Review: The Dark Side by Barry Morwood

Publisher's Synopsis

The three Castle sister, Hilary Erin and Josie know about the dark side.

Hilary the successful Gold Coast lawyer, haunted by her client's savage death.

Josie married to the dark side, lives an ongoing nightmare in prosperity.

Erin the brilliant artist, fled the dark side as a child and struggles to prevent her friend, Lydia and Josie, falling prey to it.

The fightback of three sisters for each other and for those they love.

My Review 

The Dark Side is a thriller that explores the problem of spousal abuse and the ineffectual powers of the police and the justice system to arrest and prosecute the men who regularly beat their wives. 

Barry Morwood drives home an ugly scenario that is all the more chilling knowing that what he describes in his book goes on in homes across the country every day. Published in 1997, The Dark Side is Morwood's only novel which is a shame because he has a style that deeply involves the reader.

Three sisters, Hilary, Erin and Josie grew up in a household that was far from ideal with a father who regularly came home drunk and, when he was drunk, became violent. He took that violence out on his wife and daughters. Hilary's response was to throw herself utterly into her studies, Erin was openly rebellious and Josie tried to persevere as best she could. Now, as adults, their lives have been shaped by this early development.

Hilary is now a lawyer, a highly respected one who is going places, Erin fled her abusive father for a life on the streets turning to drugs and surrounding herself with lowlifes after help from Josie she pulled herself up to become one of Australia's most promising artists. Josie married a doctor and is now regularly beaten and abused by a man who is a simmering mass of hate.

The story opens with a horrific confrontation in Hilary Castle's office as her client is attacked by the man she had just taken out a court order against. It's the first in a running theme of crimes against women that involve one or another of the sisters. The fact that the man is caught and arrested in no way means that his involvement with Hilary is ended as his unreasoning hatred against the woman he perceives to have caused his imprisonment is allowed to fester throughout the book. This is one of a few separate story lines that will inevitably play a part further towards the end of the book.

"Said I was plotting with my sisters against him. Said I was trying to take the children from him - why would he say that? Said he would rather die with the children and me before he'd let that happen. He held a knife at my throat, bashed my head against the bed, twisted my neck...The usual stuff and threats. Tied me to the end of the bed all night using some electrical appliance cord. Left me there, gagged you know, no clothes, nothing. On the floor..." Her sister was describing an everyday part of her life.

The Dark Side is, on the one hand, a well-organised thriller that pieces together a series of disparate story lines that are brought together with blinding ferocity and on the other it's a stern discourse on violence against women. Something that recurs throughout the book is the way in which each man justifies the violence he hands out. Similarly, the self-esteem of each of the beaten women has been beaten down to the point where they will do anything to forgive their husbands, to the point where they reject any offers of help from outside the immediate family. Sadly, for those in real life, Morwood has captured the plight of many, many domestic situations with frightening accuracy, but he has used it to create a novel of compelling drama.

The psychology behind spousal abuse is intricate on both sides of the ledger, as the abuser and the abused and in order to make the story as believable as possible it is important to get right inside each character's mind. Morwood has done this with remarkable clarity and every major player has been fully fleshed out with a detailed background plus a trip into their thought processes, the justifications, the denials and the promises (that will be broken) to never let it happen again. It's all very intense.

The Dark Side begins with a bang, takes you through a wide range of emotions, deals with a problem that is common to many domestic relationships and finishes with a breathless showdown. It's the only novel by Barry Morwood but it's certainly a gripping thriller and well worth reading if you can track it down.