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Reckless
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NED KELLEY AWARD FOR BEST TRUE CRIME
A bank robber on the run. A young woman at a crossroad. A true story like you've never listened to before.
Jean Kay, my skipper, fellow adventurer, my friend. My brother.
Jean Kay, soldier-of-fortune, opportunist, embezzler, hijacker.
In her youth, amidst the throes of a reckless grief, aspiring Australian writer Marele Day is caught up in a shipwreck adventure and forges an unlikely bond with an international fugitive travelling under a pseudonym. For the next 30 years they correspond before reuniting, both older and wiser, in France.
Marele is now an accomplished crime writer, and while she knew of her travel companion's previous reputation as ‘the high-jacker with heart' and ‘brother to the poor', she is intrigued to discover his connection to the disappearance of eight million francs and a secret dossier that made global headlines.
Brilliantly crafted, Reckless tells the story of how Marele uncovers the truth about Jean Kay's identity and motives by piecing together clues from their letters, her diaries and a stash of newspaper clippings, and how, in the process of telling his story, she ultimately makes peace with the reckless ghosts of her past.
A bank robber on the run. A young woman at a crossroad. A true story like you've never listened to before.
Jean Kay, my skipper, fellow adventurer, my friend. My brother.
Jean Kay, soldier-of-fortune, opportunist, embezzler, hijacker.
In her youth, amidst the throes of a reckless grief, aspiring Australian writer Marele Day is caught up in a shipwreck adventure and forges an unlikely bond with an international fugitive travelling under a pseudonym. For the next 30 years they correspond before reuniting, both older and wiser, in France.
Marele is now an accomplished crime writer, and while she knew of her travel companion's previous reputation as ‘the high-jacker with heart' and ‘brother to the poor', she is intrigued to discover his connection to the disappearance of eight million francs and a secret dossier that made global headlines.
Brilliantly crafted, Reckless tells the story of how Marele uncovers the truth about Jean Kay's identity and motives by piecing together clues from their letters, her diaries and a stash of newspaper clippings, and how, in the process of telling his story, she ultimately makes peace with the reckless ghosts of her past.
- GenresNonfiction
Audible Audio
Published May 3, 2023
2 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Marele Day
19 books29 followersDay was born in Sydney, and grew up in Pagewood, an industrial suburb. She attended Sydney Girls High School and Sydney Teachers' College and in 1973 obtained a degree from Sydney University. She has worked as a patent searcher and as a researcher and has also taught in elementary school during the 1980s.
Her Claudia Valentine series features a feminist Sydney-based private investigator but her breakthrough novel was Lambs of God which was a departure from the crime genre and features two nuns battling to save the island on which they live from developers; it became a bestseller.
She lives on the New South Wales North coast.
Marele Day's four book Claudia Valentine series has become a minor classic in Australian crime writing, but her Lambs of God (1998) was even more highly acclaimed as an original and provocative literary work, published in the US by Riverhead and in the UK by Sceptre. Her most recent novel was Mrs Cook, a rich portrayal of the life of a woman whose passion and intellect matched that of her celebrated husband.
Her Claudia Valentine series features a feminist Sydney-based private investigator but her breakthrough novel was Lambs of God which was a departure from the crime genre and features two nuns battling to save the island on which they live from developers; it became a bestseller.
She lives on the New South Wales North coast.
Marele Day's four book Claudia Valentine series has become a minor classic in Australian crime writing, but her Lambs of God (1998) was even more highly acclaimed as an original and provocative literary work, published in the US by Riverhead and in the UK by Sceptre. Her most recent novel was Mrs Cook, a rich portrayal of the life of a woman whose passion and intellect matched that of her celebrated husband.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 24, 2023
Reckless is a true crime/memoir by bestselling Australian author, Marele Day. At the end of 2012, Marele Day gets the sad news of the sudden death of her good friend, Jean Kay. While he was infamous as a hijacker, an embezzler, an opportunist, shapeshifter and a soldier of fortune, to her he was initially the skipper of the yacht on which she hitched a ride to Singapore, a fellow adventurer; but soon enough, a friend, a brother.
