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Mayo Street
Mayo Street. It’s a very desirable address. And it seems to promise the perfect suburban dream. Until three of the street’s residents die.
Behind its respectable facades lie some terrible secrets, and in the course of one autumn many of them are shockingly exposed. Relationships come under pressure that not all of them can survive.
Enter a couple of unlikely sleuths – a teenage girl and a septuagenarian woman. Like their neighbours, both have plenty of problems of their own – growing up and growing old are tough enough without having a killer in your street.
Mayo Street takes a deep dive into suburban life in contemporary Australia, where things aren’t always what they seem.
Behind its respectable facades lie some terrible secrets, and in the course of one autumn many of them are shockingly exposed. Relationships come under pressure that not all of them can survive.
Enter a couple of unlikely sleuths – a teenage girl and a septuagenarian woman. Like their neighbours, both have plenty of problems of their own – growing up and growing old are tough enough without having a killer in your street.
Mayo Street takes a deep dive into suburban life in contemporary Australia, where things aren’t always what they seem.
352 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2023
3 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Peter Fitzpatrick
8 books1 follower(b 1944) Mayo Street is Peter Fitzpatrick’s third novel. Its predecessors, Death in the BackPocket (with Barbara Wenzel) and Promontory, set respectively in an AFL football club and on a bushwalk in the 1920s, are similarly crime-novels-with-a-twist; all three share a keen eye for the complexities – and the humour – of human behaviour.
Peter’s writing spans a number of genres: in feature film, his credits include screenplays for Hotel Sorrento (for which he won an AFI Award) and Brilliant Lies; as a biographer, he has published two dual biographies, Pioneer Players: the lives of Louis and Hilda Esson, and The Two Frank Thrings (for which he won the National Biography Award in 2013); and in musical theatre, three of his shows have been professionally staged – flowerchildren: the Mamas and Papas Story, Life’s a Circus and CrossXroads (with composer Anthony Costanzo). Another musical, Castro’s Children (for which Peter has written book and lyrics in collaboration with composer Simon Stone) will have its premiere in 2024.
Peter Fitzpatrick is Honorary Professor of Performing Arts at Monash University, where he held a Personal Chair until 2007. In a previous life, Peter taught English and Drama at Monash University, where he was Foundation Head and Professor of Performing Arts. He directed some thirty productions during that period, at Monash and beyond, and published three books and many articles in the field of twentieth-century Australian theatre.
Peter lives in Melbourne (and sometimes in Port Douglas) with his wife, Gabrielle Baldwin.
Peter’s writing spans a number of genres: in feature film, his credits include screenplays for Hotel Sorrento (for which he won an AFI Award) and Brilliant Lies; as a biographer, he has published two dual biographies, Pioneer Players: the lives of Louis and Hilda Esson, and The Two Frank Thrings (for which he won the National Biography Award in 2013); and in musical theatre, three of his shows have been professionally staged – flowerchildren: the Mamas and Papas Story, Life’s a Circus and CrossXroads (with composer Anthony Costanzo). Another musical, Castro’s Children (for which Peter has written book and lyrics in collaboration with composer Simon Stone) will have its premiere in 2024.
Peter Fitzpatrick is Honorary Professor of Performing Arts at Monash University, where he held a Personal Chair until 2007. In a previous life, Peter taught English and Drama at Monash University, where he was Foundation Head and Professor of Performing Arts. He directed some thirty productions during that period, at Monash and beyond, and published three books and many articles in the field of twentieth-century Australian theatre.
Peter lives in Melbourne (and sometimes in Port Douglas) with his wife, Gabrielle Baldwin.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 30, 2024
As an urban sociologist I loved Peter Fitzpatrick's Mayo Street so much I read it twice. It’s hilarious. It’s full of great insights on suburbia and suburbanites. It’s an engaging tale set in what might appear to be a quiet suburban street. That’s what you might conclude if you were to conduct what we urbanists call a second gear windscreen survey. But you’d be missing so much.
