Cover art To the Sea by Christine Dibley via Macmillan Australia.
‘Zoe was gone. It already felt like she had never been here’, on a hot summer’s day in between Christmas and New Year, possibly right now, last year or maybe next year, Detective Inspector Tony Vincent and his team are called out to an extensive, expensive and idyllic Tasmanian beach house. A beach house filled with family and surrounded by what it seems as calm waters and seventeen-year-old Zoe Kennett has vanished.
Stories unfold and four characters share their version of what lead to Zoe’s disappearance, tales are woven over several centuries (going back twenty generations) and continents. But when family fables and the truth blend together, Inspector Tony Vincent must decipher what is hidden: Who was Zoe? What was she really like? Did she have any hidden secrets? We discover that she was excellent at sport, captain of the water polo team at her school – a phenomenal diver and swimmer, greatly at home in the water – she was also gifted academically and musically. But why was she almost invisible to her family who apparently didn’t really know her that well?
We meet troubled Eva (Zoe’s mother) and her father John, and also particularly Zoe’s sister Sadie (Sarah) and through their eyes the rest of the large family. We also follow the investigation through Tony Vincent’s eyes and through his police work, we follow his team and particularly detectives Narelle Clarke and Paul Taylor (a charming description of police dog Lulu is included).
As Inspector Tony’s investigation continues and develops we hear the Irish story of Orniche and her selkie lover Connery passed down through the generations – via the maternal line, is it myth or fact? Is it linked to Zoe’s disappearance as Eva seems to think? Is Zoe the one chosen for the current generation? Also interwoven is the tale of Getha and Brenna far closer in time to now.
Dibley’s To The Sea is a gripping, enthralling and intriguing book that makes you want more. I can see it as a TV mini- series perhaps as the prose are scenic and grand. At times dreamlike and lyrical it is also a gritty, hard edged police procedural. Captivatingly written, it is divided into the five days of the police investigation and assorted chapters . Dibley is tremendous at characterisation and has a great ear for dialogue and storytelling. There is also compelling description of the Tasmanian landscape and the call of the sea. Can you hear it?
This book is Dibley’s first novel and it is sweeping and engrossing.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
To The Sea by Christine Dibley
ISBN: 9781743547441
Format: Trade Paperback
Pub Date: 22/12/2016
Category: Fiction & related items / Fantasy Fiction & related items / Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
Imprint: Macmillan Australia
Pages: 464
Price: $32.99
