Margaret Hickey hit the Australian crime fiction scene with Cutter’s End, the first of a (so far) three book series featuring South Australian detective Mark Ariti (also Stone Town and Broken Bay). In her latest book, The Creeper, Hickey is giving both Ariti and South Australia a rest as she moves the action to the Victorian high country and introduces a new protagonist – Senior Constable Sally White, the only officer at the Edenville police station.
The Creeper’s cold open has a couple out hiking on the steep slopes of Mount Razor. Things are not going well and get worse when the pair hear gunshots and screaming. Ten years later, Sally White has been posted to Edenville and is in a relationship with a local park ranger who was first on the scene of the tragedy in which five people were killed and the killer, Bill Durant, known as The Creeper, took his own life. As the anniversary of the killings approaches, Sally is contacted by Lex, the Bill’s brother and one of an infamous family. Lex asserts that the family was harassed by the police and that perhaps his brother was wrongly accused. With the support of her superiors who are keen to keep things quiet, Sally agrees to investigate. But when she does, Sally slowly begins to find holes in the original investigation. Meanwhile Sally is having to deal with her own problems in town which may or may not be related to her investigation.
Hickey clearly wants to try new things with Sally White. Sally is in her twenties, likes to party (a problem for the only police officer in a small town) and has what can only be called a complicated backstory that involves a criminal father and Police Commissioner stepfather. But she is also a competent investigator with effective networks for helping her reinvestigate the cold case of the Mount Razor killings but also the harassment she is experiencing in town.
The Victorian high country is well depicted here. A landscape of rugged mountains, dense forests and deep valleys, often covered in rain or shrouded in mist. But it also only a few hours drive from the urban sprawl of Melbourne, allowing Sally to easily also conduct inquiries in the city. As opposed to the arid outback, this part of the Australia has started to appear a little more recently including in Jane Harper’s Force of Nature and Adrian Hyland’s The Wiregrass.
Overall, as the pieces come together, Hickey shows her capacity to deliver a clever mystery anchored by a fresh, engaging police protagonist who, as it turns out, has a bit of a dark side. Given the baggage that Hickey has saddled her with, and some unresolved issues in town, it is likely that Sally White will have a few more books in which to work things out.
Robert Goodman
For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Canticle Creek (Adrian Hyland) – book review
- Shadow City (Natalie Conyer) – book review
- The Carnival is Over (Greg Woodland) – book review
Robert Goodman is a book reviewer, former Ned Kelly Awards judge and institutionalised public servant based in Sydney. This and over 450 more book reviews can be found on his website Pile By the Bed.
