Crows Nest in Aussie Readers

Feb 15, 2023 Bree T rated it liked it

Shelves: crime, australian, mystery, series, arc

This is a debut novel, first in a series by an Australian author who is formerly a child protection worker, which is the profession of the main character, Dana Gibson. Dana has fled Sydney and her life there after a terrible tragedy, leaving behind her husband and making her way to Toowoomba in Queensland. When she arrives she鈥檚 immediately thrown into action when she has to go and assess a living situation, making sure volatile but well known local couple Paul and Sandra are providing a safe ho This is a debut novel, first in a series by an Australian author who is formerly a child protection worker, which is the profession of the main character, Dana Gibson. Dana has fled Sydney and her life there after a terrible tragedy, leaving behind her husband and making her way to Toowoomba in Queensland. When she arrives she鈥檚 immediately thrown into action when she has to go and assess a living situation, making sure volatile but well known local couple Paul and Sandra are providing a safe home for not only their children but also Sandra鈥檚 younger sister Chrystal. Not long later, Sandra and her best friend are found shot dead in a car and the police seem all too keen to close up the investigation quite early, tying it in a neat bow.

Dana isn鈥檛 convinced. She鈥檚 been told time and again to wrap it up, close the child protection case so that her new boss can issue her with many more, the department straining under the weight of all the cases but Dana cannot let it go. She has other things that she wants to clear up, questions she wants answers to. It鈥檚 creating problems as she continually ignores direction, does things in a way that doesn鈥檛 endear her to the locals and puts the local police force offside as well. Dana is something of a wrecking ball when she sets her mind to something and she tends to just go in blazing and think later.

That鈥檚 not to say that sometimes, she isn鈥檛 right. She is. But the ways in which she goes about things, were at times, very frustrating to read. She鈥檚 renting a house in town, next door lives an older woman who has custody of her grandson. This grandson occasionally appears in Dana鈥檚 house (because she has a tv? It鈥檚 set in 1996 which I kept forgetting so I kept finding a few things jarring, like references to dial up internet and no one has a mobile yet). Dana is sympathetic to his cause and reluctant to send him on his way, even though he really shouldn鈥檛 be there but in my opinion she crosses all sorts of lines when she allows him to help her in her amateur murder investigation. He鈥檚 10 years old!

Dana has a really sympathetic background, it鈥檚 hard not to feel for her, after what she has so recently endured. I was curious to hear more about her marriage 鈥� with a few half baked accusations at her husband, Dana then flees for another state. She doesn鈥檛 contact him but seems annoyed when he doesn鈥檛 contact her. Some of her choices upon arriving in Toowoomba felt like it made it more of a struggle to connect with her. This continued throughout the novel. Dana has plenty of flaws, some relatable, but others made her deeply not. Some of this could be explained by her grief but it seems like she鈥檚 not doing anything to address that grief or deal with it or help herself in any way. Her job also seems to potentially provide a conflict of interest with this grief so it was interesting to see how she navigated that although this book seemed to choose to focus on other areas.

The mystery was interesting but I did feel as though there could鈥檝e been a little more nuance in the reasoning or at least a little more ambiguity around the perpetrator and their personality. The setting is great and I feel that with more books, the rest will come in terms of depth for peripheral characters and building of layers for the mystery. I don鈥檛 know if I鈥檓 ever going to be quite able to get on board with how Dana does things 鈥� it just seems like there are far too many opportunities for putting people in real danger with her current methods. However I鈥檓 a bit interested in seeing where this goes and what comes next for Dana 鈥� there鈥檚 unfinished business, especially between her and her husband and I want to see how that plays out.

***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher/DMCPR Media for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more

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Feb 08, 2023 Rina rated it liked it

3.5 stars.

This debut was exactly what I鈥檇 expect from an Aussie crime fiction. It had a strong, albeit flawed, heroine, a murder mystery to be solved, interesting side characters, and a cute ten-year-old named Angus.

Fleeing a marital problem, child protection worker Dana Gibson moved from Sydney to the small town Toowomba, bringing her grief with her. She was soon confronted with loads of open cases, overworked colleagues, non-existent manual and procedures, and a potential murder. Would she sur ...more

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