Untitled
The third instalment in B. Michael Radburn's Taylor Bridges series takes us to the Dharug National Park, in the Hawkesbury River region of NSW's central coast.
In the course of documenting an archaeological dig at (fictional) Devlins Reach on the Hawkesbury River, a Sydney photojournalist stumbles across the remains of three men, whose mutilations suggest that a particularly vicious serial killer may be active in the area.
Newly promoted Detective Sergeant Ryan Everett is dispatched to the scene, in advance of a full contingent from the NSW Crime Command and Forensics Services. Junior constable Neve Fisher is already in attendance, guarding the crime scene. Meanwhile, in eastern Victoria, Park Ranger Taylor Bridges receives a request from NSW police to assist. On arrival in Devlin's Reach, he meets Jaimie Barlow, the parks ranger stationed at Dharug National Park, and liaises with D.S. Everett over how they should proceed. An approaching severe storm prevents the expected police backup from reaching them and requires the removal of evidence from the crime scene, before the river level rises and the whole area is flooded. Making the best of a difficult situation, Everett and Bridges team up to begin investigating the murders, with Fisher and Barlow's assistance.
Devlin's reach is an insular community, built around the river ferry and logging activity in the hills behind the town. The locals are suspicious of the incoming police and reticent to provide any helpful information. When another man is brutally murdered after leaving the local hotel, the tension rises, as the weather worsens.
Bridges and Everett begin to build tenuous relationships with some of the locals, uncovering decades of troubling history at Devlins Reach - the abduction of two young girls from a now closed children's home, the unexplained disappearances of several workers from the logging camp and a vengeful presence, watching and waiting in the bushland surrounding them.
B. Michael Radburn's depictions of his Australian bushland settings are really high quality, with the landscape and weather closely interwoven with his plots. While I'm not familiar with this area myself, I found Radburn's writing brought to life the scrubby hillsides, dilapidated bush tracks and struggling town on the banks of the river.
The central and supporting characters are also well-developed and believable. The paranormal element, in that Taylor's surviving child Erin purports to pass prescient messages to him from his deceased older daughter, Claire, is an intriguing sub-plot, but doesn't detract from the central investigative plot line. Radburn is insightful in depicting Taylor's inner dialogue, as well as that of D.S. Everett, who feels completely out of his depth at various stages of the investigation. The Devlins Reach locals, including the drunkard ferry operator and his two rather helpful and willing young sons, Taylor's loquacious host at the local cafe-cum-B&B and the irascible loggers whose work is on hold due to the storm, are three-dimensional and convincing. Radburn has also managed to incorporate his own recreational interest in Harley Davidson motorcycles into the plot on this occasion.
However, I found that I really had to suspend my disbelief with regard to several aspects of the plot. While the setting is wild and it's believable that some areas might be temporarily inaccessible during periods of bad weather and high water, the isolation depicted overstretched reality. The Dharug National Park is a little over an hour's drive from the Sydney CBD, and even in the most inclement weather, it's inconcievable that a full murder team wouldn't be dispatched within hours to secure the scene of a triple homicide. Of course, that would ruin the premise of Radburn's story, but it did bug me, as did several other aspects of the plot, as well as the behaviour and motivations attributed to certain characters, which I won't detail due to spoilers.
Like other reviewers, the limited cast of characters meant that I'd indentified the most likely murderer very early, and was proven correct. Nevertheless, it was an action-packed and thrilling read, with a few shocking turns of events and twists right up until the final pages.
I'd recommend The Reach to readers who enjoy well-plotted Aussie noir, but would warn that this may not be a suitable book for all readers, due to the frequent references to child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Sarah, 05/02/2021
