The drowning girls by Veronica Lando

Nate Bass, already nicknamed ‘Mr Fish’ by his future students, has come to Port Flinders, on a short term replacement teaching position, staying in very basic camp accommodation close to dark threatening mangrove swamps. It’s a fishing town renowned for its annual drowning girl festival where a female figurine is cast into the ocean and pelted with stones until it sinks, in order to bring in a good fishing season. The problem is that perhaps some people take the tradition too seriously, and that is maybe why there have been a number of recurring drownings not investigated as fully as they could have been.

It also becomes slowly apparent that Nate is not a newcomer to this town; it is a place where he has spent some time in his childhood, and there are repressed memories that could be connected to the mysteries that linger on. Things become confusing when a drowned body is recognised as the same girl that died 15 years earlier. How could that be?

Lando keeps the chapters moving along, with the story told mostly from Nate’s perspective, but with interleaving accounts of the experiences of a group of boys 15 years ago. Gradually the two threads connect. The plot is not an easy one to follow, as there are many surprises along the way that will keep the reader guessing. Nate has a fellow investigator in his developing friendship with Irena, the bar manager who has stayed on to film the annual drowning event.

For me, the set-up where the author has the characters examine and explain events to each other is a technique that doesn’t sit well - it’s like the author has to put into words the things the reader probably has failed to follow or understand. But it is certainly required in this context as there are so many twists to the storyline that it would be difficult to be presented in any other way. This is a book for readers of detective novels, who enjoy the challenge of sorting through the possible scenarios and motivations, with a conclusion that defies any conjecture.

It is also a novel in the budding Australian genre of detective fiction where the hero or investigator has their own flawed past history, and I’m sure that the many readers who enjoy this book and its predecessor The whispering will be waiting for the next offering from Veronica Lando.

Themes: Crime, Mystery, Superstition, Murder.

Helen Eddy