Peter’s Mayo Street is what the the urbanist Jane Jacobs called ‘a street with eyes’. Neighbours watch each other’s coming and goings. People know each other’s business. They’re curious about their neighbours. Sticky beaks.
Its residents typify modern Australia; they're a diverse bunch in terms of stage in life cycle, ethnicity, life style and so on.
Diversity, however, is not much to the liking of some residents such as Edward Horlin Hall, the curmudgeonly rose enthusiast at number 4, who believed that ‘the changing demographic of Mayo Street….presented a continual affront. First, there’d been the volatile Bianchis who had rented for a while, then the vulgar Greeks who had built a massive monstrosity over the road, and now the little Indians and Chinese who played so unapologetically outside his fence. Moreover, there were now two young women living together at number twelve who didn’t look at all like sisters; he strongly suspected they were Sapphists.’
It's clear Edward is a man of fixed opinions and preferences. He eats, each morning, a poached egg (timed at two minutes fifty-five precisely) on multigrain toast; he wears, when occasionally he leaves the house, a tweed sports jacket…
I felt great empathy for Edward who was outraged by his neighbour, Gerry Green, the outrageous Lotharian, who consistently broke the local municipal regulation by putting his wheely bins out before 5pm on the night preceding collection. Edward is so offended by this breach of the rules that he took a photo of the two bins before relocating and upending them. Go, Edward!
The residents of Mayo Street have their secrets and insights which Fitzpatrick cleverly explores. We’re told, for example, that the precocious 15 year old Abbey ‘had lived just long enough to have absorbed the guiding ethos of streets like Mayo Street…which made white lies and subterfuge fundamental to the preservation of decent societies and happy families.’
The characters in Mayo Street are superbly imagined and they leap out from the page, each one an astutely depicted suburban type. I found myself assigning various Australian actors to each of the roles.
I recommend Mayo Street without reservation.
Dr Leslie Kilmartin
Peter’s Mayo Street is what the the urbanist Jane Jacobs called ‘a street with eyes’. Neighbours watch each other’s coming and goings. People know each other’s business. They’re curious about their neighbours. Sticky beaks.
Its residents typify modern Australia; they're a diverse bunch in terms of stage in life cycle, ethnicity, life style and so on.
Diversity, however, is not much to the liking of some residents such as Edward Horlin Hall, the curmudgeonly rose enthusiast at number 4, who believed that ‘the changing demographic of Mayo Street….presented a continual affront. First, there’d been the volatile Bianchis who had rented for a while, then the vulgar Greeks who had built a massive monstrosity over the road, and now the little Indians and Chinese who played so unapologetically outside his fence. Moreover, there were now two young women living together at number twelve who didn’t look at all like sisters; he strongly suspected they were Sapphists.’
It's clear Edward is a man of fixed opinions and preferences. He eats, each morning, a poached egg (timed at two minutes fifty-five precisely) on multigrain toast; he wears, when occasionally he leaves the house, a tweed sports jacket…
I felt great empathy for Edward who was outraged by his neighbour, Gerry Green, the outrageous Lotharian, who consistently broke the local municipal regulation by putting his wheely bins out before 5pm on the night preceding collection. Edward is so offended by this breach of the rules that he took a photo of the two bins before relocating and upending them. Go, Edward!
The residents of Mayo Street have their secrets and insights which Fitzpatrick cleverly explores. We’re told, for example, that the precocious 15 year old Abbey ‘had lived just long enough to have absorbed the guiding ethos of streets like Mayo Street…which made white lies and subterfuge fundamental to the preservation of decent societies and happy families.’
The characters in Mayo Street are superbly imagined and they leap out from the page, each one an astutely depicted suburban type. I found myself assigning various Australian actors to each of the roles.
I recommend Mayo Street without reservation.
