At the 2022
Sydney Writers Festival I attended a session featuring debut novelist Hayley Scrivenor talking about her newly published crime thriller
Dirt Town (2022). I love Australian noir and it sounded like a book I would enjoy. My mum gave me a copy in July, but I shelved it as I had just read Garry Disher's
Bitter Wash Road and Matthew Spencer's
Black River, so felt I needed a gap before I read another crime novel.
Each time I considered reading it there was something more pressing, like the latest
Robert Galbraith and
Jane Harper. But to kick off my reading this year while I was still on my summer holidays, I grabbed Scrivenor's novel and had a wonderful time engrossed in this book.
Set in Durton, a fictional town in NSW, the story revolves around a twelve year old girl, Esther Bianchi, who goes missing on the way home from school. Her best friend Ronnie wants to know what happened to Esther. Lewis may have information that can help, but can he say anything without getting into trouble? Detective Sarah Michaels, a missing persons specialist, is sent to Durton to investigate and soon finds that this small town has some big secrets.
Told from different perspectives over a period of a few days, I really enjoyed the writing style of this novel and could not believe it was a debut. There is a maturity in the writing, and the decision to include intermittent chapters headed 'We', in the style of a Greek chorus of the town's children, was particularly compelling. Scrivenor managed to capture the distinct voices of Ronnie (and her obsession with llamas), Detective Michaels, Lewis, and Constance (Esther's mother) in these alternating narratives.
Dirt Town, published as Dirt Creek in North America, is an intelligent, atmospheric, character-driven, page-turning, crime novel showcasing a writer to watch. I hope that Scrivenor continues to write in this genre and perhaps makes a series with Detective Michaels.
