Reviewed by Ian Lipke
An exploration of Jane R. Miles’s debut novel, Stay Buried, reveals a masterful blending of atmospheric terror and psychological depth. Described as crossing the claustrophobia of Room with the eerie outback mystery of Picnic at Hanging Rock, the novel utilizes its historical backdrop and sharply drawn figures to explore themes of survival, grief, and societal bias. Through its dual timelines, Stay Buried demonstrates how setting, characterization, and character choice intertwine to elevate the psychological thriller genre into a poignant commentary on whose lives society deems valuable.
The setting in Stay Buried is not merely a backdrop; it is an active, antagonistic force that shapes the entire narrative. Miles anchors the inciting incident in a devastating historical reality: Cyclone Tracy. The cyclone acts as the perfect chaotic catalyst, masking the disappearance of four young girls into the outback and providing a plausible reason for the ensuing confusion and lack of evidence. The historical destruction of Darwin mirrors the shattered lives of the families left behind.
Furthermore, Miles contrasts the vast, unforgiving expanse of the Australian outback with the terrifying confinement of a hidden bunker. This duality in the setting creates a profound sense of claustrophobia. The expansive outback offers no tracks and no answers, while the bunker represents the inescapable, intimate horrors of captivity. The environment continuously isolates the characters, making their fight for survival—and the subsequent search for truth—feel entirely untethered from the safety of civilization.
Miles’s characterization is deeply rooted in how grief and trauma manifest across decades. The narrative is driven by a deliberate contrast between two different types of missing persons:
- The Angels: The four young girls who vanish during the cyclone are immediately idealized by the community and their families. Their characterization is shaped by absence and the collective mourning of a society that views them as pure, tragic victims.
- Sally: In stark contrast is this young, “wild-child” single mother who disappears around the same time. Because of her lifestyle and social standing, her vanishing is met with apathy. She is the marginalized victim, the one whose disappearance never truly mattered to anyone except her daughter.
- Von: As Sally’s daughter, Von serves as the relentless emotional core of the novel’s contemporary timeline. Her character is defined by a gritty determination to uncover the truth about her mother. Von represents the collateral damage of unsolved mysteries, embodying the frustration of fighting a society that has already decided her mother’s life was not worth investigating.
- The Returned Woman: The sudden reappearance decades later of a woman claiming to be one of the missing—holding a keepsake belonging to Sally—injects intense psychological ambiguity into the story. Her fragmented identity forces the other characters, and the reader, to question the reliability of memory and the true cost of survival.
The specific choices Miles makes in selecting and framing her characters serve as a sharp critique of societal biases. By juxtaposing the frantic, lingering public grief for “The Angels” against the utter indifference toward Sally, Miles forces the reader to confront uncomfortable truths about victimhood.
The choice to make Von the driving force of the modern-day investigation is particularly impactful. Instead of relying on a traditional police detective trope, Miles empowers the discarded daughter of a discarded woman. Von’s quest is not just about solving a cold case; it is a fight for validation and a demand that her mother’s existence be acknowledged. This character choice shifts the narrative from a standard police procedural to a deeply personal, character-driven tragedy.
Jane R. Miles’s Stay Buried is a chilling exploration of secrets that refuse to die. By grounding the narrative in the catastrophic historical setting of Cyclone Tracy and expertly manipulating the claustrophobia of both the Australian outback and physical captivity, the novel crafts an inescapable atmosphere of dread. Ultimately, it is Miles’s poignant characterization and her deliberate choices in highlighting the disparity between the mourned and the forgotten that make the novel a deeply resonant, unforgettable thriller.
Stay Buried
(2026)
by Jane R. Miles
HQ Fiction (Harper Collins)
ISBN: 978-1-0389-4352-1
$32.99; 388 pp