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Sous l'oeil des voisins
Sous l’œil des voisins fait voler en éclats les idées reçues sur les banlieues résidentielles, exposant les secrets qui s'y cachent...Quand une adolescente est portée disparue, son père et un professeur mettent en place un groupe de surveillance avec le voisinage afin de coincer le responsable. Ils ne se doutent pas alors que le quartier cache un sombre passé...
341 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 26, 2021
263 people are currently reading
5886 people want to read
About the author
Christian White
21 books54 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 930 reviews
September 7, 2022
EXCERPT: Creak.
The noise came from somewhere behind her. She spun around to look over the armchair. Most of the lights in the house were off - she'd be paying the electricity bills herself soon and wanted to get used to keeping costs down. The TV cast wavering shadows across the walls. There was nobody there. At least nobody she could see.
Nancy stood in the dark and listened. There it was again, a soft, metallic click, a long, slow creak. A window in one of the other rooms was being slid open from the outside. She crept through the kitchen and stood in the mouth of the hallway.
Silence.
Before creeping down to the other end of the house to investigate, she went right past the rack of hefty frying pans and the block of Ginsu kitchen knives, which were sharp enough to slice through a leather shoe - but wait, there's more! - and armed herself with the Yellow Pages.
A gun would work better. There was one in the house, a rifle Owen used to hunt rabbits when he visited his cousins - they lived up north, directly in the middle of arse-fuck and nowhere - but the gun was at the other end of the house, on the top shelf of her wardrobe, in a locked case. The key was in the pocket of her ex-husband's jeans, which were now, no doubt, slung over a chair in a room at the motor inn.
Nancy briefly considered calling him, but decided that she would rather be dismembered and left in a shallow grave than give him the satisfaction.
ABOUT 'WILD PLACE': In the summer of 1989, a local teen goes missing from the idyllic suburb of Camp Hill in Australia. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom Witter becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When the police won't listen, he takes matters into his own hands with the help of the missing girl's father and a local neighbourhood watch group.
But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it. Wild Place peels back the layers of suburbia, exposing what s hidden underneath guilt, desperation, violence and attempts to answer the question: Why do good people do bad things?
MY THOUGHTS: It's the end of 1989 and a new decade is staring the characters of this twisty novel in the face. There are big changes in the air. Marty, the eldest Whitter son is off to university and suddenly moving out from home at the same time. Tom, his father, is unsure how he feels about that. Tracie, the girl next door has gone missing, and it seems that some of the neighbourhood children are dabbling with satanism, led by the strange goth boy Sean, he of the heavy metal music and pentagram tattoo. What is happening to this very traditional upper-middle class neighbourhood with strong family values? It's just not the sort of neighbourhood that 'things' happen in.
What indeed?
Most of the story is told from Tom Whitter's perspective. He's a high school teacher, in fact has taught Tracie, so it's not unreasonable for him to become involved in the search for her. The police think that she's just another runaway. Her mother is certain that something more sinister has happened to her. Tom is inclined to agree.
Christian White has written another stunningly clever family drama. You probably heard the clunk as my jaw hit the floor at the final reveal. Then, when I thought it was all wrapped up . . .
The author is a master of misdirection and had me guessing (wrongly, I must add) the whole way through. I suspected almost everyone other than the actual killer.
White's characters are very real, very human, faults, foibles and all...that doesn't mean that you are necessarily going to like all of them, especially once the neighbourhood becomes rife with suspicion and accusations, and people begin to take matters into their own hands.
Wild Place certainly had me thinking, and wondering . . . This is a disturbing look at human nature, one that creeps up on the reader and ambushes you.
Sam Smith narrated brilliantly.
⭐⭐⭐⭐.1
#WildPlace
I: @crwhite01 @wfhowes
T: #ChristianWhiteAuthor @WFHowes
THE AUTHOR: Christian writes from his home in Melbourne, where he lives with his wife, filmmaker Summer DeRoche, and their adopted greyhound, Issy.
https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
The noise came from somewhere behind her. She spun around to look over the armchair. Most of the lights in the house were off - she'd be paying the electricity bills herself soon and wanted to get used to keeping costs down. The TV cast wavering shadows across the walls. There was nobody there. At least nobody she could see.
Nancy stood in the dark and listened. There it was again, a soft, metallic click, a long, slow creak. A window in one of the other rooms was being slid open from the outside. She crept through the kitchen and stood in the mouth of the hallway.
Silence.
Before creeping down to the other end of the house to investigate, she went right past the rack of hefty frying pans and the block of Ginsu kitchen knives, which were sharp enough to slice through a leather shoe - but wait, there's more! - and armed herself with the Yellow Pages.
