Reviewed by Ian Lipke
James Dunbar does not normally have much to do with crime-mystery writing. We can be thankful that he changed his habits to write Twisted River.
When Rory and Cate, a married couple returning from a vacation overseas, they are met by a set of nightmarish circumstances. Their credit cards no longer work, their bank accounts have been emptied, and their phones and internet have been cancelled. What is most confronting is that their home has been leased by a group of undesirables. To add to their woes, their house-sitter and dog have disappeared. Meanwhile, Cate’s work colleagues have received copies of her handwritten resignation letter, posted from Paris, filled with insults and lurid allegations.
As the harassment becomes worse, several possible identities of the intruder into their lives are identified. Furthermore, it does not help that the local police are in no way sympathetic to their plight. Rory and Cate decide to solve the mystery unaided. Danger is invoked though their activities.
James Dunbar, the author, reveals some of the inner workings of his brain when thinking about the novels he has written:
“Twisted River is my second James Dunbar novel. It’s set in the seaside resort town of Kiama and is much more of a psychological thriller than Mole Creek. It has everything – family secrets and lies, a thinking dog (mostly about food), a psycho killer who doesn’t want to kill anyone and the studied and deliberate mental and emotional disintegration of someone who is, by any definition, a good person”.
Readers faced with “a psycho killer who doesn’t want to kill anyone” and another person faced with mental disintegration who remains a good person, are unlikely to leave the book on the shelves. One must decide whether Dunbar delivers on his ambitious proposal. He does just that, as promised. We are placed in a position of observing Cate, driven almost to tragedy. The notion that the house-sitter was forced by a burning need for vengeance to take the measures she did cuts no ice with me.
Dunbar’s use of the title “twisted river” invokes speculation. The appellation immediately suggests the mental disintegration alluded to in the previous paragraph. But this is only one interpretation. One view, each item of which fits the meaning and in combination is non-exhaustive, tell of a river that flows through wild country, and which might harbour criminal activity. The suggestion, that occurred to the character Rory but was not pursued, was the notion of the twisted cabling that goes into powering a house or other property.
More significant to the story is the inclusion of a dark patch in Rory’s career. Such a history makes the police’s suspicion and unwillingness to work understandable. The question remains whether the insertion of Rory’s criminal history does anything much to enhance the main story’s narrative.
Be that as it may, there is no denying the author’s skill in matching the tone of the story with the environment which it nestles within. Moments of drama in the story are matched with rough country, or important events. At this the author excels.
If books are classified on a scale of interest, this one is right up there. On a scale of entertainment value, this book scores strongly. I enjoyed the book immensely.
Twisted River
2025)
by James Dunbar
Echo Publishing
ISBN: 978-1786586971
$32.99; 336 pp