FICTION The Creeper Margaret Hickey Bantam, $34.99 Apparently, there is now such a thing as a “destination thriller”, which introduces the reader to an appealing location they might be tempted to visit. It’s an interesting proposition given that most thrillers involve something bad happening even in glorious settings.
As is the case in Margaret Hickey’s latest police procedural, The Creeper , set in an idyllic country town in north-east Victoria. There’s a touch of the gothic in Margaret Hickey’s latest police procedural. Credit: Charlotte Guest Senior Constable Sally White, the stepdaughter of Assistant Commissioner Angelo Conti, has recently taken up a post in Edenville where she is living her best life with a handsome new boyfriend, park ranger Jim Brear.
Sally loves Edenville, with its “maple-lined streets and evergreen poplars” even if it has been recently discovered by the tourists, the tree changers and grey nomads who have driven up the house prices while encouraging a lot of new business. Sally also loves being in sole possession of the local police station with its white weatherboard trim, roses and geraniums “like something from a children’s storybook”. But there’s another side to Edenville: the smaller landowners doing it tough, the family violence calls and the intervention orders.
And then there’s the Durant family. “There’s a Durant family in every town,” Sally’s boss informs her over the phone. This is the family that lives on.