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Dark, troubling portrait of megalomania and abuse

To the Sea by Nikki Crutchley (Allen & Unwin, $35)

Reviewed by Greg Fleming This review was originally published on Kete Books and is reproduced with kind permission.

To the Sea is a departure from Nikki Crutchley’s previous three highly regarded crime novels – all of which centred around murders in small towns. While those were self-published with some success – her debut Nothing Bad Happens Here was optioned last year for the small screen – this is the first of a twobook deal with HarperCollins Australia and has been described as a combination of Daphne du Maurier and Paula Hawkins.

The setting here is a remote, coastal Aotearoa paradise, apparently inspired by Opoutere and Shakespeare Cliff in the Coromandel, where a family lives an isolated, back-to-nature life. Hurley has uprooted the family from its successful urban existence and sold his thriving accounting business after what he describes as a fishing accident.

That resulted in the death of his best friend and Hurley himself washing up on the shore of what would soon be named Hurley’s Bay, sporting a serious head injury and a new take on what is important in life. So, he purchased a home in the remote region, brought his wife and their two children and proclaimed it Iluka, a place he says he bought for them ‘‘to exist as one with nature, earth and ocean’’.

He also changes the family’s names – his original name was the more prosaic David – and installs a padlocked wooden gate to discourage visitors, shutting the world out as much as he can. His young daughter Anahita loves the move and resents her mother who hates the remote location and the change that has come over her husband postaccident.

In the isolated setting Hurley is free to let his megalomania, abuse and controlling nature run unchecked.

He installs rules and cuts the family off from the outside world as much as possible, punishing those who disobey by cutting them across the arm with sharp shells or by burying them in sand up to their neck as the tide rolls in.

The family’s eccentric behaviour hasn’t gone unnoticed by those in the area; people avoid them when they do venture into town and gossip circulates. ‘‘We have our stories, our beliefs here

A shocking, twistladen ending few will see coming.

at Iluka,’’ he reasons. ‘‘People out there don’t understand. They think we’re different . . .’’

The novel employs a dual timeline switching from the present day – focused on Hurley’s 18-year-old granddaughter Ana – and what happened decades ago, narrated by Ana’s mother, Anahita. Crutchley expertly builds tension, one narrative feeding off the other as crucial incidents are revealed and shed light on the present-day plot-line.

Despite the isolated setting, Crutchley is working on a broader emotional canvas here and combining thriller elements with a dark and troubling portrait of the long-term effects on a family living under horrific physical and mental abuse that extends through generations.

Still, those crime antecedents ensure a shocking, twist-laden ending few will see coming. While the subject matter makes this difficult going at times, To the Sea is Crutchley’s most accomplished novel to date – and one that should introduce her talents to a much wider readership.

Book Reviews Focus

en-nz

2021-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-05T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281883006627075

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