Barney Clarke is woken by the arrival of the police on his front doorstep. They want to dig up his back yard. Leonie Wallace is getting little Joe his breakfast, when she sees through her kitchen window the commotion next door. She has been waiting for this day for a long time.

It’s 1991 and Clarke, a regional city with a country town vibe, has been haunted by the disappearance of Ginny Lawson. Leonie and fellow neighbours of Calboonya Avenue know that something terrible has happen to Ginny at the hands of her husband. With no evidence, and alleged sightings of Ginny elsewhere, the case has been treated as a missing person, until now, some five years later.

There are plenty of mysteries in Calboonya Avenue. Barney wears a wedding ring but lives alone in a rented house. Leonie lives with four-year-old Joe, but where is Joe’s mother? And there is Earl, who spends a lot of time on his front porch smoking, drinking and watching … everything. As the police continue to dig up more and more of Barney’s yard the tension builds.

There is only implied violence in this novel, that may, or may not, have taken place. It’s a very character-focused novel, with slow and measured pacing at the beginning but, as the digging continues, the pace gradually picks up.

The prose is light, but well targeted – no lengthy descriptions here – and yet I could visualise these characters so vividly. Throsby’s writing is in the style of ‘show and not tell’, incorporating ‘a slice of life’ narrative style, which I found very engaging. The ending was satisfying, but I did not see the twist coming.

Holly Throsby is a singer/songwriter as well a novelist, whose previous two books have been short– and long-listed for various awards. Throsby is also the daughter of ABC Radio presenter, Margaret Throsby.

I loved this book. Throsby is a natural born storyteller.

Reviewed by Teresa Lewis

Read reviews for Holly Throsby’s previous books here.

Follow Holly Throsby on Instagram here.