Monday, August 18, 2025

Tanya Scott, Stillwater

 


 - This debut novel from Australian doctor and writer Tanya Scott is a very detailed story full of characters across the love-hate spectrum.

- Most are likeable but a bunch are loathsome. It's about brutal gangsters forcing innocent young people to do want they want or suffer the consequences - like being shot. 

- It's a gripping read on a number of levels. The main character is Luke, a young man who faced a very difficult childhood. His drug addicted mother died and his father abandoned him. But he's highly intelligent and determined to succeed in life. He's also a good fighter, having learnt boxing in a gym run by a gangster called Gus. Gus wants Luke to do the dirty work for him and will not tolerate any resistance. Luke has no choice. 

- We go back and forth across different time zones, allowing the full picture of their relationship to emerge. 

- Another baddie is Jonathan, a rich but corrupt developer, whose daughter Emma meets Luke and is attracted to him. Jonathan and Gus both want Luke’s loyalty.  

- The story gets very bogged down at times. The constant fighting and arguing between the crims is off-putting. They are low-lifes with phones and guns, and as a reader I was utterly bored by the cliched interactions. 

- Luke and Emma are attractive though, and the more time we spend with them the better.

- Of course it's all resolved in your standard way. The baddies end badly, and the goodies survive and flourish. 


-(Scott writes well but the editing could have been better. The prose is littered with confusing pronoun references. One example of many: ‘Gus liked the cafe: Jack made excellent coffee and he could chat in Italian with Marcella’. Who does the ‘he’ refer to - Gus or Jack?)


No comments:

Post a Comment