Riptides by Kirsten Alexander

Publisher's Synopsis

One bad decision can tear your world apart . . .

December 1974. Abby Campbell and her brother Charlie are driving to their father’s farm on a dark country road when they swerve into the path of another car, forcing it into a tree. The pregnant driver is killed instantly.

In the heat of the moment, Abby and Charlie make a fateful decision. They flee, hoping heavy rain will erase the fact they were there. They both have too much to lose.

But they have no idea who they’ve just killed or how many lives will be affected by her death. Soon the truth is like a riptide they can’t escape, as their terrible secret pulls them down deeper by the day.

My review of Riptides by Kirsten Alexander

Riptides is set in Queensland. The year is 1974, Australia is discovering near neighbours such as Indonesia and the tourist island of Bali and life appears to be laid back and trouble free. For some. But this family drama demonstrates that all of that can change with one poor decision.

Charlie and Abby are driving to their father’s property along deserted dirt roads when Charlie, who had too much to drink after his flight from Bali, falls asleep only to wake as they hit another car. The car rolls and when they get to it they find a pregnant woman who has been thrown out and is lying, dying.

Their response to this crisis is the wrong one. They leave the woman to die, choosing to head back to a nearby town in the hopes that no one can link them to the accident. When they get to their father’s property the next day they discover the woman they killed was their father’s fiancé.

Continuing to hide the truth from both their father and the police creates an unbelievable level of tension between the siblings. It also deepens the trouble they’ve created for themselves and there’s a definite feeling of impending doom surrounding every interaction they have. Eventually, somebody’s going to inadvertently give the game away.

There are more issues lying below the surface for each of the central characters here and the family drama begins to play out in earnest. Charlie is a man-child who refuses to grow up while Abby appears to be overly self-absorbed, more concerned about the impact her mistakes might have on herself and her immediate family.

I found it difficult to have any sympathy for Abby and Charlie’s father who turns out to be quite the arsehole. Even for the times, the man is a misogynistic buffoon who treats his daughter deplorably, never showing an ounce of compassion or care for his children. He also comes up with a ridiculously flawed plan to carry out what amounts to being a kidnapping in an effort to retrieve his dead fiance’s son from a nearby commune. 

Kirsten Alexander has captured the 1970s time period in which Riptides is set particularly well. There is an overarching feeling of “she’ll be right mate” about so many of the characters who appear throughout. Charlie’s friends from Bali, Abby’s husband and her neighbours, even the cultish commune leader with whom Charlie has a few run-ins with.

My main problem with the story comes from the pacing. The early portion tended to drag as we were taken exhaustively over the accident and the attempts to hide the siblings’ involvement while the ending was too abrupt with many promisingly interesting storylines left untold or incompletely resolved.

In the end I was left feeling as though I wanted some kind of resolution that would justify the journey I had just been taken on. I felt kind of let down in that respect.