This is a tale about a man, Noah Cork who is an investigative journalist searching for answers to an unresolved murder. When he gets a message in his letterbox, he’s sent on a wild goose chase trying to uncover what happened and hopefully the murderer. Along the way his obsession manages to turn everyone against him even his long-suffering wife who suddenly stops speaking.

I normally like Trent Dalton’s books even though they have tended towards the whacky. This one takes it even further.

Noah is unhinged and manic making it truly hard to sympathise with him. He is self-centred and the only saving grace is his daughter Clem who at nine years of age seems more adult than her father. At one stage, I thought Rita had died despite her being diagnosed as being mute. I needed to remind myself that the story is from Noah’s point of view and because he was so self-absorbed how could he see the woman he’s taken for granted? The resolution about Rita never comes and that was frustrating. Perhaps she was dead after all?

I couldn’t buy into the police and their dismissal of him either and the whole thing became a little tedious. It wasn’t until the last quarter of the book that things changed pace and the climax was satisfying.

Overall, it’s not my favourite book of Dalton’s.