Greta, Joel and their three sons arrive at Joel’s family property in the Northern Territory. They are a family who move around a lot, never settling too long in one place. Joel’s brother Mick has offered them six months’ work – fixing up the property and building tourist cabins. Greta is looking forward to a different experience for her children.

However, what she finds is a burnt-out family homestead, a poisoned dam, a haunting landscape and a lifetime of secrets. She has never pried into Joel’s past, nor he into hers. But this land unlocks something in them, turning what had seemed a respectful silence into wilful concealment. Joel doesn’t talk about the deaths of his mother and sister, how he got the scars on his body or why the family homestead caught fire. Greta also has secrets of her own that she has spent a lifetime running away from. Greta becomes more unsettled by the landscape and when she glimpses a mysterious girl living rough this further exacerbates her feelings.

She will discover that some secrets can’t be outrun.

This Australian Gothic novel builds a sense of dread and unease as it unfolds the parallel mysteries of Greta’s and Joel’s pasts. Although I found the pacing a little slow and the two-dimensional characters didn’t fully engage me, the Northern Territory setting is evocative and the past secrets intriguing.

Reviewed by Melinda Woledge