From the winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction.
When Toby Bowman vanishes, his brother Lachlan retraces a road trip to the last place Toby phoned from – a remote northern town called Jasper Cliff. There, Lachlan finds himself marooned at the dying town’s pub, and soon learns that his brother is just one of many to have gone missing in recent years. Like Toby, his brother becomes obsessed with finding the Rift, a deep hole in a ravine somewhere in the hills. But what will Lachlan learn, and what will he see, if he stares into the Rift, too?
(4/5)
Josh Kemp has succeeded in maintaining an ongoing sense of foreboding and rising dread throughout his novel. The descriptive passages of the harsh but beautiful landscape are excellent. The relentless heat is also well described, I could sense the sweltering conditions as the tension increased in each chapter of the story. The characters in the book have strong individual personalities; most have been affected by the many mysterious disappearances of their family members and friends from the town. The author has aptly portrayed the impact on those characters and their various reactions to those disappearances.
I was fully engaged with the story. The only minor negative I encountered was the contrast in language used throughout the book – sometimes the author uses slang or jargon, yet at other times adopts words that are not in common use – e.g. “splenetic” and “caliginous”.
Overall it was a compelling story that kept my interest to the last page. The book will appeal to readers who enjoy contemporary Australian fiction. There is also a supernatural element in the novel that will appeal to readers of that genre.
(3/5)
I loved how the author described the landscape of the Pilbara region in this story. I’ve never visited this part of Australia yet somehow while reading this felt like I was actually there. The words he used to describe the scenery were just perfect and made you feel like part of the story more. The characters I found were unique however I felt maybe there could have been more in depth knowledge about them as it felt you didn’t really know them that well. When the story ended I still wanted to know more about the characters in the book. The undercurrent of violence was there in the story however it wasn’t dumbed down like in other books I’ve read and went well with the location of being a small isolated town. Linking the awful past and history of the Indigenous people with the current times, I thought was written very well and I enjoyed how the book made me ponder over the emotions I experienced. If gothic Australian fiction is your thing you will love this story. I did enjoy it but probably not as much as other books I’ve read.
(5/5)
Josh Kemp’s evocative writing enables you to feel fully immersed in the landscape. The vivid descriptions of the environment mirrored the emotions of the characters that added to the tension that I felt built through the novel. This was a bit of a slow burner, but the way the story evolved kept me hooked right to the end.
(4/5)
Jasper Cliff by Josh Kemp is an engaging read, that keeps the reader thinking and wondering right until the very last page. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from Jasper Cliff or Josh Kemp, with this being Josh’s second novel and not having read his debut novel, as this wouldn’t normally be a book I would pick up and read if I saw it at the bookstore, but I am glad I did.
Jasper Cliff is a gripping read, that kept me hooked all throughout. Right from the start, up until the very end. All throughout, you’re cheering on Lachlan and hoping Glan is a good guy.
I really enjoyed Jasper Cliff by Josh Kemp, it kept me wanting more and for the book to not end. I look forward to reading more from Josh Kemp.
(3/5)
Jasper Cliff didn’t quite work for me as a book. There are many great elements; it’s easy to feel the heat of the little outback town, the stress of missing loved ones and the mystery of the fate of Toby. The book is very atmospheric. One can imagine the little town, with its soaring temperatures and lack of facilities. For me though, sometimes there just wasn’t a great deal happening. The ending also left me unsatisfied.
(3/5)
An odd start to the book with an odd finish. Reading the start twice I wondered where the book was going. Once I got into chapter 2, the characters became known and my interest perked up. Reading in the tiny outback town there is nothing to do except stay out of the heat of the day by sitting in the shade of the veranda of the dying pub.
Lachlan is in search of his missing brother. He ends up marooned in the town and finds out that a number of locals are also missing. Lachlan angers me. If your brother is missing, move, do something, but he seems to enter the relaxed attitude of the locals by sitting on the veranda, doing nothing. Only twice did he go in search of his brother.
Nothing happens for the locals and reading the book, nothing happens for me.
This book may be of interest to some and I hope you may get more out of it than I did.
(5/5)
Josh Kemp has written a novel that goes beyond “outback noir”. This gothic novel is set in Jasper Cliff, a fiction town in the Pilbara. From the moment you commence this novel you feel a sense of place; the oppressive heat of the town and the beauty and malevolence of the landscape “…..he tries to imagine the tree’s taproot, plunging metres down into some hidden aquifer deep in hot rock”.
Our central character, Lachlan goes to Jasper Cliff in search of his missing brother Toby. In the town he meets a series of characters who are deftly portrayed. They are all dealing with their own issues and it is apparent others have missing loved ones from the town. The paradoxical Glen is a fascinating character and one that can’t be written about too much without revealing spoilers.
