An Accusation: A Novel
Page 1
PRAISE FOR WENDY JAMES
“Australia’s queen of the domestic thriller . . .”
—Angela Savage, Books and Writing, ABC Radio
“A master of suburban suspense.”
—Cameron Woodhead, The Age
The Golden Child
“James makes her thrilling mark in women’s fiction with this intense and chilling American debut, offering an in-depth look at motherhood and bullying.”
—Booklist, starred review
“The Golden Child by Wendy James is a next-level thriller that brims with dark surprises and unforgettable characters. Told with pitch-perfect pacing and unrelenting tension, James explores the darkest corners of the human heart in this bone-chilling must-read novel of the year. Clear your calendar—you’ll want to read this one straight through.”
—Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author of The Weight of Silence and Not a Sound
“James invites the reader to consider a set of close relationships in all their intricacy as those involved hurtle towards an inevitable disaster. This is domestic noir at its most intelligent and sharp.”
—Sue Turnbull, Sydney Morning Herald/Melbourne Age
“It takes forty-eight hours to pulse through Wendy James’s roller-coaster twenty-first-century story about parenting, which begins with navigating the trick-or-treating dilemma—to accompany or not?—but climaxes with the question, what age is my child legally responsible for criminal actions? . . . A chilling novel of our time, with a truly shocking twist.”
—Australian Women’s Weekly
“This book is utterly brilliant. I just don’t know where to even start with a review—it was compelling, it was tragic, it was clever, it was frightening, it was heartbreaking, it was shocking and it gave me shivers and it made me question myself as a parent.”
—Nicola Moriarty, author, Goodreads
“An engaging and intimate read that will appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and Jodi Picoult, with nods to Lionel Shriver and Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap . . . 4 Stars.”
—Australian Books + Publishing
“The Golden Child is a gripping novel that transports the reader into the insidious world of cyberbullying and poses confronting questions about parenting.”
—Weekly Times
“Why we love it: it’s a hot topic right now—teenage girls, bullying, and the perils of social media—a topic nailed by Aussie author Wendy James in her latest novel. The Golden Child is a disturbing yet funny look at the age-old problem of teenage girls and the very modern problem of cyberbullying.”
—Better Reading Book of the Week
The Lost Girls
“A wonderful, unputdownable story by a great Australian author.”
—Liane Moriarty, Australian Women’s Weekly
“The novel is nothing less than compelling . . . The Lost Girls grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go—the sort of book you find yourself still reading long after you intended to put it down. In short, everything you want a novel of this kind to be.”
—Weekend Australian
“Wendy James has again demonstrated her flair for suspenseful diversion, buttressed by her not inconsiderable literary talent.”
—Australian Book Review
The Mistake
“The Mistake is a moving book that relentlessly hits the mark.”
—Sue Turnbull, Sydney Morning Herald
“James . . . won the Ned Kelly award for first crime fiction six years ago—and she tells not just a tense and involving story, but also raises important questions about the role of the media, as the missing-baby story becomes a runaway train. The Mistake, credible and accomplished, also asks what happens when family members begin to doubt each other, to wonder how well they know each other.”
—The Australian
“Compelling, well-paced, and suspenseful to the end.”
—Courier Mail
“James is masterful at seamlessly ratcheting up the tension . . . Unputdownable.”
—Good Reading magazine
“With strong characterization and a whack of psychological suspense, it is the kind of novel that will have you second-guessing your own reactions and skillfully exposes the troubling expectations we resort to in the absence of hard evidence.”
—The Age
“James’s pacing of her plot is masterly. From less than halfway through the novel, the reader has to fight an overwhelming urge to flick to the end, to take a quick test of their intuition and to assuage the escalating suspense. Resist the temptation: the end has its poignant surprises and James knows exactly where and how to reveal them.”
—Adelaide Advertiser
“The Mistake is a knockout read . . . with a plot that will haunt you long after the final pages.”
—Angela Savage, broadcaster
“The Mistake is an expertly written, compulsively readable novel that repays the reading with rich reflection. There are no easy answers here and the multiple ‘truths’ of the novel are continually called into question. Everyone is culpable. There are plenty of parallels between Jodie Garrow’s life and those of other real-life women who have been caught up in a media frenzy and judged based on appearance. Nevertheless, the psychological implications go beyond a political statement. This is a powerful book with broad appeal.”
—Maggie Ball, Seattle PI
“Within its suspenseful narrative, The Mistake has important things to say about how we think about motherhood, how the media views women, and how, when it comes to ‘the natural relationship between mother and daughter,’ few can be neutral.”
—Linda Funnell, Newtown Review of Books
“As in the public narratives we devour with tea and toast in the morning, there is nothing to convict Jodie upon except our own judgment of her character; we relish or condemn her according to our sense of moral distance from her. We take part as armchair jurors, comfortable in our own safety, never suspecting that buried secrets of our own may one day be uncovered.”
