Voices in the Dark by Fleur McDonald

EXCERPT: When her ringtone, Kaylee Bell’s ‘Keith’ had ripped through the kitchen causing her to jump, Sassi knew there was something amiss. No one called so late at night.
The photo that had been taken last Christmas of her and Abe flashed onto the screen and her first thought had been: Which one is it? Which grandparent?
‘It’s bad, Sassi,’ her uncle told her when she answered.
Her hands shaking, she’d slid down next to Jarrah and buried her fingers in the kelpie’s caramel fur.
‘What’s happened?’
‘Not sure. Dad managed to raise the alarm, but . . .’ His voice had trailed off and Sassi realised her kettle was screaming a high-pitched whistle above her. Sticking a finger in her ear and ignoring the sound, she stayed where she was.
‘The ambo couldn’t say much, but he suggested we get everyone together as quickly as we can. I’ve rung your mother.’
Sassi snorted. ‘She won’t be much use.’
‘Sassi.’ As always Abe’s calm and conciliatory tone didn’t change. Sassi was angry and he was the peacemaker. ‘She’s going to be on the first plane she can get out of South Africa.’
She’d probably prefer the borders were still shut so she didn’t have to come back.’
Abe ignored her comments. ‘You need to come now,’ he said. ‘Don’t wait.’

ABOUT ‘VOICES IN THE DARK’: Sassi Stapleton is called home after news her grandmother is unwell. Less than an hour away from her hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment and she’s left hanging. By the time she is found, her grandmother has already passed away.

Sassi’s mother, Amber, returns from South Africa, and as soon as she arrives family tensions between her and her brother, Abe, are back in the forefront of everyone’s minds.

When it quickly becomes clear that Sassi’s grandfather Mr Stapleton is unable to live alone, the hunt is on to find a carer. Rasha enters the family home, firmly entrenching herself as someone they can’t do without, and before long Mr Stapleton is happier than he has been in years.

Then bruises start appearing on Mr Stapleton and he becomes withdrawn, refusing to talk even to Sassi.

None of the family are convinced that Rasha could hurt anyone. Amber is his daughter; Sassi, his granddaughter. None of these three could hurt Mr Stapleton. Could they?

MY THOUGHTS: I really enjoy reading stories set in small towns, Australian ones in particular, and Voices in the Dark set in the small town of Barker, four hours out of Adelaide, South Australia, didn’t disappoint. This is a family drama with no romance but a lot of love, secrets, lies, greed and resentment to fuel the storyline.

Small towns can be difficult to live in. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. Scandals never really die, beliefs are firmly entrenched, and grudges can be held for generations. But when the chips are down, everyone pulls together. Barker is no different. Sassi is still that ‘illegitimate Stapleton kid’, and Rasha is ‘a person of color’ taking work away from the locals. ‘She doesn’t belong here.’

Voices in the Dark is very much a character driven drama, and I loved the characters – well, most of them anyway. There’s a few louts and larrikins in Barker, but then aren’t there in every town? And Amber, Sassi’s mother, is, and I’m being kind here, a complicated character. She’s arrogant, entitled, racist and cold . . . I couldn’t find one spark of warmth or humanity in her. But she too has a tragic back story.

There are some wonderful relationships that I loved reading about – Abe and his wife Renee and their twin sons being one; Dave, the local detective and his wife Kim are another. There’s an enticing bit of drama going on in Dave’s family as well as in his workplace.

There’s a bit of a story behind Detective Dave Burrows. He appeared in Fleur McDonald’s first book, ‘Dust’. Since then, he’s appeared as a secondary character in sixteen of her novels and has taken a lead role in another six. I guess if you’ve read a lot of this author’s work, you will already be familiar with him. Unfortunately I haven’t, but that is something I am going to remedy.

I also love Sassi and Abe’s relationship. They are more like brother and sister than uncle and niece. Sassi is a lovely character. She’s had a bit of a rough time of it, having been abandoned by her mother as a young child; her grandmother’s death is more like the loss of a mother and the sudden disintegration of her long-term relationship is a shock, but she is a strong young woman who has her focus in the right place.

I do have some qualms about how the book ended. I’m not entirely sure that Dave did the right thing here. If you read or have read Voices in the Dark, I’d love to know what you think.

