Sheerwater is the first adult novel by Australian author, Leah Swann. Later, Ava so wishes she had driven on and dialled 000, but at the time, she felt she had to stop. She was on her way to freedom from Laurence, to perhaps a better career and, most importantly, to safety for her boys and herself. But the light plane had crashed, right there in front of her, and she had to check for survivors, help if she could. Max and Teddy would stay in the car, she was certain. Lives were saved, but by then her boys were gone.

As Ava begins living every mother’s worst nightmare, the people of Sheerwater rally around to help search and support, while in Melbourne Detective Fiona Ballard questions Laurence Bain and extended family. Simon Manrose, the next on the crash scene after Ava, proffers a description of someone he strongly feels is involved.

The story is told from five different perspectives and it is quickly clear from Laurence’s narrative that Ava has had the misfortune of becoming the focus of the attentions of a psychopath. That Laurence has Ava and Max constantly second-guessing their every thought and action also bears this out.

So well do Max’s chapters portray a nearly-ten-year-old’s his resolve to care for and protect his four-year-old brother from harm, it’s heart-breaking. This is a brave and clever boy whose confusion at his father’s behaviour is palpable.

Even as the reader learns from the various strands of the story exactly what has happened and who is responsible, the tension ramps up and the anxiety for the boys’ safety is intensely felt. At certain points, some readers may need to do the reading equivalent of hands in front of the eyes during the scary bit of the movie: shut the book for a while and do something else.

Swann’s prose is often wonderfully evocative: “In the noisy, heaving, chaotic police station he was as calm and motionless as a benediction” and perceptive: “Could she teach Max the difference between truth and what seems true? Or could it only be learnt as life trims your edges? She grimaced. She hated to think that Max and Teddy had to learn that love does not protect you.”

While domestic abuse, both physical and psychological, are highly topical, Swann could not know just how relevant her novel would be in the light of recent events in Queensland. This is an emotional read that grabs the attention from the start and does not let go until the final shocking conclusion.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Better Reading Preview and NetGalley and Harper Collins Australia.