She is thrown into reminiscing: when they first met, when she was still distraught with grief over the loss of her life partner and needing to hit life hard; their voyage with its precarious ending, to Singapore; and their reunion in France thirty years later.
“The girl who hitched a ride on Jean’s boat, who was willing to try everything, to see how close to the edge she could go, had discovered that edges are sharp, can cause damage. It took me years to make my way towards the small quiet oscillations at the centre.”
Jean had proposed that she write his version of the crime that had him on the run from the law when they first met: a daring heist, the embezzling of eight million francs from the obscenely wealthy and influential French aeronautics manufacturer, Marcel Dassault, to teach him a lesson, to bring him down a notch or two. He teamed up with Dassault’s accountant: “the numbers man in the suit and the barefoot soldier of fortune.”
After Jean sent her a kilo and a half of press clippings about the case, it was a project that took her back to Paris and then to Brazil to research the detail that would enrich the tale and lend it authenticity.
“In a novel everything has to be plausible but this isn’t a novel. Real life is full of contradictions, the unexplainable, and, I am finding, the bizarre and incredible… The more I wade into this case, the murkier the water seems to become. So often what I take to be a solid fact dissolves like a mirage. Despite the lack of detail, the story was much more straightforward when all I had was what Jean had told me. But is it true?”
Day reveals her fascination with language, and demonstrates her talent with words: “I love French, love dressing up in its chic elegance, well-tailored phrases. Crisp seams and haute couture, but what my mind wants at the moment is to lounge around in the pyjamas of my native language” and “This is how I began writing, by making verbal photographs, images in words. Writing was a way of drawing what I saw.”
She leaves the reader wondering about this charismatic charmer: “A fox makes sorties into the cultivated meadow, will even come up to the house, but it can never be properly domesticated; its spirit belongs to the wild. You never know when that wildness is going to manifest or what might provoke it. It makes the connection precious when the fox sits down at the table with you, when he takes you into his family, considers you a friend, not prey.” A captivating tale.
She is thrown into reminiscing: when they first met, when she was still distraught with grief over the loss of her life partner and needing to hit life hard; their voyage with its precarious ending, to Singapore; and their reunion in France thirty years later.
“The girl who hitched a ride on Jean’s boat, who was willing to try everything, to see how close to the edge she could go, had discovered that edges are sharp, can cause damage. It took me years to make my way towards the small quiet oscillations at the centre.”
Jean had proposed that she write his version of the crime that had him on the run from the law when they first met: a daring heist, the embezzling of eight million francs from the obscenely wealthy and influential French aeronautics manufacturer, Marcel Dassault, to teach him a lesson, to bring him down a notch or two. He teamed up with Dassault’s accountant: “the numbers man in the suit and the barefoot soldier of fortune.”
After Jean sent her a kilo and a half of press clippings about the case, it was a project that took her back to Paris and then to Brazil to research the detail that would enrich the tale and lend it authenticity.
“In a novel everything has to be plausible but this isn’t a novel. Real life is full of contradictions, the unexplainable, and, I am finding, the bizarre and incredible… The more I wade into this case, the murkier the water seems to become. So often what I take to be a solid fact dissolves like a mirage. Despite the lack of detail, the story was much more straightforward when all I had was what Jean had told me. But is it true?”
Day reveals her fascination with language, and demonstrates her talent with words: “I love French, love dressing up in its chic elegance, well-tailored phrases. Crisp seams and haute couture, but what my mind wants at the moment is to lounge around in the pyjamas of my native language” and “This is how I began writing, by making verbal photographs, images in words. Writing was a way of drawing what I saw.”
She leaves the reader wondering about this charismatic charmer: “A fox makes sorties into the cultivated meadow, will even come up to the house, but it can never be properly domesticated; its spirit belongs to the wild. You never know when that wildness is going to manifest or what might provoke it. It makes the connection precious when the fox sits down at the table with you, when he takes you into his family, considers you a friend, not prey.” A captivating tale.
