The signal line by Brendan Colley

The first chapter of this book tells of a group of Italians deposited in Hobart by a ghost train. There are no trains in Hobart. But the people are real, and present a puzzle for Wes the policeman and Geo his brother recently returned to Tasmania from Italy. Geo came by plane.

There are people who believe in the train: Sten, the ghost train hunter, Labuschagne, expert in the paranormal, and two young hippy backpackers, Camille and Paco. Geo is glad to invite them into his life, as a kind of protective barrier between him and his brother Wes, as Wes soon shows himself to have extreme anger issues.

Just as Sten is calmly pursuing his dream of boarding the ghost train, Geo has a dream of his own, to sell up the family home to fund his violist career abroad. Perhaps his dream is equally out of grasp, for his brother Wes is not going to agree to the sale, so submerged is he in grief over his father and his failed marriage.  

It is a strange mix of ghost story and very real issues of sibling rivalry and bullying, told in a light and humorous way, with many of the conversational exchanges sure to draw a chuckle or even laugh out loud. The style is reminiscent of the dialogues in Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. The world is weird, and all that the characters can do, and the reader along with them, is to suspend disbelief and work with the events as they happen.

It’s such a strange, intriguing read, that as I drew closer to the end, I slowed down my reading, so enjoying the ride that I didn’t want it to be over. I loved the variety of unusual characters, the mix of logical reasoning within an unreal world, and the calm common sense approach to problem solving. It was a delight to read.

Themes: Ghost train, Dream, Music, Domestic violence, Anger.

Helen Eddy