Publisher: Allen & Unwin Australia (Trade Paperback – 30 January 2024)
Series: Standalone
Length: 320 pages
My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Bestselling Australian author Lee Christine brings together a compelling and intriguing crime fiction read with the excellent Glenrock; a fantastic mystery set around the Australian city of Newcastle.
Plot Synopsis:
A murdered judge. Two missing lawyers. A thrilling tale of mystery and suspense from the bestselling author of Charlotte Pass and Dead Horse Gap.
When Justice Maurice Tempest is murdered in the Glenrock State Conservation Area in Newcastle, local detective Senior Sergeant Callan O’Connor is the first on the scene. News of a second body, found in the same location days later, makes what had looked like a revenge killing into so much more.
Angela Avery, formerly a political journalist, is spending a lot of time at the Hunter Valley Prison interviewing a soon-to-be-released forger, Benjamin Reid. When O’Connor’s investigation reveals an interest in Ben, Angela is determined to protect both her source and her fledgling relationship with O’Connor.
Meanwhile, two young, female lawyers have disappeared after making a devastating discovery in an upcoming case. Can O’Connor unravel the connections before the body count rises further? And how much does Angela Avery really know?’…
Glenrock was a great and fast-paced crime fiction novel that I had the great pleasure of reading earlier in the year. Christine came up with a fantastic story that really drew you in thanks to its multilayered mystery, compelling characters and high stakes.
The main mystery of Glenrock is set around the murder of a prominent judge in the Glenrock National Park area, which sets off an elaborate investigation primarily seen through the eyes of Senior Sergeant Callan O’Connor. O’Connor is a great central protagonist, and I enjoyed his intriguing insights into the case, especially as it pairs well with his complex family life and adversarial past with the Sydney homicide detective who arrives to take over the case. While the murder of a judge would be an interesting focus for the book by itself, especially when the apparent murderer is found in the most unlikely of scenarios, Christine raises the stakes by introducing two parallel storylines that combine into one heck of a novel.
The first of these storylines revolves around Angela Avery, a journalist for the local paper who finds herself drawn into the larger murder story thanks to the human-interest story she was writing. Thanks to her relationship with Callan, which provides a good romantic subplot for the story, Angela gets more involved with the case, especially as her investigation reveals connections to two young lawyers who disappeared the day of the murder. These two lawyers, who went on the run to save themselves, provide the third overlapping storyline, and it was fascinating to see their attempts to flee, especially as they provide some compelling context to the main mystery.
All three storylines prove to be very entertaining on their own, but their real strength is the way that they wrap together and form a complex, overarching narrative. Christine ensures that all three character-focused storylines stand on their own before bringing the various characters together in a sensible and compelling way. I really enjoyed seeing the various story arcs come together, and Christine enhances this with several moving dives into the complex characters. The focus on O’Connor’s family life is a prominent one, although I was particularly drawn to the character of Angely Avery, the plucky reporter who drives much of the plot’s investigative angle. Christine draws together a complex and harrowing past for Avery, as her previous reporting experiences resulted in great pain, and I would be very interested to see Christine revisit these characters in the future. The entire story, including the clever mystery, comes together extremely well, and Christine ensures there are some intriguing twists and reveals that keep you hanging in to the very end. Throw in some excellent depictions of Sydney and the picturesque area surrounding Newcastle, including Glenrock, and this proves to be quite an impressive read.
Overall, Glenrock was an excellent piece of Australian crime fiction by Lee Christine that I had a wonderful time reading. The combination of a compelling story, fantastic characters and an intriguing mystery is hard to resist, and readers will come away from Glenrock very satisfied. An amazing and exciting read from a talented Australian author.
The Unseen Library 