欧宝娱乐

A 欧宝娱乐 friend, Sheree, 鈥淜eeping up With the Penguins鈥� wrote a review that inspired me to read Highway 13. I also read a review in the magazine, The Australian Book Review, which annoyed me because it was written by these literary snobs who want to impress and talk down to their audience with a pretensions sesquipedalian writing style. I will try to be the polar opposite.

Highway 13 is a collection of short stories by talented Australian author, Fiona McFarlane, who burst onto the Australian literary scene in 2014 when she was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. She has subsequently gained a PhD, spent time in America in study and in writing residences.

Highway 13鈥檚 link to crime fiction is tenuous. The theme running through and linking her stories is actions of one of Australia鈥檚 infamous serial killers, Ivan Milat.

Milat was a character who I have watched from afar for some time. I can clearly remember when the bodies of his victims were discovered in the Belanglo State Forest. I remember the news flashes announcing the discovery of bodies.

Later I was working in Maitland, and he was a prisoner in Maitland Gaol and stories circulated in the community of his appalling behaviour while incarcerated. The authorities subsequently closed Maitland Gaol and turned it into museum come conference place. I attended a conference and sat near Milat鈥檚 cell. It was disturbing and I recommended we never us that venue again.

Two books about Milat that impressed me were 鈥楽ins of the Brother鈥� by Mark Whittaker an 鈥淢ilat鈥� by Clive Small.

It is only after reading several stories that I saw how each story was tainted with murder. The individuals, families, and communities that were affected by this capital crime. The grief, loss and changes that occur because of the deaths.

The stories are connected by a thin spider web thread that connects the twelve stories. The stories range over an eighty-year period from 1950 to the immediate future.

The first story, 鈥淭ourist鈥� I found it difficult in finding purpose, Lena and her spiritual relationship to the Belanglo forest. 鈥淗unter on the Highway鈥�, set in 1996 explored the suspicions people had of others and whether they were the killer. 鈥淒emolition鈥� is from the POV of neighbours of the killer as his house was demolished and their relationship with the boy who grew up to be a serial killer. 鈥淗ostess鈥� is the story of retired air hostess Jill and her efforts to stop, in 1982, her sister from marrying the man would later become the serial killer. One of my favourite is 鈥淗ostel鈥�. In 1995 Roy and Mandy host a backpacker, a young Swiss girl who is later found murdered in Belanglo. The two of them have a story that outlasts their marriage.

Sometimes the connection to the serial killer is part of the whole story, the central part of 鈥淔atsuit鈥� is a point of view story about an actor portraying the serial killer. In the previous story, 鈥淐haperone鈥� the connection to the serial killer is mentioned in one line. 鈥淭he Wake鈥� opened with two older ladies participating in their congenial morning swim. This story is set in 2020 and one of the women was on the serial killer task force. The last story, 鈥淟ucy鈥� is a character filled account of the family of the woman who married the serial killer.

The technique used by McFarlane of having the serial killer appear in every story reminded me of a Flickerfest ran a competition where competitors made a film where a lampshade had to appear at some point in the film.

This is not a ghoulish book and although much is based on the activities of Ivan Milat McFarlane鈥檚 killer is a not Milat. There are many similarities, but McFarlane has deliberately created factual differences between her killer and Milat.

In a fine literary style McFarlane has constructed twelve well told short stories. I thought the early stories were somewhat abstract but as each story unfolded, I was captured by her writing and enjoyed each story. They are about the human condition rather than the crime of murder. McFarlane is a fine writer.