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Something Wicked |
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 Something Wicked byJennifer Rowe Ballantine Books January 2000 ISBN 0345427955 Reviewed by Susan McBride Author Jennifer Rowe has apparently been dubbed "The Australian Agatha Christie" by Booklist, but I found her style and tone in Something Wicked to be more akin to Minette Walters. There is an eeriness that pervades the plot, a definite sense of knowing that someone isn’t telling the whole truth and wondering who it is. For this reason, after picking up the book and figuring to read a few chapters on a Sunday afternoon, I couldn’t put it down and ended up staying put in my chair until I’d finished. In a small Australian town, a man is found dead in a shed on a secluded farm called Haven. He’s been shot in the head, an apparent suicide. Or is it? The victim is Adam Quinn, a former rock star who’d taken refuge with a strange woman named Rachel Brydie and her three odd daughters, all fathered by different men. Rachel is known about town as a witch, and had shut off herself and her children from the outside world. Only Quinn had been allowed into Haven. He remained there for 4-1/2 years until his lifeless body is found and Rachel Brydie is missing. Rowe not only does a magnificent job of weaving a web of truth and lies for the reader to decipher, she also allows us to see the tale through the eyes of various characters, none of whom we trust completely; save for Tessa Vance, a Sydney detective brought in on the case with her partner, Steve Hayden. Tessa plays it cool, but is often troubled by feelings of uncertainty. Though at times her emotions lead her in the wrong direction, it doesn’t take her long to see what she’s missed and unmask the guilty party. Something Wicked is highly absorbing from beginning to end. |
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