The Night Whistler by Greg Woodland
Text Publishing, 2020. ISBN: 9781922330093.
(Age: Senior secondary/adult) Highly recommended. Mick Goodenough
has been sent to the country town of Moorabool quite a come down
from his former role as a detective in the city. Probationary
Constable Goodenough is now the lowest on the pecking order, but it
takes him no time to notice the station is badly run.
One of his dogs, a German Shepherd is found dead. A boy Hal, new to
the town, finds the body which has been tortured and its throat cut.
Hal later discovers the site has an unpleasant history. It was the
scene of a terrible family murder/suicide with only one surviver.
Mick Goodenough would like some investigation into the killing of
his dog but his sergeant shows no desire to waste police resources
on the animal. But with some digging Mick finds there is quite a
history of missing pets turning up maimed and killed, but no record
of any investigation.
Hal's father, John Humphries is newly employed by a local food
processing company and with his mother and younger brother have just
settled into life in a country town. A life Hal's mother is none too
keen on. After the company family Christmas party the nuisance phone
calls begin. They always begin with whistling and become more
personal toward Corrie Humphries.
Mick has become worried. The pet mutilations and now the phone calls
indicate an escalation by the perpetrator. He fears the next victim
may well be human.
Greg Woodland's murder mystery is set during the mid 1960s, when the
pace of life is slower and the New South Wales police is well known
for corruption. The atmosphere is very Australian: country town,
summer, racial tension and a belief by white locals that there was
no safer place to live.
The story is told by Hal and Mick Goodenough, both adding
their unique perspectives as new comers to a situation that becomes
increasingly desperate. Woodland's first novel is one which hooks
the reader because of a chemistry by which he has the reader
sympathising with the two main characters.
Themes: Crime, Corruption, NSW, Police, Pets, Stalking.
Mark Knight