I have enjoyed all of Margaret Hickey’s intelligent and engaging additions to the ‘Bush Noir’ genre, and this is no exception.

Ten years ago, the small mountain town of Edenville in Victoria’s high country was rocked by the horrific murders of five hikers. Also found dead near the scene was Bill ‘Creeper’ Durant, a loner from a notorious local family of misfits, skilled deer-hunter, and known for stalking and frightening campers and chasing them off his land. The only survivor had hidden from the killer and could tell the authorities nothing other than of her terror, so the official conclusion was that it was murder-suicide and the case neatly closed.

But as the 10-year anniversary of the massacre draws near, and the survivor announces she is returning to the town to make a documentary, Detective Constable Sally White, the recently appointed and sole police officer at the town’s station, finds herself drawn into the dark world of the anti-social Durant family. Lex Durant has returned to the area and has started to publicly protest his brother’s innocence, accusing the police of persecution before and after the event. What he has to say plants a few seeds of doubt in Sally, but her superiors believe this a tragic, but open-and-shut case. Nonetheless, in light of the documentary and possible media scrutiny on the anniversary, Sally is instructed to comb through the investigation materials to ensure that everything was indeed above board and proper, but it becomes all too clear that each murdered hiker had possible enemies in their past, and perhaps something was missed after all.

This is quite the ride, an entertaining, very clever and methodical police procedural, while highlighting both the claustrophobia of living in a small community with long-term residents and revisiting a cold case.

Reviewed by Lesley West

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Hickey is an award-winning author and playwright from North East Victoria. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is deeply interested in rural lives and communities. She is the author of Cutters End, Stone Town and Broken Bay.

Her novel, The Creeper, was released in August 2024.