A gun would work better. There was one in the house, a rifle Owen used to hunt rabbits when he visited his cousins - they lived up north, directly in the middle of arse-fuck and nowhere - but the gun was at the other end of the house, on the top shelf of her wardrobe, in a locked case. The key was in the pocket of her ex-husband's jeans, which were now, no doubt, slung over a chair in a room at the motor inn.
Nancy briefly considered calling him, but decided that she would rather be dismembered and left in a shallow grave than give him the satisfaction.
ABOUT 'WILD PLACE': In the summer of 1989, a local teen goes missing from the idyllic suburb of Camp Hill in Australia. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom Witter becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When the police won't listen, he takes matters into his own hands with the help of the missing girl's father and a local neighbourhood watch group.
But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it. Wild Place peels back the layers of suburbia, exposing what s hidden underneath guilt, desperation, violence and attempts to answer the question: Why do good people do bad things?
MY THOUGHTS: It's the end of 1989 and a new decade is staring the characters of this twisty novel in the face. There are big changes in the air. Marty, the eldest Whitter son is off to university and suddenly moving out from home at the same time. Tom, his father, is unsure how he feels about that. Tracie, the girl next door has gone missing, and it seems that some of the neighbourhood children are dabbling with satanism, led by the strange goth boy Sean, he of the heavy metal music and pentagram tattoo. What is happening to this very traditional upper-middle class neighbourhood with strong family values? It's just not the sort of neighbourhood that 'things' happen in.
What indeed?
Most of the story is told from Tom Whitter's perspective. He's a high school teacher, in fact has taught Tracie, so it's not unreasonable for him to become involved in the search for her. The police think that she's just another runaway. Her mother is certain that something more sinister has happened to her. Tom is inclined to agree.
Christian White has written another stunningly clever family drama. You probably heard the clunk as my jaw hit the floor at the final reveal. Then, when I thought it was all wrapped up . . .
The author is a master of misdirection and had me guessing (wrongly, I must add) the whole way through. I suspected almost everyone other than the actual killer.
White's characters are very real, very human, faults, foibles and all...that doesn't mean that you are necessarily going to like all of them, especially once the neighbourhood becomes rife with suspicion and accusations, and people begin to take matters into their own hands.
Wild Place certainly had me thinking, and wondering . . . This is a disturbing look at human nature, one that creeps up on the reader and ambushes you.
Sam Smith narrated brilliantly.
⭐⭐⭐⭐.1
#WildPlace
I: @crwhite01 @wfhowes
T: #ChristianWhiteAuthor @WFHowes
THE AUTHOR: Christian writes from his home in Melbourne, where he lives with his wife, filmmaker Summer DeRoche, and their adopted greyhound, Issy.
https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
October 6, 2021
In the summer of 1989, seventeen year old Tracie Reed goes missing from Camp Hill, a small Australian town. Having just finished high school, the police think she could have run away in search of brighter lights and a more exciting life, but her single mother who knows her daughter well, is adamant that she wouldn’t have done that and something more sinister has happened to her. Tom Witter, a high school teacher who taught Tracie in his English class, also has his doubts that Tracie has run away and starts to search for clues to her disappearance.
This terrific suspense novel peels back the layers of Camp Hill one by one, to expose the ugly secrets hiding below the surface. The characters are all believable, ordinary people, not inherently evil, but capable of lies and deception. Their suspicions and fear of the unknown will lead some of them down a dark path where deterioration of their normally mild-mannered behaviour into brutality feels justified.
I enjoyed all the popular culture references and news items that White has woven into his novel to enrich the 1980s vibe of the novel and give a strong sense of place for this small town in Victoria. The pace of the novel is perfect and makes for a totally compelling read and the end of the last chapter is a heart-stopper.
With thanks to Affirm Press and Netgalley for a copy to read
This terrific suspense novel peels back the layers of Camp Hill one by one, to expose the ugly secrets hiding below the surface. The characters are all believable, ordinary people, not inherently evil, but capable of lies and deception. Their suspicions and fear of the unknown will lead some of them down a dark path where deterioration of their normally mild-mannered behaviour into brutality feels justified.
I enjoyed all the popular culture references and news items that White has woven into his novel to enrich the 1980s vibe of the novel and give a strong sense of place for this small town in Victoria. The pace of the novel is perfect and makes for a totally compelling read and the end of the last chapter is a heart-stopper.
With thanks to Affirm Press and Netgalley for a copy to read
October 8, 2021
Christian White, author of The Nowhere Child, The Wife and the Widow, and co-creator of the Netflix series, Clickbait, has done it again. Wild Place – my third five-star read by him – was another twisty, twisted, domestic noir extravaganza, which I read in one day.