A good, solid four-star read that has left me wanting to read more from this author.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#VoicesintheDark #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: After growing up on a farm near Orroroo in South Australia, Fleur McDonald’s first job was jillarooing in the outback. She has been involved in agriculture all her life, including helping manage an 8000-acre station for twenty years. Today Fleur and her energetic kelpie, Jack, live in Esperance, Western Australia,

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Allen & Unwin via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Voices in the Dark by Fleur McDonald for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Watching what I’m reading . . .

Welcome to a cool and showery New Zealand Sunday afternoon. We have the fire lit and are having a very lazy weekend with a lot of reading done by both of us in between the Supercar and F1 racing.

So, what am I currently reading?

Voices in the Dark by Fleur McDonald was published in October 23, so while it doesn’t qualify as a “Beat the Backlist’ title it is a catch-up read for me. I have read several of this authors books over the years and always enjoy her Australian Outback stories. Voices in the Dark is an excellent family drama. This title also counts towards my April Aussie Readers challenge.

When Sassi Stapleton receives a middle-of-the-night phone call to tell her that her beloved grandmother is unwell, she quickly puts her job on hold, packs her ute and sets off on the long drive home, knowing her grandfather will need her.

Less than an hour away from Sassi’s hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment. By the time Sassi is found, her grandmother has already passed away.

On the other side of the world, Sassi’s estranged mother, Amber, receives a similar call and shocks the whole family when she flies home from South Africa.

With everyone under the same roof, tensions escalate as Amber’s secrecy and odd behaviour become unsettling. What is she really doing at home with a father she’s barely spoken to since she left years ago? And will Amber and Sassi ever be able to reconnect?

I am listening to The Intruders by Louise Jensen. It is a very intriguing and slightly unsettling mystery.

They were told to leave. They should have listened.

The perfect opportunity…

A manor house available rent-free to house-sitters is an offer too good to miss for Cass and James, who have been saving for a deposit on their own home for so long.

Although it had been abandoned for almost thirty years, after a home invasion left almost all the inhabitants dead, it is an amazing chance for them to build their future.

But is it worth the price?

Shortly after moving in things take a sinister turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, the house is strangely oppressive and sometimes it feels like Cass and James are not alone.

Newington House may have bad energy, and a dark reputation. But surely there’s no reason for history to repeat itself, is there?

I have four books to read for review this week.

The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson is a historical fiction that is based on a true story and will be my next read.

Daisy Flowers is fifteen in 1978 when her free-spirited mother dumps her in Possum Flats, Missouri. It’s a town that sounds like roadkill and, in Daisy’s eyes, is every bit as dead. Sentenced to spend the summer living with her grandmother, the wry and irreverent town mortician, Daisy draws the line at working for the family business, Flowers Funeral Home. Instead, she maneuvers her way into an internship at the local newspaper where, sorting through the basement archives, she learns of a mysterious tragedy from fifty years earlier…

On a sweltering, terrible night in 1928, an explosion at the local dance hall left dozens of young people dead, shocking and scarring a town that still doesn’t know how or why it happened. Listed among the victims is a name that’s surprisingly familiar to Daisy, revealing an irresistible family connection to this long-ago accident.

Obsessed with investigating the horrors and heroes of that night, Daisy soon discovers Possum Flats holds a multitude of secrets for a small town. And hardly anyone who remembers the tragedy is happy to have some teenaged hippie asking questions about it – not the fire-and-brimstone preacher who found his calling that tragic night; not the fed-up police chief; not the mayor’s widow or his mistress; not even Daisy’s own grandmother, a woman who’s never been afraid to raise eyebrows in the past, whether it’s for something she’s worn, sworn, or done for a living.

Some secrets are guarded by the living, while others are kept by the dead, but as buried truths gradually come into the light, they’ll force a reckoning at last.

Inspired by the true story of the Bond Dance Hall explosion, a tragedy that took place in the author’s hometown of West Plains, Missouri on April 13, 1928.

The cause of the blast has never been determined.

The Trial by Jo Spain will follow the Flower Sisters. I am a great fan of Jo Spain.

