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Thriller set on YORKE PENINSULA (Southern Australia)

30th January 2023

The Summer Party by Rebecca Heath, thriller set on YORKE PENINSULA (Southern Australia).

Thriller set on YORKE PENINSULA (Southern Australia)

The setting is fictional Queen’s Point in Southern Australia and this is a dual timeline thriller, set both in present day (2019) and January 2000. The earlier story devotes alternate chapters to each day leading up to the eponymous party of the title, covering a couple of weeks.

In the present day Lucy has come to clear out her grandmother’s house. She died a while ago and because of personal circumstances, this is the first time she has been able to come to the property. She has in tow her dog, who belonged to her husband, who sadly passed away. So she is fettered by quite some emotional history.

Back in 2000 the party was an event hosted by the Whitlam family in Queen’s Point, who appear to be a powerful and well-known family in the town. Back in the day, Lucy hung out with the children of the family, when she was visiting her grandmother, who happened to be a housekeeper up at the large Whitlam house.

The novel opens with a piece in the local paper describing the discovery of a shoe, which seems to be still attached to human remains…”police refuse to speculate on the owner of the remains” (surely a rather curious way to describe a lost and badly decomposed limb – owner thereof?). It is not known, at this point, to whom the shoe (with its contents) originally belonged.

As Lucy trawls through her grandmother’s possessions, she discovers a ring and slips it on her finger. But the significance of her find only dawns on her later. There is intrigue, there are some ghosts from the past, warnings and creepy happenings as the storyline unfolds, the identity of the body is confirmed and thereafter the perpetrator and motive unmasked. She also discovers legal papers, that are largely illegible and add another level of intrigue.

The thriller makes for an interesting construct and of course the wait to discover who died and then, why that person had died, keeps the tension strong. But  overall I didn’t really feel carried along by the story, and struggled to engage with the characters – especially Lucy with her amateur sleuthing and deductions. Maybe there were too many red herrings which at times detracted from the bigger picture. Overall, though, an enjoyable read.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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