—Canberra Times
“An amazing book that had me hooked from start to finish . . .”
—Great Aussie Reads
“Brilliant, haunting, and disturbing, with a twist that will leave you gasping, this is both a subtle and closely observed portrayal of a family under stress, and a gripping thriller that leaves you guessing to the very end.”
—Sophie Masson, author
“It’s sneakily challenging, disconcerting, compelling, car-crash fascinating, and probably one of the best fictional reminders I’ve had in a while that public and media opinion should never be mistaken for the justice system, regardless of the ultimate outcome.”
—AustCrimefiction.org
“It’s hands down one of the best endings I’ve read in a book, possibly ever.”
—1girl2manybooks
Where Have You Been?
“Where Have You Been? is a novel you’ll not want to put down.”
—Australian Bookseller & Publisher
“The narrative’s power and cumulative suspense call to mind Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.”
—Sara Dowse, Sydney Morning Herald
“Wendy James’s third novel is structured like a symphony . . . Skillful structuring, fine, flexible writing, and suspense that comes to a satisfying, if not limitingly cut-and-dried conclusion, make this social-realist novel as hard to put down as any thriller.”
—Katharine England, Adelaide Advertiser
Why She Loves Him
“Emotionally astute, vivid and eloquent, underpinned by eroticism, James’s fiction traces the contours of her characters’ lives as they grapple with responsibility, freedom, and love, propelled by multifarious desires. These fresh, sensuous stori
es are by turns witty, perceptive, and coruscating, many with a delicious wry twist.”
—Felicity Plunkett, critic
“Absolutely amazing . . . There is something for everyone in this fantastic book.”
—Australian Bookseller & Publisher
“From single-page tales to the long sequence that ends the book, James’s sure hand leads us through sometimes harrowing, sometimes redemptive moments in her beautifully rounded characters’ lives.”
—Who magazine
“A penetrating picture of our life and times . . . a knockout.”
—Sara Dowse, Canberra Times
“What quiet confidence, what an honest setting down of things as they are, nothing extenuating . . . This is a gifted storyteller and these are unusually arresting stories.”
—Robert Lumsden, Adelaide Review
Out of the Silence
“A work of intelligence and talent informed by a deeply humane sensitivity . . . If Wendy James aspires to be our national novelist, she is on her way. In equal measures intellectual and sensual, Out of the Silence is a brilliantly cut literary gem sparkling from every angle.”
—Sydney Morning Herald
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2019 by Wendy James
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Originally published by HarperCollins Australia, 2019.
Published by Lake Union Publishing, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Lake Union Publishing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781542026253
ISBN-10: 1542026253
Cover design by Laywan Kwan
To my sister, Rebecca, who understands—and shares—the madness.
CONTENTS
START READING
PART ONE
SUZANNAH: JANUARY 2019
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
SUZANNAH: APRIL 2018
HONOR: APRIL 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: APRIL 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
HONOR: MAY 2018
SUZANNAH: MAY 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
HONOR: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
HONOR: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
PART TWO
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
HONOR: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: AUGUST 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: SEPTEMBER 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
HONOR: SEPTEMBER 2018
SUZANNAH: OCTOBER 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: OCTOBER 2018
SUZANNAH: OCTOBER 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
SUZANNAH: OCTOBER 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
HONOR: OCTOBER 2018
SUZANNAH: OCTOBER 2018
SUZANNAH: DECEMBER 2018
HONOR: JULY 2018
SUZANNAH: DECEMBER 2018
HONOR: DECEMBER 2018
SUZANNAH: DECEMBER 2018
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
PART THREE
SUZANNAH: JANUARY 2019
HONOR: JANUARY 2019
HONOR: JULY 2018
ELLIE: JULY 2018
HONOR: JULY 2018
HONOR: JULY 2018
SUZANNAH: JANUARY 2019
HONOR: OCTOBER 1986
SUZANNAH: JANUARY 2019
HONOR: 2006
HONOR: JANUARY 2019
SUZANNAH: JANUARY 2019
HONOR: JANUARY 2019
SUZANNAH: JANUARY 2019
ABDUCTED: THE ELLIE CANNING STORY
AUTHOR NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ridiculous and contemptible as you are pleased to consider this Story, it has met with extensive Credit, and has been espoused with uncommon Ardour by very many . . . That her Narrative is clogged with the highest Improbabilities shall be readily admitted; nevertheless, there are some Circumstances attending it, that forbid my totally rejecting it, at least for the present.
—GENUINE AND IMPARTIAL MEMOIRS OF ELIZABETH CANNING, CONTAINING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THAT UNFORTUNATE GIRL (1754)
PART ONE
SUZANNAH: JANUARY 2019
She’s everywhere.