The year is 1989, and Tom Witter is living the perfect suburban life in Camp Hill with his wife, Connie, and two teenage boys – Marty and Keiran. On summer break from his high school teaching job, Tom is kept busy doing odd jobs around the house, attending neighborhood watch meetings, and, most importantly, looking out for his sons. But everything changes when local teenager, Tracie Reed, goes missing. The only thing separating Tom's street from Tracie's is Wild Place – a dense community forest – once welcoming and safe now feels threatening and sinister. Tom is convinced that whatever happened to Tracie is connected to Wild Place, and determined to protect his sons from a similar fate, Tom starts his own investigation, an investigation that will lead him to some very dark places.
Wild Place most definitely kept me immersed and guessing, as well as turning the pages at a frantic pace. In the 80's and 90's with the rise of heavy metal music, dark and explicit lyrics, and the Gothic lifestyle, parents – heavily influenced by the media – stupidly feared their kids were being controlled and seduced by the occult, and Satanic Rituals, and, as you will see, Christian White used these themes to create paranoia, hysteria, suspicion and judgement in his characters in a shocking and nail-biting way.
In terms of setting and atmosphere, Wild Place was reminiscent of a favourite read of mine from 2019, The Neighbour – Fiona Cummins. Both were psychological thrillers where the mystery centred on a Suburban Street which backed onto a forest, and of course the neighbourhood held many secrets.
The publication date is 26th October, 2021, and Wild Place would be the perfect spooky, ominous choice for Halloween.
I’d like to thank, Netgalley, Affirm Press, and Christian White for the e-ARC.
The year is 1989, and Tom Witter is living the perfect suburban life in Camp Hill with his wife, Connie, and two teenage boys – Marty and Keiran. On summer break from his high school teaching job, Tom is kept busy doing odd jobs around the house, attending neighborhood watch meetings, and, most importantly, looking out for his sons. But everything changes when local teenager, Tracie Reed, goes missing. The only thing separating Tom's street from Tracie's is Wild Place – a dense community forest – once welcoming and safe now feels threatening and sinister. Tom is convinced that whatever happened to Tracie is connected to Wild Place, and determined to protect his sons from a similar fate, Tom starts his own investigation, an investigation that will lead him to some very dark places.
Wild Place most definitely kept me immersed and guessing, as well as turning the pages at a frantic pace. In the 80's and 90's with the rise of heavy metal music, dark and explicit lyrics, and the Gothic lifestyle, parents – heavily influenced by the media – stupidly feared their kids were being controlled and seduced by the occult, and Satanic Rituals, and, as you will see, Christian White used these themes to create paranoia, hysteria, suspicion and judgement in his characters in a shocking and nail-biting way.
In terms of setting and atmosphere, Wild Place was reminiscent of a favourite read of mine from 2019, The Neighbour – Fiona Cummins. Both were psychological thrillers where the mystery centred on a Suburban Street which backed onto a forest, and of course the neighbourhood held many secrets.
The publication date is 26th October, 2021, and Wild Place would be the perfect spooky, ominous choice for Halloween.
I’d like to thank, Netgalley, Affirm Press, and Christian White for the e-ARC.
January 24, 2022
5★
“There it was again: a soft metallic click, a long, slow creak. A window in one of the other rooms was being slid open from the outside.”
Okay – that put me on the edge of my seat! There’s nothing like being home alone and hearing stairs or doors or windows creak. Another terrifying sound is that of a gun being cocked at night in a warehouse where the main character is hunting for someone (or vice-versa). Mostly, though, this isn’t that kind of story. Hair-raising for those involved, but not for us at home, whether you’re in Australia, where this takes place, or not.
A seventeen-year-old girl has disappeared before Christmas in the summer of 1989, after saying she was spending the night with a girlfriend. Turns out she didn’t. One of her teachers, Tom Witter, goes to the Neighbourhood Watch meeting where flyers are produced to hand out. He takes them home to show his family and tells his sons, Kieran and Marty, to stay out of the woods, aka the Wild Place.
Kieran, though, at thirteen, loves war movies, so he sees the Wild Place through combat goggles.
“Wild Place was summed up in the name: a wild patch of land in the middle of the most un-wild place you could imagine. It wasn’t big, exactly, but it was big enough. Any bigger, and it might roll out into the neighbourhood and consume the houses like in ‘The Blob’.
According to legend, the bushland was home to a killer clown, was the secret burial place of the Beaumont children, and contained a hidden pit filled with venomous snakes. Kieran didn’t really believe any of that, but he lived in hope.”
An obvious suspect is a neighbour, Sean Fryman, Marty’s former best friend and someone Kieran always looked up to. In the last year or so, Sean has turned dark, listening to heavy metal, keeping a pet python, and wearing tattoos with satanic significance.
Kieran misses Sean’s company. Marty, on the other hand, seems to have grown out of the friendship, dressing better, behaving better and getting ready to move out on his own to be closer to uni next year.