2014, Dublin: at St Edmunds, an elite college on the outskirts of the city, twenty-year-old medical student Theo gets up one morning, leaving behind his sleeping girlfriend, Dani, and his studies – never to be seen again. With too many unanswered questions, Dani simply can’t accept Theo’s disappearance and reports him missing, even though no one else seems concerned, including Theo’s father.

Ten years later, Dani returns to the college as a history professor. With her mother suffering from severe dementia, and her past at St Edmunds still haunting her, she’s trying for a new start. But not all is as it seems behind the cloistered college walls – meanwhile, Dani is hiding secrets of her own.

Daisy O’Shea is a new author to me, and I couldn’t resist The Irish Key after seeing it featured on several other blogs.

‘Take the key, my pet. I can’t ever go back. The last letter I had from Ireland was clear about that. But one day you may need a safe haven, and it’s the one thing I can give you. Ireland is in your blood, it will keep you safe.’

When Grace arrives tired, tearful and rain-soaked in Roone Bay, the little Irish village where her grandmother Caitlin grew up, she is overwhelmed with longing for Caitlin’s safe, warm arms. The crumbling wreck of Caitlin’s once-beautiful childhood cottage – whose key Grace was given on her wedding day as a secret refuge if she ever needed it – is not the fresh start she’d hoped for. But with her young daughter Olivia to look after and a painful past to hide from, Grace has to stay strong.

Plucking up the courage to ask for help from her kind new neighbours – including quietly rugged carpenter Sean Murphy – Grace gets to work making the house habitable. Soon the view of the deep emerald sea has her captivated, Olivia is blossoming, and Sean makes her laugh in a way she’d forgotten she could…

As she learns more about her family history, with Sean by her side, Grace’s curiosity unearths only further mystery. What drove Caitlin away from Ireland, never to return? But when Grace uncovers a long-lost letter to Caitlin that reveals the heartbreaking truth, she is suddenly threatened by her own devastating secrets.

Grace may have finally found a home for her little family. But when faced with everything she ran from, will the past tear her apart once more? Or will Grace find the strength to stand up for her daughter, her love for Sean, and her new life in Ireland?

I also have the audiobook of The Baby by A.J. McDine, another new-to-me author, to listen to. It is narrated by Tamsin Kennard.

The harsh light streams into the living room. On the worn rug sits an out-of-place wooden drawer and swaddled inside, with rosy cheeks and large round eyes, a baby looks up at me. A shiver runs through me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but this baby is not mine…

Rocking the small bundle in my arms, I’m reminded of a time when I’d pictured tiny booties in every version of my future. The day I was told I’d never have a baby, the ground fell from beneath me. Could this be my one chance to become a mother?

As the sun sets, the baby begins to stir. His peaceful sleep disturbed by the sound of keys rattling against the front door. Frozen in panic, and with my heart pounding in my chest, I don’t have time to think before my husband, Miles, appears in the doorway. His face contorts in shock glimpsing the child cradled against my chest.

I hear his questions, but I can’t answer them. The truth is, I really don’t know what happened.

Did I steal the baby from a loving mother, or did I do it to protect him? And when dawn breaks, will I give him back?

So, that’s the plan for the week.

Dustin and Luke are having a wonderful time with Kyle in Perth. They went to a reptile park yesterday and now Luke wants to move to Australia so he can have a pet snake. 🙄🐍

Numbers have fallen off at aquarobics with the colder weather. It is actually quite nice not having to fight for space in the pool!

Pete has a week of early starts (2am) ahead of him this week. I find it easier just to work with his hours rather than trying to be quiet and keep normal hours myself.

Wednesday night Annette and I are going to Dragon’s 50th anniversary concert. I am really looking forward to this as I haven’t seen Dragon live since the mid-70s.

And Thursday is Anzac Day, a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peace…” Let us not forget them.

Photo by aakash gupta on Pexels.com

The poppy is the ANZAC symbol and is why I have a banner of poppies at the top of my post. It is there to honor my Dad who was in J Force stationed in Nagasaki after the bombing. He loved Japan and the people and always wanted to return. Sadly, he was never able to.

The RSA (The Royal Returned and Services Assn) was founded in 1916 by wounded soldiers returning from Gallipoli to provide support and comfort for service men and women and their families.

The week prior to ANZAC day is marked by volunteers selling artificial poppies on the streets to raise funds to continue the RSA’s good work.