by Joanna Baker
She had learned a lot, too. She must have a new confidence in herself, not that that had ever been a problem, really, but now she must feel that if she put her mind to it she could solve anything. I wondered if this had just been a practice for her, if one day, when she felt able, she’d try to solve the really important question in her life, the mystery of what happened to her own mother. Maybe I’d help her, even if it was just by bumbling around stirring everything up, the way I had this time.
I should tell her — not all that, but just that I’d be happy to be around.
So I made her a card. Not a Christmas card, a get well card. Then, before I took it to the hospital, I sat and stared at it, thinking about what you could and couldn’t say, and wondering if it was a good idea.
I’d put a lot of effort into it, even though that probably didn’t show, and it was a weird thing to do, but it was the only thing I could think of. Really it was more than just a get well card. It was supposed to be some kind of message, about how it’s OK to be the odd one out, but I hadn’t really worked out how to say that. It was also supposed to say we’d been friends for a long time, and something about how important that was, and something about remembering what it’s like to be a kid, and something about days that are good and bad at the same time. It was also about jokes. How a thing could be funny even if no one else in the world thought so.
And it was pathetic in a way, because all I’d managed to do to carry this load, was to draw four goldfish on the front of the card, and label them Super Dooper Pooper and Scooper.
And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough — and I only did it because I know Chess is sensible enough to hide it, because I’d be pretty embarrassed if anyone else saw it — inside, I’d done a really careful drawing, in fluoro inks, with gold highlights, and I’d put it in a gold and silver frame, like the one her family photo had been in, that had got wrecked in the fire.
I’m happy with this inside drawing. It wasn’t that special, really, but I hoped Chess would get it, because to me it somehow managed to hold all those things — individuality, forgiveness, lives linked together, shared history, shared jokes.
Amazing, really, that it could mean all that. Because it was just another goldfish. An odd little guy, wearing a yellow sun on his shirt, not at all like the others, with an expression that showed he didn’t care.
And this one was called John.
Acknowledgements
Much gratitude is due.
Firstly to my literary and accomplished friends at Riparian — Dotti Simmons, Louise D’Arcy, Jane Downing, Raylene Brown and Sally Denshire — a constant source of wisdom and hilarity.
Secondly to the vibrant, talented and worldly-wise members of the Little Londsdale Group — Jewelene Barrile, Leslie Falkiner-Rose, Troy Hunter, Karthryn Ledson, Kate O’Donnell-Rizzetti, Margareta Osborne-Kerby, Anja Tanhane, Jennifer Scoullar and Diane Simonelli.
Thanks are also due to Helen Chamberlin of Lothian Books who first published Devastation Road, to the Sisters in Crime Australia for the award and for inspiring writers and readers everywhere, to Susan Hampton and Isobelle Carmody for early guidance, and to Joel Naoum of Critical Mass.
My three kids are so wonderful that I can try anything now, because I know that nothing else really matters.
And above all, thanks are due to my dear husband Martin, for his astuteness, his generous spirit and his unwavering support.
The Elsinore Vanish
Thrilling sequel to Devastation Road, coming June 2019
Looking back, it’s obvious we should never have kept going. But stories feel different when you’re inside them.
And I didn’t realise. That’s my other excuse. I had no idea how bad it was going to be.
Ten months ago, in the Beechworth Town Hall, Tim Williams died horribly, poisoned with potassium cyanide in front of a room full of people.
The murder was impossible. When it happened the poison was locked in a cupboard two kilometres away, with someone sitting in front of it.
The police have got nowhere with the case and now Matt Tingle and Chess Febey have been invited to Beechworth, to see if they can get to the truth.
It quickly gets messy. Everybody is lying to them. There are two seriously big guys following them around in a van.
And there’s a kid and who keeps showing them a card trick. The Elsinore Vanish. What’s that all about?
Then they see the van again, and this time it stops …
Now they’re in serious danger. And Chess’s logic isn’t helping. If she wants to catch this murderer she needs a new pathway to the truth. She needs to learn to understand people.
And she has to look deep into the mysteries of The Elsinore Vanish.
Available in print or ebook from June 2019 at your favourite bookshop or online store.
Read more at joannabakerauthor.com
A compulsive, darkly suspenseful Australian crime novel that asks how far we would go to protect someone we love.
Veronica Cruikshank’s youngest child Roland is her idealistic one, a fighter of lost causes, the one that always needs protecting, particularly from himself.
So when she hears he is back in Hobart helping an old school friend, Treen McShane, Veronica tries to track him down – but all she finds are second hand reports, whispers of horrific abuse, stories of a small child being hurt.
Then Roland sends Veronica a text message, asking her to go to the Slipping Place, high on Mount Wellington, a picnic spot known only to their family. Here she discovers Treen’s frozen body.
Knowing Roland will be suspected of leaving Treen to die, Veronica resolves to find out what really happened. But as long-buried truths slowly surface, she uncovers a secret that brings the violence closer to home than she could have ever imagined …
Available at your favourite bookshop or online store: Booktopia, Angus and Robertson, Dymocks Available as ebook everywhere: BUY NOW
Read more at joannabakerauthor.com
About Joanna Baker
Joanna Baker was educated at The Friends’ School, Hobart, the Australian National University, and RMIT Melbourne. She writes murder mysteries set in the two places she loves: Tasmania and the wine and high country of North Eastern Victoria. She also writes online about murder mysteries, why they are so enduring, and why they are not trivial.
First published by Lothian in 2004
This edition published in 2018 by Soren Press
Copyright © Joanna Baker 2018
joannabakerauthor.com
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
Devastation Road
EPUB: 9781925786019
POD: 9781925786026
Cover design by Red Tally Studios
Publishing services provided by Critical Mass
www.critmassconsulting.com
