Lachy works internationally, but when his teenaged son needs him, he returns to Australia to take custody and have time out. He has been troubled by things that have happened at work, and he will be closer to his mother who has dementia. Lachy has issues with his own memory, struggling to process a strange request for a DNA test from the USA, and contacts from police there regarding a hit and run case. Has he committed a crime he cannot remember?

When he fails to remember anything about an act of bravery that makes him a local hero, and tries to cover this up, his worried son Kai calls his aunt Sheridan, who arrives with her family. When one of Sheridan’s children finds and consumes drugs hidden by Kai, it tears the family apart.

This is an ambitious novel, trying to juggle the stories of Lachy, Kai and Sheridan. It also revisits the story of their mother, now suffering from dementia, through a change in time narrative, telling how she once lived in the USA with her strict Pastor Father and how she came to Australia. And woven into this is the continuing themes of what our DNA can tell us, for better or for worse, and how memories are such an integral part of who we are.

Unfortunately, I found the complexity of the story is its weakness. It is difficult to keep track of all the threads of the story, and ultimately when the mystery is revealed, it is not a surprise to me.

Reviewed by Lesley West