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'Single-mother Fran returns to her sleepy hometown to care for her dying father when a devastating bush fire breaks out. A wry, bittersweet, heartbreaking disaster-noir thriller from the author of The Cry and Worst Case Scenario.
'Fran hates Ash Mountain, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway.
'She returns to her hometown to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer.
'As old friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants…
'Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget…'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Exhibitions
Notes
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Helen FitzGerald notes in an afterword 'that she had to rework her first draft with the inferno [Black Summer] “under way”, and the chapters that resulted are tantalisingly powerful, but there are simply not enough of them — a fuller overhaul was arguably required.' (Source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-best-new-thrillers-john-grishams-camino-winds-and-more-m2xmmjxh0).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
- Dyslexic edition.
Works about this Work
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Distinctive Voices : Three New Crime Novels
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 431 2021; (p. 32-33)
— Review of The Spiral 2021 single work novel ; Ash Mountain 2020 single work novel ; Shelter 2021 single work novel'For this reviewer, the sign of a healthy crime-fiction ecosystem isn’t merely the success of the ‘big names’ but also the emergence of writers whose voices are so distinctive as to be singular. Sometimes these writers become commercially successful in their own right, and sometimes they remain literary outliers, drawing their readership from a smaller but avid following. When I think of the health of American crime fiction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I recall not only the success of Mario Puzo, but also the kind of writing culture that sustained the dark vision of an author such as George V. Higgins. The same goes for Britain in the 1980s, where Dick Francis was still publishing prolifically when Derek Raymond emerged. Turning to twenty-first-century America and the success of writers like Michael Connelly and Karin Slaughter, it’s the rise of Megan Abbott and Richard Price that illustrates the full potential of that culture’s capacity for crime storytelling.' (Introduction)
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Boarding School Boys Bullied Me Mercilessly – but 30 Years on I've Found Empathy for Them
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 23 February 2021;
-
Distinctive Voices : Three New Crime Novels
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 431 2021; (p. 32-33)
— Review of The Spiral 2021 single work novel ; Ash Mountain 2020 single work novel ; Shelter 2021 single work novel'For this reviewer, the sign of a healthy crime-fiction ecosystem isn’t merely the success of the ‘big names’ but also the emergence of writers whose voices are so distinctive as to be singular. Sometimes these writers become commercially successful in their own right, and sometimes they remain literary outliers, drawing their readership from a smaller but avid following. When I think of the health of American crime fiction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I recall not only the success of Mario Puzo, but also the kind of writing culture that sustained the dark vision of an author such as George V. Higgins. The same goes for Britain in the 1980s, where Dick Francis was still publishing prolifically when Derek Raymond emerged. Turning to twenty-first-century America and the success of writers like Michael Connelly and Karin Slaughter, it’s the rise of Megan Abbott and Richard Price that illustrates the full potential of that culture’s capacity for crime storytelling.' (Introduction)
-
Boarding School Boys Bullied Me Mercilessly – but 30 Years on I've Found Empathy for Them
2021
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 23 February 2021;
-
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