Reviewed by Rod McLary
Serial killers are not common in Australia with the exception of two infamous examples who won’t be named here. So when crimes of this nature occur, perhaps more attention is given to them than would be in [say] the United States. The heinous crimes affect many people – the friends and families of the victims, the first responders, the legal system – and vicariously those whose knowledge of the crimes are sourced from the media.
Even serial killers live in the community and participate in the mundane tasks of day-to-day life – going to school and work, buying groceries, earning a living, getting married. In doing so, the perpetrator comes in casual or random contact with numerous people whose lives, for a brief moment or two, intersect with that of a serial killer.
Fiona McFarlane’s novel Highway !3 is a collection of short stories in which the characters have in various ways a connection with one serial killer – the fictitious Paul Biga who killed twelve people in the Barrow State Forest in New South Wales. Importantly, Paul Biga is not front and centre in these stories; in some, he is merely a peripheral figure, in others, more significant but always secondary to those around him. The connection with the serial killer – as individual as the characters of the stories – is the common theme; but the stories are more than that, each one sets out the lives of the people within it. For some, the intersection of their lives with the killer is minimal and no more than a brief diversion in their life’s journey; for others, it is more extensive and becomes a pivotable moment. The stories explore how the various characters integrate their connection with Paul Biga into their life stories.
The first story Tourists, set in 2008, creates the scene for the subsequent stories. In Tourists, Joe and Lena are work colleagues and both live in Barrow – or as it is known colloquially ‘Murder Town’ – and this is where Paul Biga lived when he ‘used to drive the same highway – up and down for hours – to find a person, any person’ [3]. Joe and Lena walk through the forest and for a very chilling moment Joe takes on the persona of the killer walking his latest victim towards her death.
In Hostess [1986], the unnamed narrator temporarily boards with an ex-colleague Jill whose much younger sister is marrying an older man – a taxi driver – against Jill’s instincts. The narrator’s connection with Paul Biga is tangential but, while never made explicit, it can be inferred that the older man is [or will become] the killer. In Hunter on the Highway [1996], a young woman May becomes increasingly concerned that her partner Darcy is the serial killer. She believes that the only way she can be sure is to place herself at risk by hitchhiking on the highway to find out whether it will be Darcy who will stop for her. Fortunately, at the end of the story, May ‘was filled with tenderness, with love, as if she never doubted him, and never been afraid’ [53].
Three of the stories – Demolition [2003]; Fat Suit [2024]; and Podcast [2028] – explore the intrusion of the media and how the killings are reported. The first story is from the perspective of the neighbours of the Biga home who are visited by the author of a book about Paul Biga and is now writing an article about the aftermath. The second is narrated by an American actor who is to play Paul Biga in a film but whose personal story of a pending divorce and separation from his step-children is of more significance to him than the role he is to play. The third is from the perspective of two podcasters whose personal banter takes precedence over the story of the killer even though a thirteenth body has recently been found.
Perhaps the most poignant of the stories is Lucy. Beginning in 1950 when Lucy is eight, the story concludes in 1962. Lucy’s stepfather runs a market garden and employs immigrants to work in the garden. One of the men is John Biga who, when Lucy is twenty, asks her to marry him and she does. Lucy and John are the future parents of Paul Biga and they will live next-door to the couple referred to in Demolition. Thus the circle is complete.
These twelve stories are brilliantly rendered and engage the reader by captivating him/her from the first line to the last. Each of them explores a fundamental question – how do people process and integrate into their lives their contact with a serial killer? Does it become a part of personal history which is shared with no one; does the contact become an anecdote brought out at dinner parties; is the contact even recognised for what it was? These questions and others are explored through the setting out of the stories.
Highway 13 is written by one of Australia’s finest writers and her skill is evident on every page. An excellent novel.
Highway 13
[2024]
by Fiona McFarlane
Allen and Unwin
ISBN 978 176106 701 3
$32.99; 298pp