Kill Your Brother

Kill Your Brother is the fourth adult novel by Australian author, Jack Heath. Elise Glyk’s brother, Callum is missing, and she fears that he may have been murdered. But the circumstances surrounding his disappearance mean that police are unconcerned for his welfare, and her own alarm is discounted due to her shameful status: no one is listening to Elise Glyk. But Callum has always had her back, even when the rest of the town has ostracised her, so she’s not giving up. Posing as a PI, she finds, while retracing his last known movements, she has a rather inept tail. Taking advantage of her one sympathetic source, she tracks down that tail and is shocked to discover Callum held captive. But now she, too, is captive. And the (clearly crazy) woman who has inexplicably kidnapped her brother has given her an ultimatum: she can go free if she kills Callum. But kill her brother? She couldn’t possibly! Senior Constable Kiara Lui has rather regretfully ended her relationship with Elise Glyk, not because of the disgrace she brought upon the town of Warrigal during her athletic career, but because of a certain betrayal of trust. But while following up a new lead in the recent disappearance of a teenaged boy, she finds a link to the woman who was following Elise, and questions begin to surround the suicide of a fifteen-year-old girl months earlier. Heath uses multiple narrators to tell a tale that is cleverly plotted with clues and red herrings to keep the reader guessing right up to the nail-biting climax. The reader will wonder about the reliability of some of that narrative, but even as the story ventures into very dark territory, there is some (quite black) humour to relieve the tension, and when the ugly truth becomes apparent, it’s a jaw-dropping moment. Heath’s characters are believable for all their flaws and failings, and he captures the feel of the NSW country town with consummate ease. The story also touches on the pressures under which athletes must perform and the trauma of suicide for those left behind. Readers of Heath’s Timothy Blake series know they will be in for a wild ride, and some aspects of the story will require them to momentarily don their disbelief suspenders, but the best advice is to just go with the flow for an action-packed dose of Aussie intrigue. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen & Unwin.