Daisy… however, as she digs, she uncovers a lot more than she thought she would. When Jesse starts to ask awkward questions, she uncovers a town full of contradictions and a cast of characters with dark pasts, secrets to hide and even more to lose. Hyland frames his plot and murder mystery well, issuing his readers with plenty of plot stops, turns, detours, secrets, codes, suspects to consider and disputes to settle. My response rate went up and down with this one, but I think Canticle Creek would be ideal for seasoned readers of Australian crime noir. I thought the mystery was quite original, and I loved most of the characters, especially Jesse and Possum. The only thing that was hard to swallow was that a police officer from another jurisdiction would be so well tolerated in the middle of a murder investigation. But as long as you can accept that, it's a fast-paced, satisfying ride. Another thing I really enjoyed was the incorporation of visual art and conservation in the storyline, giving Hyland's writing the opportunity to shine as he describes the paintings and the environment. Full of questions, Jesse travels to the area of the crash, just to make sure what local police say happened is what really went down – and that she didn’t just let a murderer run free to Victoria. What she finds in Canticle Creek are a whole lot more questions, along with breathtaking surrounds, talented artists, nosy teenagers on horses, drug dealers, roadside assaults, blazing fires – well, you get it. It’s everything you need for a rural police thriller, and a hell of a lot more, too.