BOOKS

TO THE SEA

by Nikki Crutchley

HarperCollins — $35

Many things make this thriller stand out. For a start, the narrators are reliable. That’s refreshing, these days. Crutchley tells her story in more than one voice and time period, but all are clearly handled and distinguished.

And all play their part in building up a picture of what was really going on in the ghastly incident described in the book’s opening pages. This is genuinely stress-inducing reading, not for the faint of heart.

That a reviewer should feel constrained not to give away what happens at the beginning of a book is an indication of the amount of invention to be found therein. The book is packed with incident. At about the one-third point, many readers may be wondering if there is anything left to tell. But there is.

The story revolves around a more-than-usually-messed-up family who live in determined isolation on a remote coastal property, and who have more than the usual number of distressing secrets to be uncovered.

They are dominated by psycho-patriarch Hurley, who prevents their contact with the outside world and maintains control through a variety of means, including giving everyone new names, and scarification as corporal punishment. Their home, Iluka, is presented as a sanctuary but is really a prison for them