As I read this in cold Melbourne, through the evocative writing I could feel the heat, smell the sweat of humans and animals and smell the trees through the hot concrete and bitumen of the town. “The Rift’ out of town holds the answers to many of the secrets that become apparent throughout the story. The tension builds on each page from the opening paragraph before reaching its horrifying conclusions.
I highly recommend this powerful and compelling story.
(4/5)
From the 1st page, you know that the weather and the land will be a dominating theme. They both play an important role in how the characters interact with each other and how they view and cope with what happens.
Jasper Cliff is a dying town, services/shops have gone, the high hot temperatures make it very difficult to do anything and the only people living there are those who have nowhere else to go. Lachlan comes to the town looking for his brother Toby, who is missing. He wants to get results quickly but this isn’t going to happen. At first, he fights the listlessness and lethargy caused by the weather looking for answers, but slowly he accepts that he must learn to live in this environment.
By visiting the Rift, where the intruder lives, Lachlan is given an answer to his brother’s disappearance, but Pippa’s (his brother’s girlfriend) has been given another. Which one is the right one?
This book hooks you in and when you finish it you want more.
(2/5)
Initially I thought I would enjoy this book, the opening pages had me intrigued. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, I found it harder to want to pick the book up.
Although I found the characters interesting, I found the dreams or hallucinations took away from the story and made it confusing.
I DNF’d the book at about 50% in.
(3/5)
“Jasper Cliff” was certainly a leap out of my comfort zone. Described as Gothic Literature, it is set in Kemp’s professed loved landscape, East Pilbara. Lachlan Bowman arrives in the area searching for his lost brother Toby. His brother’s last sighting is a dying, dark town occupied by desperate souls who all appear to have suffered the mysterious loss of loved ones.
Like Toby, Lachlan becomes obsessed with finding a mystical, local legendary landmark known as “The Rift” where truths can be revealed to those who dare find it.
Kemp’s vivid narrative of the harsh, unrelenting, landscape is colourful, beautiful and at times brutal, capturing the essence and heat with uncanny accuracy.
His relationship develops with the unlikely group of locals and as the book progresses there is a sinister, growing sense of dread as we discover their secrets and also confront the atrocities endured by First Nations owners of this land.
Jasper Cliff is confronting, contains supernatural and violent themes. Though not my usual genre, I was hooked until the end – and found myself thinking about it for quite a few days. Not for the faint hearted, but a unique, heartfelt portrayal of our country, past and present.
(4/5)
Jasper Cliff by Josh Kemp is an unsettling horror/crime novel set in remote outback Australia. When Lachlan’s brother Toby goes missing, Lachlan heads to the last place he was seen – Jasper Cliff. There he immerses himself in the outback lifestyle with a strange group of locals while searching for his brother. The author draws the readers into a thick, dark & mysterious atmosphere with a murderer and also a strange place in the outback referred to as ‘The Rift’. This book was amazing and left me with a really unsettled feeling. I don’t read a lot of horror but I found this one hard to put down!
(5/5)
I loved Josh’s debut novel Banjawarn and was delighted to get a copy of Jasper Cliff. The cover art gave a hint of what was to come, and it didn’t disappoint. The novel sucked me into the sweltering heat of the ‘Cliff’ from the first page and I kept thinking about the characters long after I put it down. Jasper Cliff evokes images of Wake in Fright and has the same undertones of violence and isolation. Kemp’s love of the red dirt landscape is evident in the novel and the beauty of it shines through in his stunning descriptions. He cleverly weaves the past and present into a cohesive narrative that drew me into a world where the supernatural doesn’t seem out of place, where what appears benign on the surface is not underneath.
(5/5)
This book was quite unlike anything I have ever read before; it was unsettling from the very first chapter and I think that is part of the reason that I loved it so much. I will certainly be reading Josh Kemp’s debut novel, Banjawarn next.
The book describes the tiny outback town of Jasper Cliff; an oppressively hot place where the “summer might cook the earth like a roast chicken” and where a number of the local townspeople have gone missing over the years. Entering the story is Lachlan Bowman who is looking for his missing brother Toby who was last seen in Jasper Cliff. Lachlan meets the local townspeople and learns of a mysterious location known as the Rift that might answer the questions both he and the townspeople seek.
The story is set in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia and this was another thing that I particularly enjoyed as I can’t remember ever having read another book that has been set in this often inhospitable region of Australia. Josh has completely captured the sweltering 40 plus degree Celsius heat of the location of Jasper Cliff, a place not far from Marble Bar one of the hottest locations in Australia; which doesn’t only affect the characters physically but also mentally; affecting sleep, causing irritability and even hallucinations.
Overall I found Jasper Cliff an interesting and enjoyable read which complements the ancient stories and landscapes of the region and I am sure it will appeal to other readers who enjoy Crime and/or Gothic Fiction.