July 8, 2023
This is an ambituous text, stitching together the tale of Day's own youth, her relationship with the colourful Jean Day, and the daring tale of Day's heist. It doesn't always work - the shift in pacing at times jars a little - but by the end, she has you invested in the impossible-to-answer question of who anyone is: how little we know each other, and how little that matters in connecting to someone. This is ultimately a story about friendship. And like most friendships, it is worth sticking through the rough patches.
June 20, 2023
Brilliant memoir that weaves a compelling past and present adventure with the story of an intriguing and complicated friendship. I loved the witty, wry reflections and was deeply moved by the retelling of grief and loss. Masterful storytelling by a writer at the top of her game. Highly recommended.
January 5, 2025
This is close to the best memoir I have ever read. Effortless read full of intrigue. A true story written like a crime thriller. Highly recommended.
June 8, 2023
I was drawn to this book because I had just completed a sailing adventure from the east coast of Australia to New Caledonia, and was curious to learn about the experiences of a fellow female deck-hand. I was further drawn in by shared experiences I have with Day of surgery for a wandering eye in childhood, the pains of introversion, and the challenges of expressing nuances in second-language French. There are also poignant accounts of grief, and important historical recounts of adventures in France, and finally Brazil.
October 20, 2023
Rather disappointed in this book. I’d heard an interview with the author which led me to read it and expected so much more. In the end I’m really no wiser about what really happened than when I started reading.
Way too much of the story was about the author herself and so much is unexplained. What did Jean do after making it to Bangkok? What happened in the years between then and turning up in Australia? What happened to the money?
The writing is good and I can see what the author is trying to do but the for me book is very ‘padded’ with the authors own (often irrelevant) reminiscences, and with repetitive information much of which we are given at the start of the book and reappears later without very much added. Ultimately a disappointing read.
Way too much of the story was about the author herself and so much is unexplained. What did Jean do after making it to Bangkok? What happened in the years between then and turning up in Australia? What happened to the money?
The writing is good and I can see what the author is trying to do but the for me book is very ‘padded’ with the authors own (often irrelevant) reminiscences, and with repetitive information much of which we are given at the start of the book and reappears later without very much added. Ultimately a disappointing read.
October 22, 2023
A really beautiful book. Feels like a story Marele has been waiting to tell. It's about Jean, but it's about Marele, too. Beautiful writing. Love.
Fav quotes:
We are beside ourselves with grief. I know how it is to have that cliche settle on you. Out of alignment. Literally beside yourself. Your spirit knocked out of your body, a ghost image. - page 18.
I wonder now whether there is a one true self to find or discover in the shedding of skins or if, instead, we develop and build a series of selves through the years, accretions like the nautilus constructing and moving into a larger chamber when it outgrows the former, the old chambers still remained as part of the whole. - page 186.
Every subsequent death of a loved one takes you back to the first.
- page 307
Fav quotes:
We are beside ourselves with grief. I know how it is to have that cliche settle on you. Out of alignment. Literally beside yourself. Your spirit knocked out of your body, a ghost image. - page 18.
I wonder now whether there is a one true self to find or discover in the shedding of skins or if, instead, we develop and build a series of selves through the years, accretions like the nautilus constructing and moving into a larger chamber when it outgrows the former, the old chambers still remained as part of the whole. - page 186.
Every subsequent death of a loved one takes you back to the first.
- page 307
December 5, 2023
https://denisenewtonwrites.com/?p=4946
I fell into this book, in the sense of immediately feeling comfortable and keen to read on. The opening pages are like an invitation to come into the author’s lounge room, have a cup of tea and hear her stories.
Reckless is a very readable mix of true-crime investigative writing, personal memoir, and philosophy. It’s like an afternoon spent in the company of an engaging friend who has lived an interesting life and met some memorable people, and is a gifted storyteller into the bargain.
I fell into this book, in the sense of immediately feeling comfortable and keen to read on. The opening pages are like an invitation to come into the author’s lounge room, have a cup of tea and hear her stories.
Reckless is a very readable mix of true-crime investigative writing, personal memoir, and philosophy. It’s like an afternoon spent in the company of an engaging friend who has lived an interesting life and met some memorable people, and is a gifted storyteller into the bargain.