The neighbourhood gets stirred up, grieving parents face the public, and Tom keeps trying to help, trying to find out what happened. This is the busy summer holiday season, when people aren’t following their usual routines, and neighbours begin to stickybeak, watching each other. The only real plans they have are for the New Year's Eve party.
Tom decides to do a little stickybeaking himself and visits Sean. After all, this is a kid who was like a third son to him for many years, spending a lot of time, and eating a lot of meals, with the Witter family. How much could he have really changed? He goes to the Frymans’ house and checks Sean’s room. He picks up some record album covers as Sean comes in.
“A vampire had entered the room. This man-boy was an undead version of the original. His hair was long and black, and hung in a greasy tangle over his face. It made Tom think of vines growing over the mouth of an ancient cave, filled with monsters.”
Yes, Sean had certainly changed. All in all, it kept me reading and wanting to see what would happen next – the test of a good mystery! I didn’t guess the results but I certainly recognised the community and the individuals involved and could see how these things could happen. Some of it would seem a little far-fetched, except that I see even more outlandish news reports these days. There ARE monsters among us!
I haven’t yet read White’s second book, The Wife and the Widow, but I enjoyed this one and his debut, The Nowhere Child, which I reviewed here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks for another good tale, Christian White, and thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for the copy for review.
“There it was again: a soft metallic click, a long, slow creak. A window in one of the other rooms was being slid open from the outside.”
Okay – that put me on the edge of my seat! There’s nothing like being home alone and hearing stairs or doors or windows creak. Another terrifying sound is that of a gun being cocked at night in a warehouse where the main character is hunting for someone (or vice-versa). Mostly, though, this isn’t that kind of story. Hair-raising for those involved, but not for us at home, whether you’re in Australia, where this takes place, or not.
A seventeen-year-old girl has disappeared before Christmas in the summer of 1989, after saying she was spending the night with a girlfriend. Turns out she didn’t. One of her teachers, Tom Witter, goes to the Neighbourhood Watch meeting where flyers are produced to hand out. He takes them home to show his family and tells his sons, Kieran and Marty, to stay out of the woods, aka the Wild Place.
Kieran, though, at thirteen, loves war movies, so he sees the Wild Place through combat goggles.
“Wild Place was summed up in the name: a wild patch of land in the middle of the most un-wild place you could imagine. It wasn’t big, exactly, but it was big enough. Any bigger, and it might roll out into the neighbourhood and consume the houses like in ‘The Blob’.
According to legend, the bushland was home to a killer clown, was the secret burial place of the Beaumont children, and contained a hidden pit filled with venomous snakes. Kieran didn’t really believe any of that, but he lived in hope.”
An obvious suspect is a neighbour, Sean Fryman, Marty’s former best friend and someone Kieran always looked up to. In the last year or so, Sean has turned dark, listening to heavy metal, keeping a pet python, and wearing tattoos with satanic significance.
Kieran misses Sean’s company. Marty, on the other hand, seems to have grown out of the friendship, dressing better, behaving better and getting ready to move out on his own to be closer to uni next year.
The neighbourhood gets stirred up, grieving parents face the public, and Tom keeps trying to help, trying to find out what happened. This is the busy summer holiday season, when people aren’t following their usual routines, and neighbours begin to stickybeak, watching each other. The only real plans they have are for the New Year's Eve party.
Tom decides to do a little stickybeaking himself and visits Sean. After all, this is a kid who was like a third son to him for many years, spending a lot of time, and eating a lot of meals, with the Witter family. How much could he have really changed? He goes to the Frymans’ house and checks Sean’s room. He picks up some record album covers as Sean comes in.
“A vampire had entered the room. This man-boy was an undead version of the original. His hair was long and black, and hung in a greasy tangle over his face. It made Tom think of vines growing over the mouth of an ancient cave, filled with monsters.”
Yes, Sean had certainly changed. All in all, it kept me reading and wanting to see what would happen next – the test of a good mystery! I didn’t guess the results but I certainly recognised the community and the individuals involved and could see how these things could happen. Some of it would seem a little far-fetched, except that I see even more outlandish news reports these days. There ARE monsters among us!
I haven’t yet read White’s second book, The Wife and the Widow, but I enjoyed this one and his debut, The Nowhere Child, which I reviewed here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Thanks for another good tale, Christian White, and thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for the copy for review.
October 21, 2021
Tracie Reed had finally finished school and had everything ahead of her. It was December 1989 in the small suburb of Camp Hill in Victoria, and when Tracie went missing late one night, after having had a fight with her best friend Cassie, then arriving home to her mother Nancy, distraught and shaken – but when Nancy woke the next morning, Tracie was gone. The police said she was a runaway and wouldn’t listen to Tracie’s mother who obviously knew her daughter best. The local neighbourhood watch group came together, printed missing posters and wanted to help.
