The Long Night

After meeting a new friend Em is kidnapped on the way home and so begins a night of terror. At the same time her mother, Jodie, is also attacked and is told that her daughter will be safe provided that Jodie does as she is told. Jodie has assistance from a friend who helps her hunt for her daughter. Neither of the women knows why they are targeted.

In The Long Night Christian White has written a fast paced thriller describing the ordeal of the two women as they try to escape the terror they are faced with. As the story progresses the novel inserts events in Jodie's life that occurred twenty years previously into the present action. For part of the book the two stories are meshed together as the women attempt to escape from their ordeal.

The Long Night is another Australian crime thriller that demands that the reader keeps reading to discover whether / how the women survive their ordeal of one long night.

The Ledge

In February 1999 sixteen year old Justin Smith kept a diary on his computer where he describes the relationships between four friends and how they react when one of the boys goes missing. Text from the records for Thursday 4 February to Monday 8 February make up alternate chapters in this novel by Australian author, Christian White. Twenty-four years later a body is found and the reaction of the former friends and the local community to this news is explored in alternate chapters to the diary entries.

The Ledge is a coming of age story set in the isolated mountains in western Victoria. It is also a psychological thriller with a twist that I definitely did not see coming. The Ledge by Christian White is definitely a book that should be read when the reader has plenty of time as you will want to continue reading to the end.

Wild Place

This thriller is set on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria during the summer of 1989-1990. When Tracie Reed disappears from her home at Camp Hill (near Frankston), the police believe that the seventeen year old girl has run away from home. However her mother is convinced that something more sinister has happened. Neighbour and local school teacher, Tom Witter, agrees, especially when he hears stories of possible Satanic practices in Wild Place, an area of bush backing on to the residential area. As it is school holidays Tom decides to investigate but discovers more than he wants to know - or anyone else to know for that matter.

The Wild Place by Christan White looks at how conspiracy theories can cloud people's thinking, sometimes causing people to jump to wrong conclusions. Family and relationships are a major focus of book. Tom's investigation leads to discoveries of layers of guilt and desperation among not only some of the neighbours but also closer to home. As the police officer investigation the case concludes at one point - 'Sometimes good people do bad things' (p244), especially when they are protecting family members.

The Wild Place is a tension filled novel that keeps the reader guessing until the end.

The Nowhere Child

When Kim Leamy was relaxing and enjoying a coffee before teaching a photography class at a TAFE college in Melbourne, Australia, she little realised that her life, as she knew it, was about to change. A man approached her and showed her a photograph of two year old Sammy Went who disappeared from her home in Manson, Kentucky, USA, twenty-eight years previously. He suggested that Kim and Sammy were the same person. It was later revealed that DNA tests showed that Kim and this man were siblings. Kim's mother had died some years before which left her step father, Dean, as the only person who might provide answers, however he was reluctant to provide information. Kim therefore decided to go to Manson, Kentucky, to try and discover the truth about her family.

The Nowhere Child by Christain White tells the story of Kim's quest to find out who she really is via alternating chapters, written in the present and in the past, until the true events are finally revealed. In Manson Kim discovered a disfunctional family - a brother, Stuart, who spent much of his life looking for Sammy; a sister, Emily, who believed that Sammy had died; a mother whose life revolved around the activities of a religious sect; and a father who had established a new life with a new partner. As Kim gradually discovered the truth about her previous life and her family, her life was threatened and past crimes revealed.

The Wife and the Widow

Christain White is another Australian author of great crime fiction. The Wife and the Widow is his second book and I will will definitely be adding his first book, Nowhere Child, to my my list of books that must be read.

The story is told via alternating chapters involving Kate and Abby and is set on a small island, Belport, off the Victorian coast during winter. It soon becomes apparent that both women do not know the full story about their husbands. Do they really know their husbands at all? 

When Kate's husband John disappears she gradually learns secrets of his life that had been hidden from her. During the novel Abby also discovers that her husband has secrets. At first the plot appears to be  progressing in one direction and then comes the Twist.

Fortunately I started reading this book on a cold, wet winter's afternoon and was able to finish it before going to bed. I didn't see the Twist coming and even had to check previous pages to ensure that the direction of the story had really changed. All in all a clever, gripping crime story that keeps the reader guessing what the outcome will be.