Publisher's Synopsis
It’s winter in Melbourne and Detective Emmett Corban is starting to regret his promotion to head of the Missing Persons Unit, as the routine reports pile up on his desk.
So when Natale Gibson goes missing, he’s convinced this is the big case he’s been waiting for – the woman’s husband and parents insist the devoted mother would never abandon her children, and her personal accounts remain untouched.
But things aren’t all they seem. The close-knit Italian family is keeping secrets – none bigger than the one Natale has been hiding.
Just as the net seems to be tightening, the investigation is turned on its head. The body of a woman is found . . . then another.
What had seemed like a standard missing person’s case has turned into a frightening hunt for a serial killer, and time is running out.
But to really understand these shocking crimes, Emmett and his team will need to delve back through decades of neglect – back to a squalid inner-city flat, where a young boy is left huddling over his mother’s body . . .
Title: Sticks and Stones
Author: Katherine Firkin
Pages: 400
Published Date: 2 June 2020
Publisher: Bantam Australia
Series Details: Debut novel
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My Review
The debut crime novel Sticks and Stones by Katherine Firkin is a crackling psychological thriller set in the seamy Melbourne inner suburbs.
This is a story that unfolds through a number of parallel storylines, some of which are clearly intertwined while others are not. It requires an ability to keep track of quite a large number of characters.
We meet Emmett Corban who heads the police Missing Persons Unit. He is under pressure due to the low clearance rate of the team. This is fuelled even further by the suggestion from his CO that the unit may be wound up.
Before long a report comes in that a woman has gone missing. This comes from her brother who admits she has had a habit at times of disappearing only to re-emerge later. Before making any meaningful headway on this case, Emmett learns of another missing woman, this one a little more concerning because she has never given any indication of being unreliable or prone to disappearing.
Sure enough, the missing persons quickly become suspicious death victims. And Emmett is given the role of heading up the investigation – a chance to prove himself.
Running in parallel is a storyline involving Cindy Corban, Emmett’s wife. She has just returned to the workforce after having a baby. She struggled with post-natal depression and is now thrilled to be working again. She feels indebted to her photography mentor for helping her land the job. There may also be some attraction there too.
A third storyline unfolds with Abby, an intern at a financial company. She’s keen to make a good impression with the company but also finds herself becoming attracted to one of the managers.
In both of these storylines the development depended quite heavily on the naivete of the women. At times it was difficult to accept some of the reasoning used to continue to pursue their respective relationships and represented possibly the weakest part of the book.
But the fact that they continued to pursue the men in their lives was crucial to the plot and so it required a little leniency on my part.
Also woven into the story is a flashback narrative that reveals the life of a young boy going through the welfare system after the death of his drug-addicted mother. His means of coping with the setbacks in his life explains what he is to become later in life as an adult.
The focus skips from one perspective to the next in each chapter as the narrative unfolds and the links between all of the characters are made. Some links may be real and some may be imagined. All of them are thrown at Emmett and his team who need to tie it all together.
This is a very effective way to build the suspense and drama as things slowly come together.
Sticks and Stones is a well-constructed psychological thriller in terms of hiding the killer from the reader. It has its flaws as well, especially in the roles of the women throughout.
As with most successful psychological thrillers the suspect list was built with numerous credible candidates that ensured the suspense grew right to the dramatic conclusion.
This was a high quality debut novel by Katherine Firkin and one that will ensure that readers will eagerly look forward to the next entry.