Tom Witter was one of those neighbours and he took the posters and stuck them throughout Camp Hill. Tom was also one of the local high school teachers and had taught Tracie, so he felt close to the situation. Tom wanted to help find her. Eighteen-year-old Sean lived next door to Tom and his family with his mother Debbie. Sean had turned gothic, with dark clothing, tattoos and heavy metal music, causing a certain amount of suspicion to fall on him. But although there were secrets running through the neighbourhood, no one could believe anything bad would happen in their area. Wild Place – the area across the street, which was bushy, and tree filled, was a magnet for teenagers, but was it dangerous? What was happening in the small and usually docile neighbourhood?
Wild Place by Aussie author Christian White is a gritty, tense and breathtaking thriller which drew me into the depths of the darkness that people hide each and every day. Tom played an excellent main character and I felt sorry for him many times. Suspicion, guilt, violence and desperation all played a part in Wild Place, and I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.
Tom Witter was one of those neighbours and he took the posters and stuck them throughout Camp Hill. Tom was also one of the local high school teachers and had taught Tracie, so he felt close to the situation. Tom wanted to help find her. Eighteen-year-old Sean lived next door to Tom and his family with his mother Debbie. Sean had turned gothic, with dark clothing, tattoos and heavy metal music, causing a certain amount of suspicion to fall on him. But although there were secrets running through the neighbourhood, no one could believe anything bad would happen in their area. Wild Place – the area across the street, which was bushy, and tree filled, was a magnet for teenagers, but was it dangerous? What was happening in the small and usually docile neighbourhood?
Wild Place by Aussie author Christian White is a gritty, tense and breathtaking thriller which drew me into the depths of the darkness that people hide each and every day. Tom played an excellent main character and I felt sorry for him many times. Suspicion, guilt, violence and desperation all played a part in Wild Place, and I have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.
November 20, 2021
This is a fast paced, twisty thriller about a missing girl in suburban Melbourne. Enclosed between the back fences of two rows of houses is a kind of nature reserve known as Wild Place to the locals. The house of the missing girl backs on to one side and Tom Witter’s, a local teacher and family man backs on to the other. The story is set between Christmas 1989 and New Year, and there’s plenty of references to music and other cultural references of the time, in particular an irrational fear of satanic cults. The local goth kid who listens to lots of heavy metal becomes a natural suspect for all the neighbourhood watch types.
While I found this an enjoyable and easy read, I don’t think it’s as good as his first two books. I’m not sure why, it just didn’t surprise me and I found the ending unsatisfying.
While I found this an enjoyable and easy read, I don’t think it’s as good as his first two books. I’m not sure why, it just didn’t surprise me and I found the ending unsatisfying.
July 6, 2025
fun!!! a few good plot twists. a fairly well paced read.
long story short: a local teenage girl goes missing in a small town, where is she? Is she alive? who took her? why? the main character gets intertwined in the whole thing and there’s plenty of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. even a few satanic rituals???? a great mix of characters and a writing style that is engaging and easy to follow along.
it’s fine. a mediocre read, interesting enough and I was able to smash it out in only a day or two.
will recommend but not a must read.
long story short: a local teenage girl goes missing in a small town, where is she? Is she alive? who took her? why? the main character gets intertwined in the whole thing and there’s plenty of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. even a few satanic rituals???? a great mix of characters and a writing style that is engaging and easy to follow along.
it’s fine. a mediocre read, interesting enough and I was able to smash it out in only a day or two.
will recommend but not a must read.
January 16, 2024
This was not for me am not into satanic rituals 2.5 stars.
December 12, 2021
Stand alone Australian thriller published 2021
An other great 4 star read.
Christian White keeps delivering the goods.
Lets imagine a room, north facing, with the drapes open. The room is full of light and it feels good and it feels right. But even in this room there are corners that never see the light of day. This exclusion of light can often harbour something better left undisturbed.
Such is the case with the Witter family. A family of four, two boys both of teenage years, plus Mum and Dad. This is a family where God is in his heaven and all, it seems, is well with the world.
That was until the day a fourteen year old female neighbour disappears. The police believe her to be a run away but her mother knows better.
The local neighbourhood watch decide that this is a time where actions speak louder than words. So, Tom Witter as part of the group starts putting up ‘ girl missing’ posters all over the place.
Tom feels more compelled to help than most of the others as he was one the girls teachers and feels a curious responsibility to find her.
And find her they do. Dead in a grave found by a neighbours dog in the local green belt known as the Wild Place.
When the news of the girls death reaches the other neighbours they respond with a feral vigilante mentality.
Private dark corners will be exposed and what comes into the light of day will be pretty ugly.
The end probably could and probably would happen but the injustice left me feeling like I had just sucked a lemon.
A page turner with some very interesting twists.
An other great 4 star read.
Christian White keeps delivering the goods.
