Wild Place by Christian White

Publisher's Synopsis

In the summer of 1989, a local teen goes missing from the idyllic Australian suburb of Camp Hill. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom Witter becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When the police won’t listen, he takes matters into his own hands with the help of the missing girl’s father and a local neighbourhood watch group.

But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it. Wild Place peels back the layers of suburbia, exposing what’s hidden underneath – guilt, desperation, violence – and attempts to answer the question: why do good people do bad things?

My Review 

When a quiet, suburban neighbourhood of recent developments backs onto a piece of undeveloped, overgrown land, the tag of Wild Place is bestowed upon it. It shouldn’t be a place responsible for striking fear into the hearts of nearby residents - but when a teenage girl goes missing one night, that’s exactly what happens.

Between Christmas and New Year in 1989, seventeen year old Tracie Reed goes missing from Camp Hill in Victoria. She’s just finished high school, lived with her mother after her parents separated and has given small indications that she would soon be moving out.

But that doesn’t mean that she would suddenly become a runaway, as the police have concluded.

The local Neighbourhood Watch group, headed up by a prize busybody, decides they should get onto the front foot in helping to find Tracie. This includes posting flyers around the neighbourhood and the task is thrust upon high school teacher Tom Witter.

Not only is Tom a concerned member of the local community but he’s also a teacher from Tracie’s school so feels it is incumbent upon him to do his best to help find her.

“Wild Place was summed up in the name: a wild patch of land in the middle of the most un-wild place you could imagine. It wasn’t big, exactly, but it was big enough. Any bigger, and it might roll out into the neighbourhood and consume the houses like in ‘The Blob’. 

According to legend, the bushland was home to a killer clown, was the secret burial place of the Beaumont children, and contained a hidden pit filled with venomous snakes. Kieran didn’t really believe any of that, but he lived in hope.”

One of the places in the neighbourhood that, until now, didn’t seem to be hostile or foreboding is the Wild Place. Now, with Tracie missing, presumed kidnapped, it’s an area that represents a real threat to the other kids who tend to play in the dense undergrowth. Immediately banning the kids from visiting Wild Place is another step that Tom feels he must take.

Then there’s next-door neighbour Sean. Sean has embraced the whole goth lifestyle, including the dark clothing, heavy metal music and, so members of the Neighbourhood Watch group suspect, dabbling in Satanism.

Could Sean have had something to do with Tracie’s disappearance?

Wild Place gradually unfolds into a dark, somewhat disturbing recounting of secrets, lies, fears and failings of the human spirit. The twists are nicely integrated into the story along with moments of sudden escalated violence.

While the satanic symbols and uncovering of occult lore plays a minor role in the story, it is not overdone and shouldn’t dissuade anyone from enjoying the story. I felt the fear that the occult was somehow involved was the type of thing frightened people dredge up in answer to an unexplained mystery.  

An aspect that totally works for their realism is the cast of characters within the small community. From the nosy, bossy Neighbourhood Watch leader to the single parents and broken families just trying to get by, they all spark flickers of recognition as people who live among all of us.

The story unfolds in relentless fashion, building to a tumultuous climax. One by one, the dominoes begin to fall into place as the worlds of a number of the residents of Keel Street in Camp Hill are changed forever.

With Wild Place, Christian White reminds us that monsters live among us in numerous different guises and can be summoned by the most unexpected set of circumstances. 

This book stands very nicely next to White's Ned Kelly Award-winning The Wife and The Widow.