Remote landscapes are often the source of legends and sometimes have the power to summon up irrational fears. In the wilderness of Tasmania’s Great Western Tiers, where the misty, impenetrable Bluffs tower above the residents of a small country town, a group of schoolgirls on a school hike disappear. Shades of Picnic at Hanging Rock? Only this time a legend has evolved about a Hungry Man who takes girls that walk alone by the mountain trees. In 1985, five girls were taken in the same area and never found.

In the spine-tingling prologue their teacher, Eliza, is alone, facedown in the gravel of the hiking track. The back of her head is bleeding. Four girls have disappeared.

Murphy’s daughter Jasmine, is one of the missing girls. In his desperate attempt to find Jasmine himself, he becomes a loose cannon, running foul of the police in charge, and assaulting those who impede his progress.

Detective Con Badenhorst heads up the case. He struggles with trauma stress and has to contend with a local policeman who wants to bring Murphy down. There’s brilliant characterisation of good versus bad cop issues.

Kyle Perry is a youth counsellor so his plots and characters bristle with real life. He explores the power of social media for evil through the high school YouTube queen, who manipulates her friends and the Indigenous legends of the area to increase her popularity. Perry has been lost in Tasmanian mountains twice, and seen strange things that defy explanation. His atmospheric description of landscape is vivid and chilling and the legend of the Hungry Man raises its fearful head.

This is an intricately woven, cerebrally stimulating tale with many false leads and surprises leading to a suspenseful, unpredictable end. An ambitious and enjoyable debut.

Reviewed by Judith Grace