Book Review: WILD PLACE by Christian White

      

WILD PLACE

by

Christian White

WILD PLACE

Author: Christian White

ISBN: 9781922626103

Publication Date: October 26, 2021

Publisher: Affirm Press

About the Book

In the summer of 1989, a local teen goes missing from the idyllic suburb of Camp Hill in Australia. 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?

From the international bestseller Christian White, Wild Place is a white-knuckle descent into a street near you.

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My Thoughts

Whatever the setting, one thing Christian White consistently brings to his plots are well thought-out twists; some you might guess at, others you don’t see coming. He lulls you into thinking you have a good understanding of a character and their motivations, and then *whoosh*, out goes the rug from under your feet.

Set in 1989, the story is rich in references of the time. For those of us that were old enough, it’s a trip down memory lane. This is the fun part. Yet scratch the surface of this suburb and its inhabitants, and all is not as it seems. Tom Witter, local resident and high school teacher, discovers this when he takes an active interest in helping find the missing teen, Tracie Reed. Is she really the attention-seeking runaway some say she is? Or are other malevolent forces at play?

White nicely juxtaposes a seemingly ordinary suburb with the Wild Place – a small forest that backs onto residential properties. Seen in a positive light, the forest view affords residents privacy, as well as a wilderness they can enjoy. Conversely, it’s dense, it’s dark and an ideal place for nefarious activities. White continues this theme with the neighbours; we see what we want to see, or we see the façade presented to us. Throw in the disappearance of a local teenager and a community that starts looking much closer at themselves, and you soon discover that ordinary people are anything but when pushed to extremes.

THE WILD PLACE is a really entertaining read. I highly recommend it. 

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About the Author

Christian White is an Australian author, screenwriter and producer.

His debut novel, The Nowhere Child, won the 2017 Wheeler Centre Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript. Since publication The Nowhere Child has been shortlisted for major awards including the Australian Book Industry Awards’ General Fiction Book of the Year and Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, and the Indie Book Awards’ Debut Fiction Book of the Year. Rights to The Nowhere Child have been sold in 17 international territories, and acquired for a major screen deal.

His second and most recent novel, The Wife and the Widow, was released in September 2019 in Australia and January 2020 in the US. It became an instant bestseller and has been shortlisted for the 2020 Indie Book Awards for best fiction.

Christian co-created the television series Clickbait, with Tony Ayres (The Slap), which went straight to number 1 on Netflix in 41 countries, including Australia, the US and the UK

Christian also co-wrote the feature film Relic, a horror/drama starring Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote and Robyn Nevin, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an AWGIE award for Best Feature Film at the 2019 Australian Writer’s Guild Awards.

Christian writes from his home in Melbourne, where he lives with his wife, filmmaker Summer DeRoche, and their adopted greyhound, Issy.

 

https://www.christian-white.com/