Dr Leslie Kilmartin
June 4, 2024
A surprising, delightful tale, I enjoyed it very much. Ostensibly a mystery, but really a study of the people living in a small cul-de-sac somewhere in Melbourne's suburban sprawl. From the banal to the eccentric, the gregarious & the parsimonious, I loved the character sketches & the peering into the dark underbelly of this isolated neighbourhood. Naturally, there is always at least one person who sees everything in such a locale, the watcher; there are the busybodies, the secretive & the bully. If you don't recognise all the residents, you'd certainly know some of them. The foundations of Mayo Street are shaken to the core by the outrageous, absurd & life-changing events held within.
I chanced upon this amusing book at my library & have been thoroughly rewarded for bringing it home with me. If occasionally I had trouble keeping track of who was whom, it didn't diminish my pleasure in this witty, deftly drawn tale. I'll be keeping an eye peeled for this author, although I imagine it might be tricky getting hold of his earlier fictional works, Promontory & Death in the Back Pocket. 4.5★
I chanced upon this amusing book at my library & have been thoroughly rewarded for bringing it home with me. If occasionally I had trouble keeping track of who was whom, it didn't diminish my pleasure in this witty, deftly drawn tale. I'll be keeping an eye peeled for this author, although I imagine it might be tricky getting hold of his earlier fictional works, Promontory & Death in the Back Pocket. 4.5★
February 7, 2024
This is a zippy, breezy novel, so witty, so easy to read, a murder mystery that is deftly plotted and beautifully paced. But this makes it sound superficial, and it’s anything but. It’s also an investigation into the dark side of humanity, and a celebration of goodness, and a sympathetic probing of the immense complexities of both adolescence and old age. The book focuses on the lives of ordinary people in an ordinary suburban street: Fitzpatrick gently lifts the lid on this mundane domesticity to reveal the extraordinary secrets hidden in the hearts of the residents of Mayo Street, and the tangled threads of their destinies.
Some of these secrets are sinister, others only melancholy, some truly heartbreaking. The narrator (benign but not indulgent, acute but not judgmental) excavates histories and explores personalities, keeping many balls in the air as he follows the Mayo Street families through and around the central whodunnit theme. He’s an expert juggler, and all the balls are caught and stowed – not uniformly happily, but always satisfyingly. In a book with so many shadows, there are ravishing bursts of sunshine. Mayo Street is richly layered and keenly observed, fresh as a daisy, and totally engaging. I loved it.
Some of these secrets are sinister, others only melancholy, some truly heartbreaking. The narrator (benign but not indulgent, acute but not judgmental) excavates histories and explores personalities, keeping many balls in the air as he follows the Mayo Street families through and around the central whodunnit theme. He’s an expert juggler, and all the balls are caught and stowed – not uniformly happily, but always satisfyingly. In a book with so many shadows, there are ravishing bursts of sunshine. Mayo Street is richly layered and keenly observed, fresh as a daisy, and totally engaging. I loved it.
January 30, 2024
I enjoyed and admired this novel immensely: like Mrs Cholerton, I love a good mystery! Setting the story in a suburban street is a brilliant choice, it allows for such a range of characters and relationships but inside quite a small and manageable community (except for the exceptions on the fringes). While there are recognisable types, they are all individually interesting. As well as describing beautifully a typical but distinctively drawn middle class Melbourne suburb, the author enters the interior lives of his characters with admirable insight and understanding, and, where appropriate, (there has to be at least one villain in a murder mystery!) empathy, so that I was drawn into their worlds with its joys and sorrows, conflicts and dilemmas and of course, secrets.
The plot is deftly constructed, and as in all good mysteries kept me guessing until the end.
I laughed out loud quite often, and there are many wry observations about human behaviour in a tome worthy of Austen. But as in Austen's novels, the book's themes are beautifully balanced between dark and light. Thoroughly enjoyable, thoroughly recommended.
The plot is deftly constructed, and as in all good mysteries kept me guessing until the end.
I laughed out loud quite often, and there are many wry observations about human behaviour in a tome worthy of Austen. But as in Austen's novels, the book's themes are beautifully balanced between dark and light. Thoroughly enjoyable, thoroughly recommended.
