[usr 3]
Holly Throsby’s CLARKE is an engaging and perceptive contemporary story based in rural Australia in 1991, with a mystery that carries the novel forward. The characters, both the main and peripheral, are well rounded, so that you move back and forth effortlessly, to try and discover ‘who did it’. There is more than one question and secret to be answered in the small country town of Clarke.
The book begins rather like the podcast ’Teachers Pet’ (Lynette Dawson’s disappearance/murder) with police coming to dig up the backyard of Barney Clarke. All the local characters are quietly introduced and all have theories about the missing woman, as well as other puzzles and their own mysteries that need solving.
Overall, the book is not as ‘special’ as the blurb promises but it is a very pleasant holiday read. As life and lives in a small community become exposed, CLARKE will keep you involved till the last page.
