Every day across Australia and around the world news broadcasts include reports of accidents and emergencies, often evoking an morbid curiosity among viewers.

In The Application of Pressure, by debut novelist Rachael Mead, the tragic, miraculous and irresistible are mixed with the weird and wonderful in a gripping narrative that is confronting and emotionally charged.

Each chapter represents an individual emergency for Tash and Joel, career paramedics, best friends and sometime partners, who meander through the suburbs of Adelaide, ready to respond to the next call out at a moment’s notice. As they work, the duo rely on a shared tendency toward graveyard humour to stay sane during their high intensity operations.

As their careers progress, the cumulative stress of exposure to carnage, disaster, pain and death begins to take its toll on their physical and mental health, and on their relationships.

Fast-paced and fascinating, graphic yet never gratuitously so, The Application of Pressure is a perceptive examination of frontline emergency services, a homage to those individuals whose dedication and skills save lives every day, and a sensitive reflection on the restorative powers of friendship.

Reviewed by Maureen Eppen