October 1, 2023
I’ve read a lot of books and don’t get around to updating Goodreads straight away. Consequently, I can’t give an adequate rating or review. That said, I have enjoyed every book and don’t regret the time spent reading them. There has been such a variety and one has often led to another.
September 6, 2023
- thanks to @ultimopress for a #gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest review
I must admit that, before reading Reckless, I had no idea who Jean Kay was nor his connection with Australian author Marele Day, but the book's promise of an adventurous mix of True Crime and Memoir was enough to grab my interest. This book is also living proof that being endlessly interested in people's stories is not a weakness but a signal of a deep, lively and rich inner reading life. Or that is how I like to justify my brimming shelves.
Although I have not read any of Day's novels, it was effortless to identify her undeniable talent for storytelling, especially of the criminal kind. Getting to know Jean Kay through Day was an entertaining and compelling experience, crafted with a recognisable care and admiration of a lifelong friend. Apart from enjoying the drama and the unimaginable life of a sometimes-embezzler-sometimes-fugitive man, I also enjoyed Day's depiction of their friendship throughout the years, embedded with the warmth, love and longing that arise from missing a dear friend.
Although this book is undoubtedly ambitious, Day interweaves personal recollections and experiences —both related and unrelated to Jean Kay—with extensive research and achieves a satisfactory and engaging narrative, even for a person like me who did not have any previous knowledge of the French writer and his adventurous life.
In addition, I also liked Day's reflections on friendship and how, at the end of the day, we are never capable of fully knowing another person. Early on, a quick Google search showed me that Jean Kay had passed away in 2012, so I was expecting an anticlimactic ending because I knew about his death. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised by a thought-provoking and insightful end.
Overall, Reckless is an entertaining and captivating Memoir about the lifetime friendship of two writers who lived many lives yet always found their way to each other. With a solid mix of excitement, adventure and tenderness, I would recommend it to readers beginning their Memoir journey.
I must admit that, before reading Reckless, I had no idea who Jean Kay was nor his connection with Australian author Marele Day, but the book's promise of an adventurous mix of True Crime and Memoir was enough to grab my interest. This book is also living proof that being endlessly interested in people's stories is not a weakness but a signal of a deep, lively and rich inner reading life. Or that is how I like to justify my brimming shelves.
Although I have not read any of Day's novels, it was effortless to identify her undeniable talent for storytelling, especially of the criminal kind. Getting to know Jean Kay through Day was an entertaining and compelling experience, crafted with a recognisable care and admiration of a lifelong friend. Apart from enjoying the drama and the unimaginable life of a sometimes-embezzler-sometimes-fugitive man, I also enjoyed Day's depiction of their friendship throughout the years, embedded with the warmth, love and longing that arise from missing a dear friend.
Although this book is undoubtedly ambitious, Day interweaves personal recollections and experiences —both related and unrelated to Jean Kay—with extensive research and achieves a satisfactory and engaging narrative, even for a person like me who did not have any previous knowledge of the French writer and his adventurous life.
In addition, I also liked Day's reflections on friendship and how, at the end of the day, we are never capable of fully knowing another person. Early on, a quick Google search showed me that Jean Kay had passed away in 2012, so I was expecting an anticlimactic ending because I knew about his death. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised by a thought-provoking and insightful end.
Overall, Reckless is an entertaining and captivating Memoir about the lifetime friendship of two writers who lived many lives yet always found their way to each other. With a solid mix of excitement, adventure and tenderness, I would recommend it to readers beginning their Memoir journey.
February 21, 2025
Incredible. Hard to believe it's a true story at times. Would absolutely love to see this made into a series, there's too much to cover for a movie. Absolutely loved it.
August 19, 2023
There’s a lot the author packs into this one – she has a lot to tell starting with her own experience with love and loss, Jean’s extraordinary past, and how their worlds intertwine both in the past and present day. Not to mention then exploring the details of crimes and attempted crimes she was not a part of herself. All of this was incredible interesting, but it did feel like an ambitious task. At times I don’t think the switching back and forth quite worked, and I got a little lost trying to understand the details of the crimes and would have loved to have got more answers here. I still very much appreciated the broader themes Day was tackling and did find myself engrossed in such a unique tale.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews