Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Unlike many novels, the title of this book is immediately linked to the story it tells. I was fascinated to discover that the journey of this story forms a circle. It begins with a university student’s experience watching a lyrebird and continues twenty years later with the same woman, now a mother and university lecturer, being privy to the investigation of several murders which took place near where she had first seen the lyrebird. It completes its journey, back where it began, with this woman and her teenage daughter experiencing the dance of two lyrebirds who mimic sounds they have recently heard.
Because these native fauna mimic so accurately what they hear, a police investigation was instigated when what sounded like a woman screaming in sheer terror was reported. This revealed nothing at the time, but the investigation was reinstated years later when bodies were found in this geographical area.
This book follows the investigation. As the police personnel go about gathering their information, the reader learns about the personal histories of each officer involved. This is often just as interesting to the reader as the actual search for the killer.
Soon issues of human trafficking, organised crime and sexual slavery come to light. People from the past are found or accounted for, but after such a long time it is difficult to know who is telling the truth. Of course, once the media hear about the bodies they became ‘as annoying (to the police) as a swarm of mosquitos’ (127).
Other topics add extra layers to this story. There are people with gambling problems, a man with the condition known as alopecia, a trans person, a working single mum trying to bring up a teenager and the issue of loss of a loved one as well as through retirement. And to add a bit more excitement, just as the whole investigation is coming together, the area finds itself in one of the worst bushfires this vicinity has ever experienced.
It has been discovered that one of the firefighters, who is out risking his life for others, might be the person of interest in relation to the discovered bodies and the police have just heard that a young girl has gone missing. Fear for her safety is not just from the bushfire.
The descriptions in this book are very graphic and the reader can feel the emotions experienced by the characters. This is particularly so during the bushfire.
There are several conflicting emotions generated in this story. How can someone, who can display so much compassion and tender care of another, be a ruthless trafficker or killer? Are all the characters exactly as they present themselves? Some seem to have had too much influence in the situations that unfurl to be totally innocent and so the reader is almost expecting them to be exposed for some past wrongdoing.
The author, Jane Caro AM, is a Walkley Award-winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, broadcaster, advertising writer, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator. We have often seen her on our TV sets appearing frequently on Q&A, The Drum and Sunrise. She has created and presented five documentary series for ABC’s Compass, and she writes regular columns in Sunday Life.
Jane Caro has published twelve books including a memoir Plain Speaking Jane. She created and edited Unbreakable which featured stories women writers had never told before and was published just before the Harvey Weinstein revelations. The Mother was her first novel for adults and Lyrebird is her second, written after she herself experienced an encounter with a lyrebird.
An interesting story which is well told.
Lyrebird
(2025)
by Jane Caro
Allen & Unwin
ISBN:978-1-76147-153-7
$34.99; 368pp