Lets imagine a room, north facing, with the drapes open. The room is full of light and it feels good and it feels right. But even in this room there are corners that never see the light of day. This exclusion of light can often harbour something better left undisturbed.
Such is the case with the Witter family. A family of four, two boys both of teenage years, plus Mum and Dad. This is a family where God is in his heaven and all, it seems, is well with the world.
That was until the day a fourteen year old female neighbour disappears. The police believe her to be a run away but her mother knows better.
The local neighbourhood watch decide that this is a time where actions speak louder than words. So, Tom Witter as part of the group starts putting up ‘ girl missing’ posters all over the place.
Tom feels more compelled to help than most of the others as he was one the girls teachers and feels a curious responsibility to find her.
And find her they do. Dead in a grave found by a neighbours dog in the local green belt known as the Wild Place.
When the news of the girls death reaches the other neighbours they respond with a feral vigilante mentality.
Private dark corners will be exposed and what comes into the light of day will be pretty ugly.
The end probably could and probably would happen but the injustice left me feeling like I had just sucked a lemon.
A page turner with some very interesting twists.
March 18, 2022
Award winning and popular author Christian White returns with his new mystery thriller Wild Place. A domestic noir set in 1989, in a comfortable middleclass Australian suburb with a missing teenage girl. The bordering woodland seems a dark and gloomy place and the rumours of satanic rituals appear all too plausible. Tom Witter, the girl’s school teacher, is not convinced she has run away and so begins to investigate and involves his neighbourhood watch group to assist. Whilst suspicion is cast on the local teenage goth, there are more complications discovered and many people’s actions are called into question. All layers of hidden secrets are at play in the neighbourhood, and suburbia may not be so idyllic as the locals believe. Given White’s previous high standard thrillers, this narrative lacked his usual psychological tension and so only a four-star read rating.
October 31, 2021
Wild Place is Christian White's third novel and the 3rd time I have given him 5 stars. I devoured this book over a 24 hour period, it was once again brilliant. After The Wife and The Widow there was a very high bar to reach in my mind and Wild Place did it again. It was clever, addictive and relatable to this child of the 80's.
It is summer, 1989 in Camp Hill, Victoria. The kids have finished school and are looking forward to their holidays. But this small and close knit community is rocked by the disappearance of one of their brightest stars. Tracie Reed was all ready to head off to uni and become a journalist. And then she goes missing. Her parents and friends believe something bad has happened to her, but police have written her off as a runaway. He former English teacher joins forces with Tracie's father to try to find out what happened.
There is so much to love about this book. The setting, with Wild Place, the community forest which is creepy and dark. The fact that it was the late 80's in Australia with music and TV that bought back some fun memories. And the story was just so clever and never a forgone conclusion.
If you have read Christian White before, you will know he is the master of the twist, and Wild Place is no different. You need to read this book.
Big thank you to Affirm Press for sending me my copy to read. Could not recommend it more.
It is summer, 1989 in Camp Hill, Victoria. The kids have finished school and are looking forward to their holidays. But this small and close knit community is rocked by the disappearance of one of their brightest stars. Tracie Reed was all ready to head off to uni and become a journalist. And then she goes missing. Her parents and friends believe something bad has happened to her, but police have written her off as a runaway. He former English teacher joins forces with Tracie's father to try to find out what happened.
There is so much to love about this book. The setting, with Wild Place, the community forest which is creepy and dark. The fact that it was the late 80's in Australia with music and TV that bought back some fun memories. And the story was just so clever and never a forgone conclusion.
If you have read Christian White before, you will know he is the master of the twist, and Wild Place is no different. You need to read this book.
Big thank you to Affirm Press for sending me my copy to read. Could not recommend it more.
April 1, 2022
This was my first Christian White book and I thoroughly enjoyed it, it takes in the neighbourhood around bushland called wild place which is in the suburb of Camp Hill in Australia, we get to know quite a few of the residents as the author digs deep into their lives when a young seventeen year old girl Tracie Reed goes missing in December 1989, one resident Tom Whitter is sure he knows something about what happened to her, but does he know the full story?
Nancy Reed and her husband Owen are getting divorced they have a daughter Tracie who is seventeen and she is not happy about it, when she goes missing her mother rings the police but they don’t appear to be taking it seriously they say she has run away but a mother knows that it is something more.
The local neighbourhood watch at one of their regular meetings have arranged posters to put up about the missing girl they are determined to help bring her home, one person Tom Whitter takes this very seriously and starts to do some investigating himself convinced that his eighteen year old neighbour Sean knows more that he is saying and questions him.
This small suburban town is convinced that there is acts of Satanism happening in the area and are determined to do what they think the police are not doing and it feels like a couple are turning into vigilantism they are so determined to find out what happened to Tracie, Tom Whitter has started the thoughts and continues to push forward.
