The Ottoman Motel

When a boy’s parents go missing in a small hick-town on the isolated coast of NSW while visiting his estranged grandmother, you might assume that this is a deep psychological tale of impending doom. Instead, whatfollows is a finely plotted and well-paced mystery perfect for teens.

Eleven-year-old Simon wakes at the motel to find his parents gone. Immediately he is swept up in the claustrophobic kindness of a rural community and thrust into the care of local Samaritan Ned Gale, who is also housing Simon’s sick grandmother Iris. Alongside Ned are local policewoman Madaline and a cavalcade of burly fisherman and publicans, all willing to help with the search. Add Ned’s children and the mysterious orphan boy, Pony, into the mix and we can’t help but be suspicious of each character’s intentions, forgetting about the missing couple as other stories and secrets leak out. How these disparate plot strands are controlled and deftlytied proves to be Currie’s strong point. In fact, they become the most interesting part of the book in a kind of adventure-thriller sense. Because what soon becomes apparent is a Blyton-like detective bent, where the children outwit the adults. But the book strives to be more than that.Lurking below the surface are powerful motifs of abandonment and loneliness, most clearly drawn in the disappearance of Ned’s wife two years before.

This is reminiscent of Chloe Hooper’s A Child’s Book of True Crime, and perhaps O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods, but the tension in Currie’s first book never gets close to the fear and horror we see there. Regardless, it is an admirable debut from a writer who is already well-known for his short fiction.

Luke May is assistant manager of Readings St Kilda.