4.5★s
The Fall Between is the first novel by Australian actor, director and author, Darcy Tindale. Back in Muswellbrook after ten years policing in Sydney, Detective Rebecca Giles manages to solve a spate of thefts and find a missing pre-teen at the same time, to much acclaim from her colleagues. But privately she’s a little uncomfortable with the praise, feeling it was gained under false pretences.

The next morning, hung over from the celebrations, she’s still doing the paperwork on both cases, not entirely satisfied she has the whole truth, when she’s called out to a farm to check on a possible drowning. She is mystified that the farmer could possibly describe what she finds as such: a young woman with legs tied in barbed wire and lips sealed by fencing wire, bloated and floating in a cattle trough.

It’s a hot November day. Rebecca examines the scene, calls for backup and the Evidence Retrieval Unit. The farmer, Mr Rickard, identifies the victim as his casual jillaroo, Ava Emmerson. Increasingly affected by the relentless heat, she is suddenly knocked out and regains consciousness to find someone is trying to drown her in that same trough.

She’s convinced the farmer has attacked her: his denials don’t ring true, and a few items she has noticed nearby ring alarm bells: did his wife really drown in the ’92 floods that also took her own mother? But as she’s checking out her suspicions back in town, the heat stroke hits: this time she comes to in hospital, with the added complication that Rickard is accusing her of assaulting him.

Does she have the wrong end of the stick again? Is her recall of events warped by the extreme heat of the day? Is there still a killer on the loose?

Tindale easily captures her setting and season, and her characters, their dialogue and attitudes, feel authentic. Her depiction of country policing certainly rings true. The reader may find it hard not to feel some sympathy for the unfortunate Sticky Pete who, through a series of mishaps and poor choices, just can’t seem to take a trick.

Giles also makes a few less-than-ideal moves; her father, a former DI, tells her “You jump to conclusions, that’s your problem! You dig and dig, and then you fill in the blanks with nonsense.” But as a character, she is gutsy and brave, she does mature, and she gets it right in the end. If the reader can tolerate some of her more frustrating traits, their patience is rewarded. A cleverly plotted debut.