The Wiregrass by Adrian Hyland

Publisher's Synopsis

A murder made to look like an accident. A disgraced cop trying to forget his past.

My eyes sprang open. What was wrong? Something had been hovering down in the backwoods of my brain. A disturbing image that only rose to the surface when I began to relax. Wild winds, wet hair, black bark, blood. A crushed body. The poor bastard killed by the falling tree at Wycliff Rise. Something about that scene wasn’t right.

Nash Rankin is a disgraced cop trying to escape his past – his career was destroyed when he chose to take justice into his own hands. Now he’s living a quiet life in a small town, caring for the local wildlife and trying to stay away from trouble.

Jesse Redpath has a new job in a new town: Satellite. The stormy weather that greets her first few days on the beat seems like a sign of what’s to come. A local has died in what looks like an accident, but Jessie isn’t so sure that the ‘accident’ wasn’t planned. All the evidence points to Nash, but Jesse’s not sure about that either.

Seems like Nash has enemies. And what looks like a close-knit community might just be a cover for dark secrets.

No amount of rain will wash this town clean.

My Review of The Wiregrass by Adrian Hyland

A highly compelling follow-up to the sparkling Canticle Creek, the brutal and unpredictable Australian climate once again provides a cataclysmic backdrop to The Wiregrass. This rural police procedural starts off in the midst of a ferocious winter storm and reintroduces us to police constable Jesse Redpath as she saves a woman from floodwaters, unhesitatingly risking her life in the process. The furious start to the book serves as an appetiser of what we can expect from someone who’s prepared to do whatever it takes to get a result.

I need a story to be constantly evolving and I like my protagonist to be proactive and The Wiregrass, courtesy of Jesse Redpath ticks all of the boxes.

In short order, Jesse identifies that a scene that initially looks like an accidental death caused by a fallen tree is actually a murder, meets and has a whirlwind one night stand with ex-policeman and loner Nash Rankin, watches in bewilderment as her new romantic partner is arrested for the murder she earlier identified and then proceeds to embark on a fight to prove his innocence.

This was getting weirder by the minute. The feller I'd flung myself at was a killer, a cop and a psycho? He hadn't seemed like any of those things. He'd seemed kind of nice, if a little reserved. Was my bullshit detector that out of whack?

Much of this doesn’t go down well with her superiors, not that that really gives her pause. Jesse Redpath is the kind of badass operator who tends to push ahead on a chosen path if she believes her cause is just. It’s an attitude that’s great for a reader to follow but can play merry hell with a burgeoning police career.

Motivated to clear Nash’s name and, in the process, find who the real murderer is, Jesse does her own off-the-books investigating. And there’s very little quit in her which means everything happens at a hectic pace.

In fact, from page 1 everything happens at a hectic pace: heroic flood rescue, animal attraction/consummation with Nash, suspension, working off the books, making herself a target. You name it, most of it happens in startlingly short order.

And as with many of these types of rural crime novels, many of the usual criminal activities and red flags are introduced, you know, the kinds of things that remote locations just scream out for: cult activity; drugs, illegal dumping, terrorising people in the dead of night. The town of Satellite in Victoria and its immediate surrounds is an absolute hotbed of wrong ‘un behaviour. It’s just as well they’ve got Jesse who’s prepared to go rogue to clean up the joint.

Adrian Hyland has the ability to incorporate sharp injections of humour into the most dramatic of scenes. The result is a consistently entertaining story backing a constantly evolving plot. And there’s a helluva lot crammed into that plot, let me tell you. To top it off, the setting is a special one and I was given yet another reminder of just how vast and diverse the Australian countryside is.

As was the case with Canticle Creek, I found The Wiregrass to be a truly compelling rural crime thriller and Jesse, compulsive nature and all, is a top notch copper. Although it’s the second in a series there’s no problem picking it up and reading it as a stand-alone novel.