Google her name and you’ll get over twelve million hits. The first thing you’ll see is her Wikipedia entry, detailing her life before, during, and after her abduction. You can follow her on Instagram and like her favorite places to eat, her latest outfits, or whatever #Brand she’s currently promoting. You can read her tweets and share her favorite articles, her random thoughts, the occasional video of cute kittens. You can scroll through the numerous images—that first, now almost iconic picture: the desolate little figure, dressed in too-big borrowed clothes, photographed just days after her escape; the pictures taken later, from magazine shoots, interviews, red-carpet appearances; the occasional candid shot taken while she’s shopping, heading to the gym, dining out with her hot new boyfriend. You can see her in action on YouTube, talking about her ordeal on morning shows, afternoon shows, highbrow current affairs shows, trash TV with its shocking revelations: “Why I feared for my life and sanity.” Of course, they’re all careful to adhere to the letter of the law, only discussing her ordeal tangentially and never mentioning me by name. I’m guessing there’ll be a role for her on Mountain Climbing with the Stars or Celebrity Fondue, and eventually, I imagine, she’ll end up hosting her very own TV show—Great Escapes with Ellie Canning. No doubt there’s a Netflix original documentary in production, ready to air the moment the case is settled.
As well as the sites devoted to her case, she’s made countless guest appearances on blogs and in magazines. You can discover her favorite designers in Chic; her favorite recipes in Women’s Week; her favorite books (Jane Eyre, Lemony Snicket, Great Expectations, Harry Potter—all underdogs, naturally) in The Chronicle; her favorite films in the Global Times. She seems to have been asked to give her opinion on everything from domestic abuse to P!nk, whom she met during her last tour (front-row seats, backstage passes, invites to the afterparty).
She’s on her way to becoming the go-to girl of her generation, a kind of down-market, blonde Malala—her ordeal not as politically interesting but perhaps more relatable, and, of course, far more satisfying for those who like their trauma served up with less politics and more dirt, less high-minded ideals and more sensation.
And naturally, she’s the latest feminist pinup. I watch a talk on YouTube she did a few weeks ago. She’s speaking at a luncheon in the city, hosted by some big law firm that specializes in taking on high-profile cases for women, pro bono, defending them against workplace harassment, internet bullying, unfair dismissal.
<
br /> It’s a great gig, and I have to hand it to Honor—celebrity agent par excellence—she knows just which buttons to press, where this particular client will shine the brightest. She’s the perfect victim and the perfect survivor; she’s just what the cultural moment ordered.
“I’m here to talk,” the girl tells her enraptured audience, “not just about my ordeal but the way my trauma has empowered me.” She has her hair scraped back into a severe ponytail, emphasizing her long neck, the small beauty spot just below her pretty ear. If she’s wearing any makeup, it’s invisible. She doesn’t need it anyway—her skin is pale, clear, perfect, with just the faintest sprinkling of freckles across a pert little nose. Her eyebrows are fashionably dark, heavy, her eyelashes are thick and spiky—a fringe around those big blue eyes that gaze so bravely and honestly (windows to the soul!) out into the world. She’s a long way from the gaunt waif—dark shadows under her eyes, pale chapped lips, sharpened cheekbones—of her early post-release days.
The way she speaks has changed since those first appearances, too. The shrill of anxiety has gone; her voice is low and melodious and has an appealing breathiness. She looks up frequently from her notes—frowning a little, or perhaps giving a surreptitious bite of the lip to let the audience know that she’s appropriately nervous, that she’s not taking this attention as her due, even if she’s taking it in her stride.
Her words hit the spot. She’s not aggressive or dogmatic; if anything, she’s disarmingly tentative. “I’m not here to make you feel bad for me,” she says. “I don’t want to be seen as a victim.” She says a few times—indeed, this is her theme—that she has been fortunate. Bad things have happened, but mostly she has been lucky: lucky she was bright and hardworking, lucky she had such great teachers, good mentors, champions . . . She counts herself lucky even when it comes to her more recent history—that terrible time she can’t say too much about for legal reasons—when she was taken by someone who didn’t appear to want to hurt her, at least in the beginning. And of course, she was lucky that she was able—fit, determined, resourceful—to make her escape.
Her lesson is simple, and it’s one we can all share, whatever our circumstances: that empowerment can come by looking for opportunities and taking them when we can. “Sometimes,” she says, looking down and up simultaneously, à la Princess Diana, “sometimes you just have to wait for that opportunity to arrive. That’s what I learned. You have to be prepared, always aware that there will be a moment, even if it looks like nothing can get better, nothing can change, when you can get to somewhere better—whether it’s away from parents who aren’t there for you, or a school, or a job, or even in the sort of extreme circumstances I was in, you just have to have faith and seize any opportunities you can . . .”