Bingo Square: Far and Away
I wish I had been more creative with this square and done something other than physical distance but I was in the mood for a murder mystery, and Australia is definitely one of those places I have never been close enough to seriously considering visiting. Throw in rural Australia, and it’s even farther away.
After twenty years away from his home town, Aaron Falk is back. Tragedy forced him out of town, and tragedy has brought him back. Twenty years ago, Falk and his father left after local teen Ellie was found dead in the river. The town rumor mill went crazy, and while some suspected suicide, others suspected her friend Aaron. His friend Luke vouched that they were together, but the Falks were still driven out of town to Melbourne where Falk now works on the police force investigating financial crime.
Now, he returns for Luke’s funeral. A drought has devastated the community over the last year, and everyone is on edge, worried about financial ruin. As a result, the town has no problem believing that Luke killed his wife and six year old son before killing himself. It doesn’t help that some of the town as always wondered whether Luke and Aaron really were together when Ellie died. In fact, Luke’s father bringing that up to Falk is the exact thing that brought him back because the alibi was a lie. Luke’s father is willing to take the incident at face value but Luke’s mother has questions. Out of obligation, Falk promises to look around a bit, and when he runs across the new local sheriff, realizes that the sheriff too has some doubts. The two end up on an unofficial investigation to discover whether there was more of the death of the three, or it is what it seems, such as a potential connection to Ellie’s death.
I quite enjoyed this novel – it was relatively tight, it didn’t give everything away but still earned its ending because while I didn’t guess the ending, I had at least had a fleeting thought at one point as to whether that might be the direction. The characters have baggage and damage, but even though the setting adds a certain sense of despair, it isn’t one of those mysteries that is dark for the sake of being dark or edgy.
Bingo Square: Far and Away