Tom Whitter played such a big part in this story as he uncovers secrets that will shock him no end, he seemed like such a quiet man a local man who now teaches at the local high school the ending rocked me with a big twist and I am still not sure if I think it was the right way for me personally but yes this is a great story and is one that I would recommend to anyone who like a good thriller that has you thinking throughout.
Nancy Reed and her husband Owen are getting divorced they have a daughter Tracie who is seventeen and she is not happy about it, when she goes missing her mother rings the police but they don’t appear to be taking it seriously they say she has run away but a mother knows that it is something more.
The local neighbourhood watch at one of their regular meetings have arranged posters to put up about the missing girl they are determined to help bring her home, one person Tom Whitter takes this very seriously and starts to do some investigating himself convinced that his eighteen year old neighbour Sean knows more that he is saying and questions him.
This small suburban town is convinced that there is acts of Satanism happening in the area and are determined to do what they think the police are not doing and it feels like a couple are turning into vigilantism they are so determined to find out what happened to Tracie, Tom Whitter has started the thoughts and continues to push forward.
Tom Whitter played such a big part in this story as he uncovers secrets that will shock him no end, he seemed like such a quiet man a local man who now teaches at the local high school the ending rocked me with a big twist and I am still not sure if I think it was the right way for me personally but yes this is a great story and is one that I would recommend to anyone who like a good thriller that has you thinking throughout.
October 25, 2021
⭐️5 Stars⭐️
You’ll be transorted to a ‘WILD PLACE’ when you read author Christian White’s latest thriller release!
Wild Place is the third novel by Christian White and it’s drenched in suspense. There are heaps of twists and OMG this even got me screaming out NOOOO!!! to myself at a shocking moment in the book!
Christian White is a fabulous story teller, I couldn’t put this one down and quickly finished reading it in record time!
Why do good people bad things? Dark secrets and desperation are in force in a idyllic Aussie suburb in the Mornington Peninsula.
We travel back to the eighties for this psychological thriller where local teenage girl Tracie Reed has gone missing from her peaceful neighbourhood.
Most people assume she’s run away from home and the police don’t seem to be too concerned about her disappearance.
English school teacher Tom Witter volunteers to help put up posters for the missing girl through his local neighbourhood watch group and finds himself becoming more involved in investigating her disappearance. He comes to the conclusion that a local boy might have been involved.
There are satanic undertones, dark layers, secrets and of course White's shocking signiture twist! I loved the nostalgia of the 80’s, the witty lines and highly recommend this thrlller!
Publication date 26th October 2021
Thank you to the lovely team at Affirm Press for sending me an advanced copy of the book.
You’ll be transorted to a ‘WILD PLACE’ when you read author Christian White’s latest thriller release!
Wild Place is the third novel by Christian White and it’s drenched in suspense. There are heaps of twists and OMG this even got me screaming out NOOOO!!! to myself at a shocking moment in the book!
Christian White is a fabulous story teller, I couldn’t put this one down and quickly finished reading it in record time!
Why do good people bad things? Dark secrets and desperation are in force in a idyllic Aussie suburb in the Mornington Peninsula.
We travel back to the eighties for this psychological thriller where local teenage girl Tracie Reed has gone missing from her peaceful neighbourhood.
Most people assume she’s run away from home and the police don’t seem to be too concerned about her disappearance.
English school teacher Tom Witter volunteers to help put up posters for the missing girl through his local neighbourhood watch group and finds himself becoming more involved in investigating her disappearance. He comes to the conclusion that a local boy might have been involved.
There are satanic undertones, dark layers, secrets and of course White's shocking signiture twist! I loved the nostalgia of the 80’s, the witty lines and highly recommend this thrlller!
Publication date 26th October 2021
Thank you to the lovely team at Affirm Press for sending me an advanced copy of the book.
November 20, 2021
A fantastic crime novel with lots of suspicious characters and plenty of twists!
Plot: It's 1989, and a girl has gone missing. School teacher Tom suspects the goth kid next door, Sean, but this small town has all kinds of secrets.
Firstly, the setting of '89 added an interesting level to the story. I recently went through a 'serial killer podcasts' phase so I know a little about the Satanic Panic, but it was quite fun to see it explored further in this story. There's also that small town community coupled with the lack of technology of that time that gave things a more intimate angle. No cryptic text messages here, folks - just nosy Lydia with her Neighbourhood Watch group.
The characters are familiar enough, but I never found myself predicting too much of what was to come, which was refreshing. I still called the person responsible but all the twists and turns along the way definitely came out of the blue. Some really fun curves along this path!
The writing is clever enough to create tension as it goes, so there's never a dull moment. I was pretty keen on getting back to it every time I put it down, and with it being an e-book and me always choosing paperbacks this was a big deal. So props for that.