February 6, 2024
Barbara Wenzel
I loved Mayo Street! An apparently ordinary street somewhere in Melbourne is home to an assortment of characters whose increasingly complex lives unfold as the narrative progresses. The illusion of tranquility suggested by the lavish display of David Austin roses in one of the gardens doesn't last long; it is destroyed along with the roses quite early in the piece. Death in various forms enters the lives of Mayo Street residents, bringing uncertainty and angst and necessitating a credible sleuth or two.
And they emerge in the somewhat unlikely forms of a 14 yr old schoolgirl and an aged English expat. These are but two of a rich collection of personalities that comprise the streets residents. The characters are wonderfully realised. There's a lot humour in their interactions as well as the conflict that is part of the narrative. The young detective Abby is a delight. I very much hope she will continue to evolve in a sequel . She shows a lot of promise!
I loved Mayo Street! An apparently ordinary street somewhere in Melbourne is home to an assortment of characters whose increasingly complex lives unfold as the narrative progresses. The illusion of tranquility suggested by the lavish display of David Austin roses in one of the gardens doesn't last long; it is destroyed along with the roses quite early in the piece. Death in various forms enters the lives of Mayo Street residents, bringing uncertainty and angst and necessitating a credible sleuth or two.
And they emerge in the somewhat unlikely forms of a 14 yr old schoolgirl and an aged English expat. These are but two of a rich collection of personalities that comprise the streets residents. The characters are wonderfully realised. There's a lot humour in their interactions as well as the conflict that is part of the narrative. The young detective Abby is a delight. I very much hope she will continue to evolve in a sequel . She shows a lot of promise!
January 31, 2024
This was a fascinating read with much insight into the lives and behaviours of a variety of complicated people living in the same street. I especially appreciated the insights into the minds of the teenagers involved, especially Abby, who seems to be more balanced and adult in her thinking than most of the adults, including her own mother. Her relationship with her elderly neighbour as they try to figure out the mystery behind local deaths was handled with sensitivity and a realism that reminded me of myself at her age, though I would have been much less brave! I would love to hear more of the lives of these people!
February 16, 2024
Readable and entertaining. 2.5* rounded up to 3*. The author took on way too much - there are simply so many characters it results in descriptions of a lot of events but very little development of them. The first page lists 34 characters - so while a helpful guide, it probably should have acted as a warning of what was to come. Further, there were a couple of plot glitches that jarred (hoping the following aren't spoilers). Why were the car keys found in the letterbox a few days after the police had investigated the fire site (are the police that hopeless!)? And the police treated it as suicide even though the body was in the back seat?? Hmm ...
January 30, 2024
A very enjoyable mystery but with plenty of insights on such things as the mishaps of arranging access visits, the perpetual stresses between partners involved in the relationship between step-parent and step-child.
Admired the intricacy of the plotting. The eventually-exposed culprit could not possibly have disposed of the victim, but they did.
The writer's is a warm, tolerant voice. They like their characters, create them benignly, and keep bringing us new realisations about them. Veterans of the Saturday serials at the movies will love the cliff hanging chapter endings.
Admired the intricacy of the plotting. The eventually-exposed culprit could not possibly have disposed of the victim, but they did.
The writer's is a warm, tolerant voice. They like their characters, create them benignly, and keep bringing us new realisations about them. Veterans of the Saturday serials at the movies will love the cliff hanging chapter endings.
February 18, 2024
An interestingly different and somewhat quirky book. The suburban setting was both recognisable and weird. I felt I was in a small English village or Amercan town not a burb of Melbourne. The number of people in a tiny street that were church goers was at odds with my life in Australia. The teens were beautifully realised, and the parental angst and confusion. The migrant Indian family as well, assimilating while trying to keep a foot in the old world. this was a 3.5 for me as some bits were just too strange to have actually occurred.
April 3, 2024
Such a fun read!!! Recommended
June 27, 2024
A great read. Entertaining with some good humorous bits.
March 12, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed Mayo street. Can see a bit of all the characters in people I know.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews