Image: cover art detail from The Falls.
The Falls is Michael Radburn’s third novel and the second featuring park ranger Taylor Bridges. The action centres around a small country town and a barely accessible wilderness area. In a gloomy atmosphere underscored by bad weather, Bridges helps the local police sergeant to solve what at first appears to be a senseless murder.
Taylor is hampered by memories of his past while the sergeant longs for his former life. Both are suspicious of help from the city police – and not only because that help comes in female form. Taylor must also deal with an issue many readers will recognise – the difficulty in trying to balance the demands of work with the responsibilities to family. This problem has no easy solution and the author does not pretend there is one.
The Falls is an intriguing mystery thriller set in country Victoria and lovingly described by an author with close personal ties to the land. The hot humid air, the bushfires, the rain, the rockfalls, the abandoned mine, and the plaintive cries of blackbirds all put the reader in a place that makes the slow unravelling of the awful crimes committed that bit more horrifying. A sense of dread seeps from the pages.
Crime thrillers are characterised by the feelings they elicit in readers, from suspense and excitement to anticipation and anxiety and finally, hopefully, satisfaction at the outcome.This book ticks all those boxes, but it is a pity that the main characters are not more distinctively drawn.
Naturally, this book is lauded by its publisher as indeed it should be. Pantera Press has the praiseworthy objective to give Australian writers an opportunity to be published. They say, ‘We view the so-called “slush pile” of Australian unsolicited manuscripts differently. To us, it’s a valuable resource – an underexplored diamond mine.’ But by describing Radburn as ‘Ian Rankin meets Stephen King’, Pantera raises the expectations of the reader unduly. For all his considerable talent, Radburn, along with most writers, does not rank anywhere near Rankin or King; The Falls is a good read but it is not up there with the best.
It’s true that we live in a society where over-marketing is the norm but hopefully it can be avoided in the arts. Buying a book, after all, is not quite the same as buying food to eat. And yet there are similarities. If you live in Australia there is something to be said in favour of supporting Australian-grown when buying food and Australian-made when buying manufactured goods. Whether such purchases should be made regardless of quality or price is another matter. Does this analogy extend to books, though? There is no easy solution to that question either.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
The Falls
By B. Michael Radburn
Published by Pantera Press
Paperback, 370pp, RRP $29.99
