Canticle Creek

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Jesse’s narrative is enjoyably dry. For example this observation when she visits the local sawmill: They decide to go, in spite of the fact both are uncomfortable in big crowds. No wonder. (I love all these hyphenated descriptions.) Jesse Redpath is a cop from the Territory. She helps a young Adam when he does something illegal by offering him a second chance; helping her dad and working in the local roadhouse. A week later, Adam runs away and Jesse doesn’t think about him again except to send a warrant. Canticle Creek is a gripping murder mystery, just a brief examination of the crime scene is enough to convince Jesse that the police, who believe Adam killed his girlfriend, Daisy, and died when his car left the road as he attempted to flee, are wrong. Looking for an alternative narrative, Jesse puts several of the locals, and a Melbourne mobster, offside as she noses around the small community.

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The rural crime fiction wave continues with this brilliant new arid drama.’ – Australian Women's Weekly Hyland frames his plot and murder mystery well, issuing his readers with plenty of plot stops, turns, detours, secrets, codes, suspects to consider and disputes to settle. My response rate went up and down with this one, but I think Canticle Creek would be ideal for seasoned readers of Australian crime noir.This story follows Jessie questioning the local police's conclusion and persuading them, with her assistance , to investigate further. Things got very fraught, the heat was getting to everyone, fire a constant danger, the fear was almost palpable. As more and more suspects were uncovered and more and more reasons for the murders, things became dangerous, Jesse was to need all her skills. To some Australia retains the image of harsh man’s world, but here it is strong, determined women who make the difference. Jesse, Nadia, and Possum follow Daisy’s lead and are more perceptive to what is going on and when it really matters possess the necessary courage. Brute strength is not always the answer, sometimes you need to listen to the message and act upon it before time ultimately runs out. I’ve read all of Adrian’s books, several of which are set in NT. He experienced the Kinglake area Victorian bushfires and has written a book about this (from the perspective of a local policeman I think) so I wasn’t surprised to see the bushfire theme in his latest book. Robert Kenny’s memoir of the same fires still haunts me, for example his boots melting. For mine, the other outstanding crime novel by an Australian in 2021 was Unforgiven by Sarah Barrie whose books are gripping. Hyland has placed an enigmatic female lead at the helm of his new novel Canticle Creek. Jesse is passionate, observant, methodical, determined and skilled. Jesse is also a flawed lead which makes her very likeable. It didn’t take long for me to warm to Jesse and become fully invested in her journey. Jesse interacts with a good number of secondary cast members, who add conflict and interest to this spiralling tale. Hyland places emphasis on his characters and he works hard to zone in on their actions for a good deal of this novel. At times I did fall into the trap of confusing some of the protagonists, which did hamper my overall response to this one.

Canticle Creek - Kindle edition by Hyland, Adrian. Mystery

It wasn’t until year 4 that Shane Jenek was made to feel that “people with penises should act differently from people with vaginas”. Instinctively, the young boy knew that he didn’t belong on either side of this divide. When he moved from Brisbane to Sydney in his late teens and discovered the drag-queen scene, he found a way to control the narrative of his life. For the first time since he was bullied by the alpha boys at school, he could give expression to his innate femininity while feeling powerful around straight men. Since his mainstream debut as Courtney Act on Australian Idol, Courtney has appeared on reality TV in the US and Britain and more recently on the ABC. Often funny and always frank, this memoir charts Jenek’s embrace of his gender fluidity: the process of “unbecoming who the world had told me to be” so that “I was finally able to become myself”. Though the case was pretty much closed, Jesse started doing some digging of her own and soon started to ruffle a few feathers with her snooping. Adam had hitched a ride to Victoria with a girl he’d recently met and was now being accused of her murder, then after stealing her car, he lost control of it on a nearby country road and crashed killing himself outright. A nice little murder mystery set in rural Australia. I enjoyed the small town dynamics and the descriptions of the setting were strong enough to give me a real sense of place. Nash Baker was once a celebrated cop, but his career was ended when he chose to take justice into his own hands. Now he’s living a quiet life in a small town caring for the local wildlife and trying to stay away from trouble.

The action steps up, and at one point, just when I thought everything was wrapping up on a pretty good yarn, it heats up again and gets even better. It’s been a decade since I have read Adrian Hyland’s Gunshot Road and Diamond Dove yet both Australian crime novels remain favourites, so I jumped at the opportunity to read Canticle Creek. The plot is Jesse investigating the murder of Daisy and the resistance she comes up against. Criticism is difficult to take, doubly so when it comes from an outsider, but this outsider brings an objectiveness to play. Along with a stubborn persistence and a casual approach to danger this makes Jesse a loose canon to some, but eventually a grudging acceptance from others as they realise what a great cop she is. The rural crime fiction wave continues with this brilliant new arid drama.’ - Australian Women's Weekly