The Drowning by Bryan Brown

Publisher's Synopsis

The body of a local teenage boy is found on the beach of a sleepy northern New South Wales town. David went for an evening swim and got into trouble . . . at least, that's what it looks like.

Three weeks before, Leila, a young backpacker, didn't turn up for her shift at the local cafe. Benny, the owner, isn't worried. It happens - backpackers are always on the move. There'll be another one.

One of the locals, Adrian, has been a help to Benny. He's found him a nice little sideline. Not exactly legal. Is that all Adrian is arranging on the coast? He once was a cop but has he gone bad?

And in the backblocks outside town, a bikie gang is gearing up for a large consignment from South America.

Murder, drugs, liaisons and lies are stirring up this small coastal town.

My Review of The Drowning by Bryan Brown

David snuck into a place that he shouldn’t have gone. He slipped under a barbed-wire fence to get there and was able to peep through a crack in the wall to see what he really shouldn’t have seen. He tried to be careful, he thought he’d hidden in the long grass so he couldn’t be seen by the big man who was leading the girl by the rope tied around her neck. He thought he’d gotten away with it right up until the bag was placed over his head and he was pushed into the dam and drowned.

“Moira looked out at the crowd. About two hundred people. Surprised her. Didn’t realise her little David had touched so many lives. Lot of whiteys too.”

The tragedy of the drowned aboriginal boy is merely the kicking off point to this small town mystery and intrigue that covers a wide range of criminal activities. From low-level drug dealing to the more serious human slavery, the coastal town to the north of Newcastle in New South Wales is a hotbed of secret illegal activities.

To fill in the various backstories of some of the characters we’re taken on a roving adventure to a variety of cities and towns within Australia and overseas. Benny has a Lebanese background and is keeping his homosexuality a closely guarded secret. Leila is a Danish backpacker living out her Australian dream holiday. Brian and Wanda are engaging in a secret affair, just trying to get on. Adrian picks up odd jobs around town and helps with Benny’s occasional shipments of illegal substances. Sheila cleans Adrian’s house once a week, but is keen to offer more. It’s just a normal small town of minor intrigues, some of which hide a more substantive secret. 

One of the notable features of Brown’s book of short stories was the tight, clipped delivery which seems to capture the Australian speech patterns perfectly and this is evident once again in the narration of The Drowning. One of the benefits of the cut-off sentences is a crispness to the sense of urgency that’s created and this translates into a fast paced story.

The opening milieu neatly sets the sentiment that we, the readers, have stumbled into something halfway through and we now need to catch up. The woman with the rope around her neck, the man who feels he has to commit murder to protect his secret. Both backstories are laid out for us in and, in so doing, the town and the inhabitants’ lives (and secrets) are relentlessly unearthed.

An interesting aspect about The Drowning is that, although crimes take place and investigations are held, there is no real single hero to the story. This is very much an ensemble effort and, in this case, the group consists of members of the town. None are more prominent than the rest and we are provided with a limited backstory for each. The result is that we get just enough to give each character substance without getting overly bogged down.

The Drowning turns out to be a tense and, at times, dark and gritty crime story with serious crimes committed in and around a small community. The tight-knit community, however unremarkable in appearance, displays the type of resilience you’d expect from your typical Australian small town.