Book of the week

ALL THE WICKED GIRLS CHRIS WHITAKER ALLEN & UNWIN, $33

utterly believable but unusual characters. They centre on Noah, a young kidney-diseased teenager, besotted by Raine and anxious, between bouts of dialysis, to prove himself equal to his dead police father’s memory. And pastor Bobby, bright and reflective, with his wife Savannah who teaches Summer the cello. And Angel, the shunned albino son of another pastor who is viciously bigoted in his approach to the world and to Angel.

Apart from being a work of unforgettable crime fiction, All the Wicked Girls is almost a series of character studies of people one would find in the southern state of the US. In fact, this book could only be set in America, where the impact of cowboy philosophy is never far away, even presidential, and there are more guns than people. With a few exceptions, matters in Grace are dealt with by physical confrontation, where bruises and blood are a part of everyday life. Whatever perfidies are enacted during the week, all is forgiven on Sunday in church, the threat of hellfire and brimstone working wonders for a few hours.

This is a book in which the day-to-day existence of ordinary people is stripped away to show what lies beneath. So it ranges from the vicious to the poignant, from the comedic to the truly tragic. It is satisfyingly compelling crime fiction that leaves one somewhat saddened and curiously nostalgic about the better moments in life. With this, his second book, Chris Whitaker is here to stay.