OCTOBER 2019 | The Australian Women’s Weekly 165
WEDDING PUZZLE
by Sallie Muirden,
Transit Lounge
A seemingly happy-ever-
after small-towntale
with a serious shiver.
It is Beth’s weddingday
and clouds are gathering.
As she reachesthe
reception at thePortsea
Hotel on the Mornington
Peninsula near Melbourne,
the heavens open.It’s
every bride’s worst
washout nightmare.
She is marryingJordan,
her “fantasy boyfriend”
from school, whose
locker was coveredin
fans’ love-heartstickers.
He used to go outwith
Tracy, the relayteam’s
baton girl, and he
once announcedto
his adoring entourage,
“If you can beatTracy,
you can go outwith
me.” Beth has received
a letter signed byTracy:
“You should knowsome
things before it’stoo
late. Jordan askedme
to marry him beforehe
proposed to you.Ifmy
answer had beenyes,
then you wouldn’tbe
the lucky girl.”
Domestic drama
Books
Storytime
HOW WE DISAPPEARED
by Jing-Jing Lee,
Oneworld
Wang Di and Soon Wei
were married for 54 years.
These days, Wang Di is so
bent over she thinks she
resembles a question mark.
She has slow-cooked her
husband’s favourite soup to
take to his hospital bedside
in Singapore. But when she
gets there, his bed is stripped.
The nurse tried to call her but
while “Old One” was dying,
Wang Di was with her pushcart,
collecting newspapers.
Memories surge in to fi ll the
new silence: the stories she
was told about her birth, when
her father tried to drown her
in a water spinach pond; her
brother Meng being allowed
to use the only unbroken spoon;
and the brutal Japanese
invasion in 1942, when, at 16,
she was bundled into a truck
and taken to a Japanese
military brothel as a “comfort
woman”. The soldiers paid with
pink tickets – 30 men a day, 40
to 50 weekends and festivals- and she was raped, beaten
and infected. The story is
based on true events, to
which Lee gives a dignifi ed
voice. Deeply affecting.
International fictionWHATEVER IT TAKES
by Paul Cleave,
Upstart Press
If you’re a long-time fan
of Kiwi crime writer Paul
Cleave, you’re in for a
surprise. Christchurch has
been one of the most
enduring characters in
his acclaimed thrillers,
but for the fi rst time
he has taken readers
outside his home city,
instead setting his latest
novel in the fi ctional
American small town
of Acacia Pines. Deputy
Noah Harper returns here
after being run out of the
place 12 years earlier- losing his marriage
and his job after crossing
the line to fi nd an
abducted child. Now,
that same girl is missing
again and Deputy
Harper – a complicated
man with his own
demons - must keep his
promise to fi nd her. This
is Cleave’s 11th novel and
they just get better. His
ability to develop
extraordinarily real and
complicated characters
such as Deputy Harper is
one of his great talents.
Kiwi authorMeet Me
in Venice
by Barbara Hannay,
Penguin Random HouseWho could resist the invitation
of this title? Certainly not the
children of recently widowed
Daisy Benetto, who wants to
bring together her Australian
family in the city of their late
father’s birth, although Marc and
Anna do take a bit of persuading.
Their lives in California’s Silicon
Valley and London’s drama scene,
respectively, are not going as well
as their mother believes, and they
don’t want to upset her further by
bringing their problems to Venice.
But the lure of the romantic city
wins out and the entire Benetto
brood, including youngest child
Ellie and Marc’s wife Bronte,
gather in a holiday apartment
to reconnect a year after the loss
of their beloved husband and
father, Leo. It transpires that Leo
had a secret, which forces the
family to question everything
they valued about him. It also
becomes increasingly hard for
Marc and Anna to hide their own
problems. Can the magic of
Venice conjure a healing spell or
will the holiday leave the family
shattered and scattered? A lovely
setting, characters to warm to, a
hint of romance and just enough
intrigue to keep you hooked make
this a rewarding escapist read. RMEscapism