The Cane is the first novel by award-winning Australian author, Maryrose Cuskelly. In 1970’s North Queensland, sixteen-year-old Janet McClymont goes missing on a short walk down a cane-field track to babysit the neighbours’ children. Despite an immediate, thorough and prolonged search by neighbours, volunteers and police, no trace of Janet is found, except for her bag.

Her father is convinced she is still alive; her mother accepts that her daughter has met with foul play and spends her days searching for her body. But now, weeks later, the cane is ready to harvest, and that requires setting fire to the fields. Her close neighbours have delayed their burn because Barbara McClymont is desperate to recover her daughter’s body intact rather than her cremains, but they can’t delay much longer.

Senior Constable Carmel Maitland has been called to Quala to offer a female perspective on the case. Detective Sergeant Doug Patterson hopes the women of the town will share information with her that they may have kept from male police officers. Carmel already has ideas on how to move the case forward, none of which involve making the tea. Her participation in the investigation earns disapproval of the country-town-conservative male population.

With the cane at its full height and recent heavy rains swelling creeks and standing waters, finding a body is a logistical challenge. Old timers like Arthur Mulligan are reminded of another sixteen-year-old girl, Cathy Creadie, who went missing ten years earlier from the rocks at Danger Point, her body later found, cut and bruised, in the mangroves.

In the absence of body or person, the possibilities include that Janet left intentionally, met with an as yet undiscovered fatal accident, was taken and murdered or is being held. A local dowser’s firm belief about Janet’s fate is summarily dismissed by most.

But surely, until a motive is known, everyone over a certain age without an ironclad alibi for the short time window between when she was last seen alive and first noticed missing, is suspect in Janet’s disappearance? It seems incredibly naïve and short-sighted that the community, media and the police (even Carmel) focus only on the male population, effectively eliminating half of their potential suspect list.

Weeks of tension are telling on the town: parents lose sleep worrying about the safety of their children; children have nightmares about the pervert they hear has taken Janet; testosterone-filled xenophobic young men are ready to use their fists on anyone who is different; and emotions run high as everyone in town wonders if one of their neighbours is involved in Janet’s disappearance.

Cuskelly easily conveys the mood and mindset of this small coastal community of cane farmers: the sexism and racism as depicted will certainly resonate with readers of a certain vintage. The large cast of characters and their dialogue are mostly authentic, although some may strike the reader as stereotypes.

The story comes together with narratives from multiple perspectives but it’s Arthur Mulligan’s first-person narrative that gives an overview of everything that occurs. There’s a slow build to a dramatic climax set against the backdrop of burning cane fields. Very atmospheric Aussie crime fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by Allen & Unwin.