Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I was a bit on the fence about Fiona McFarlane's writing after not loving The Sun Walks Down as much as I expected to. I had heard rave reviews about her latest Highway 13 and I am definitely glad I gave her another chance.

Highway 13 is a series of interconnected but not linear short stories. The central theme is a serial killer that targets hitchhikers and buries them in a national park in NSW. Australian readers will almost certainly recognise the real life story that has inspired this book. But here McFarlane has very cleverly centred not the horrific person responsible for the crimes but instead shines a light on people connected in some way to the events. This shifts the focus away from the monster and onto the ripple effects of his crimes across time and place. Highlighting that it is possible in this era of true crime podcasts to focus on the victims and their families and friends rather than perpetrator.

In one story, an ex-flight attendant living in Darwin is horrified that her very young sister is marrying a man she does not trust. In another a woman is terrified her boyfriend might be the killer that has not yet been caught and one day she follows him to see where he goes. The timelines and locations shift dramatically. A woman is interviewed about the young man who once lived across the road from her and did her gardens years before he was to become infamous. A woman remembers a time that her friends years earlier had met a Swiss hitchhiker in Sydney and let her stay with them overnight after she had a fight with her boyfriend. Some schoolgirls are chaperoned by a nun on a school trip decades ago. Two podcast hosts discuss the case in the near future.

The writing was so well done and each story was perfectly formed. The fact that at some point in the telling of each a tiny little link to the central theme would appear was something to look forward to.

I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it.