Thank you to Good Reading and Fremantle Press for providing me with a copy of this book to review.
(5/5)
Jasper Cliff fascinated me from page one to the very end. Being familiar with South Australian outback remote townships and the endless heat, so much of the picture of Western Australia’s outback that Josh painted felt recognisable. Especially the heat, the never-ending, relentless, oppressive heat that not only changes the way you live life but also the way you think, perceive things and make decisions. I haven’t ever read a book that captures it so well. Lachlan’s slow acceptance of the change of pace and the way of life, as he comes to terms with having to wait and not having immediate aid or answers available tells a story for us.
The character of Glen was my favourite – I felt like I knew him without knowing much at all and his unpredictability kept the pages turning. Alternately being repulsed by him and being surprised by his empathy made him intriguing and I had no idea where it was all going to end.
I love crime fiction but not so much the supernatural side of things and was not quite sure how it would work in this setting, but it did. A great twist to a familiar genre.
(4/5)
The first thing that struck me about Jasper Cliff by Josh Kemp was how beautifully poetic the prose was, typically missing from mystery/outback noir novels. Due to this, Kemp has been incredibly successful in conveying the landscape in vivid detail, making it a character in its own right throughout the story.
Mixing Gothicism with Outback Noir, Jasper Cliff tells the story of Lachlan as he searches for his missing brother, Toby. Lachlan is written with care and the reader can really feel themselves rooting for his success. In general, though, this is one of Kemp’s strengths – he is able to make you find some common ground with all the characters (even the horrible ones!)
All in all, Jasper Cliff is a compelling read and follow up to award winning Banjawarn. For me, the ending was missing something, but overall, it was an easy, enjoyable ride from start to finish.
(3/5)
Jasper Cliff is a book full of mystery and the setting is captivating, drawing the reader in to consider the natural environment as an additional character. There are many human characters within the book who are lost and seeking answers or truth, even though this may be out of reach to them. I was intrigued by the small town set up, in which everyone is in each other’s business. This made for interesting reading as the story developed, and the various secrets started to come to light. There were times where the switch to a different point of view partway through a chapter took some time to adjust to. There were also other supporting characters that I thought would have added to the story, if their points of view had been used. Overall, I found Jasper Cliff to be worth the read and I look forward to seeing what other future books Josh Kemp goes on to write.
(5/5)
A well-paced story that weaves Outback Australian life with a mix of horror and gothic suspense. Jasper Cliff unfolds as Lachlan retraces the last moments of his missing brothers’ life in a remote town. Full of unique characters, we are lead into the harsh realities of a small town people surviving amidst an ancient and sometimes foreboding landscape. Jasper Cliff is definitely outside my usual scope for fiction but made for compelling reading and had me on the edge of my seat till the end. A great debut novel.
(4/5)
Thanks to Good Reading for allowing me to read this ARC. Jasper Cliff is a page turner. It is a mystery embedded in a love affair of the beauty of nature, in the remoteness of a small town in Western Australia. It shows friendship and kindness that people can rely on in small, isolated and forgotten places. The love of the land shines through the story and how it hypnotizes many of the characters in different ways. Finally it is a haunting story of the dangers of the Australian past, of others and how the land hides some stories and exposes others. Jane Harper meets Mark Brandi, Josh Kemp’s book Jasper Cliff keeps you wanting to know more.
(4/5)
Deep in the outback, there is the Rift, a place where you may see, if it allows and chooses you, into the past where violent events happened. This is what Toby Bowman was searching for when he mysteriously vanished without a word to anyone.
As Lachlan Bowman searches for his lost brother, it becomes apparent that things are not what they seem in the last place Toby was seen, in Jasper Cliff.
Jasper Cliff is a story of finding lost things, the insufferable heat of the outback, and waiting. Waiting for decision, a thought, the next thing, or just some relief from the suffocating heat.
This was an enjoyable read with characters that are so well written that I felt I knew them, and setting so well narrated that you can feel the heat of the desert around you.
(3/5)
Dark thriller set in the harsh Aussie outback by emerging Australian author Josh Kemp.
Lachlan has travelled to the outback in the hopes of finding his brother, Toby, who has disappeared and with whom he shares a special bond, or so his grandmother used to tell them. Many have gone missing before Toby, but could it have something to do with the mysterious lands on which Lachlan now finds himself?
I could picture this novel’s characters and surroundings easily in my mind throughout. Although, at times the style is excessively descriptive and interrupted the flow of my read. Overall, a captivating read til the very end.
(4/5)
This was a real page turner.
Such descriptive locations of Lachlan’s journey made me feel like I was him all the way, and so involved in storyline. Weather and locations were believable. Very compelling and a good Aussie, well-written, dark and mysterious read.
I enjoyed this novel and will look out for more.