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The Reunion
By Bronwyn Rivers
Published by Hachette Australia
ISBN 9781408720783
Although this novel begins quite slowly it builds up to a gripping climax.
Ten years ago, six teenagers hiked through the Australian bush to celebrate the end of their last year at school. Only five returned alive.
The author weaves a tale between the present and the recurring visits ten years before, mostly to events that happened on the hike.
The five friends, Hugh, Charlotte, Alex, Jack, and Laura, meet at a café in a hamlet, somewhere in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. After their greetings and refreshments, during which they reminisce about the ten years since the tragedy, they drive off in their three cars into the valley.
The road narrows with hair-pin bends as it descends the cliff face down to the 'Forgotten Valley' in the Blue Mountains where Ed Fletcer's mother is waiting to welcome them. The farm is very isolated and it is the only farm in the valley.
Martha Fletcher, the mother of Ed, the teenager who did not return alive, has arranged for a ten year memorial weekend and invited her dead son's friends. The same friends who accompanied Ed on that fatal hike.
The friends notice that the farm is now in a sorry state since they last visited. The house has not been looked after, with it's faded and peeling paintwork and woodwork in need of attention and it transpires that Martha's husband, Robert, died tragically a year ago.
She invites them in and gives them a tour of the house. Immediately, they notice that the house is not as neat and tidy as Martha used to look after it with noticeably untidy with a layer of dust everywhere.
Martha shows each of the friends to the rooms she has allotted them where they leave their luggage and return downstairs for tea and cake.
That evening, she has prepared a dinner for them although they are not all that impressed with the cuisine. After dinner, she announces she is still looking for the truth about Ed's death, Martha believes there are things they know which they have not told anyone and demands to know what really happened.
They explain that the coroner gave a full explanation, but Martha is adamant that they are hiding the truth with lies and stresses that she needs to know the truth.
This sparks off a chain of events, starting the following morning, leading to a life threatening situation, not quite the weekend reunion that they all expected.
'The Reunion' is a riveting book, a real page turner, but it is disappointing to note that, although the author's bio states that she has studied the English Classics and has an Oxford University doctorate in nineteenth-century women's novels, the quality has not quite extended to this book.
Although it is written in good Australian English, Rivers has reverted to 'lazy-speak' Americanisms, \such as 'gotten' and the all too frequently misused collective noun 'bunch' spread liberally throughout the book.
There are also far too many typos I counted thirteen mistakes that should have been corrected.
However, if you are prepared to overlook these negatives, you will probably find the storyline, the plot and the intrigue are most enjoyable and entertaining. The tension is certainly palpable. The description of each scene is well written and gripping, keeping the reader enthralled and engaged.
Reviewed by Ken.
The Author
Bronwyn Rivers grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales with the mystery-novel gateway drugs of The Famous Five and Trixie Belden, before developing a solid addiction to Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and PD James. She moved to the UK to take a doctorate on nineteenth-century women's novels at Oxford, and was an academic researcher and book reviewer in England and Australia, before admitting that she actually wanted to write the fiction rather than analyse it.
This is an independent review, I am not paid by the book publishers, so.If you Liked this review - please Buy me a coffee