Overall, it was a highly entertaining, twisty thriller. Highly recommend for crime lovers.
With thanks to Netgalley for an ARC
Plot: It's 1989, and a girl has gone missing. School teacher Tom suspects the goth kid next door, Sean, but this small town has all kinds of secrets.
Firstly, the setting of '89 added an interesting level to the story. I recently went through a 'serial killer podcasts' phase so I know a little about the Satanic Panic, but it was quite fun to see it explored further in this story. There's also that small town community coupled with the lack of technology of that time that gave things a more intimate angle. No cryptic text messages here, folks - just nosy Lydia with her Neighbourhood Watch group.
The characters are familiar enough, but I never found myself predicting too much of what was to come, which was refreshing. I still called the person responsible but all the twists and turns along the way definitely came out of the blue. Some really fun curves along this path!
The writing is clever enough to create tension as it goes, so there's never a dull moment. I was pretty keen on getting back to it every time I put it down, and with it being an e-book and me always choosing paperbacks this was a big deal. So props for that.
Overall, it was a highly entertaining, twisty thriller. Highly recommend for crime lovers.
With thanks to Netgalley for an ARC
October 16, 2021
Wild Place is the third novel by best-selling Australian screen-writer and author, Christian White. When seventeen-year-old Tracie Reed disappears, in early December, 1989, from her Camp Hill home on the Mornington Peninsula, the police soon conclude she’s another runaway. But even though her parents are in the throes of divorce, neither is convinced of this, and both are frustrated at police inaction.
Nancy Reed says that her daughter reported feeling watched, and she had changed her appearance in an effort to thwart this. Nancy is religious in maintaining her daily contact with the police, and vigilant of unusual activity in the area, but three weeks later, there is still no progress.
At the Keel Street Neighbourhood Watch meeting, local high school English teacher Tom Witter is tasked with posting fliers about the missing girl: he checks with his sons, who claim only vague knowledge of Tracie.
Summer vacation allows him time to take a good look at Wild Place, the community forest backing onto his home, and that of the Reeds, something that brings him to the attention of Detective Sharon Guffey, a former girlfriend, with whom he shares what he has found.
When Tom learns of an item found in Tracie’s bedroom, he becomes suspicious of a local youth. An extraordinary Neighbourhood Watch meeting, with Tracie’s father, Owen Reed in attendance, quickly evolves into a witch hunt, and an unwise visit results in accusations and drastic actions that cannot be undone.
If this novel is at first a bit of a slow burn, once the action starts it does not let up. White’s plot has a generous helping of secrets and lies, twists and surprises leading up to the climax and, while many readers will reject Tom’s suspicions, even the most astute are unlikely to pick the perpetrator much before the reveal.
Most Australian readers of a certain vintage will agree that White’s depiction of both the setting and era are faultless: his use of topical news items, TV, movies, foods, songs, toys and cars firmly cements the story in the late eighties; he easily conveys the accepted attitudes and community mindsets common at the time, and the characters that populate his suburbia are wholly credible. Another Christian White winner.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Affirm Press.
Nancy Reed says that her daughter reported feeling watched, and she had changed her appearance in an effort to thwart this. Nancy is religious in maintaining her daily contact with the police, and vigilant of unusual activity in the area, but three weeks later, there is still no progress.
At the Keel Street Neighbourhood Watch meeting, local high school English teacher Tom Witter is tasked with posting fliers about the missing girl: he checks with his sons, who claim only vague knowledge of Tracie.
Summer vacation allows him time to take a good look at Wild Place, the community forest backing onto his home, and that of the Reeds, something that brings him to the attention of Detective Sharon Guffey, a former girlfriend, with whom he shares what he has found.
When Tom learns of an item found in Tracie’s bedroom, he becomes suspicious of a local youth. An extraordinary Neighbourhood Watch meeting, with Tracie’s father, Owen Reed in attendance, quickly evolves into a witch hunt, and an unwise visit results in accusations and drastic actions that cannot be undone.
If this novel is at first a bit of a slow burn, once the action starts it does not let up. White’s plot has a generous helping of secrets and lies, twists and surprises leading up to the climax and, while many readers will reject Tom’s suspicions, even the most astute are unlikely to pick the perpetrator much before the reveal.
Most Australian readers of a certain vintage will agree that White’s depiction of both the setting and era are faultless: his use of topical news items, TV, movies, foods, songs, toys and cars firmly cements the story in the late eighties; he easily conveys the accepted attitudes and community mindsets common at the time, and the characters that populate his suburbia are wholly credible. Another Christian White winner.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Affirm Press.
October 21, 2021
Whatever the setting, one thing Christian White consistently brings to his plots are well thought-out twists; some you might guess at, others you don’t see coming. He lulls you into thinking you have a good understanding of a character and their motivations, and then *whoosh*, out goes the rug from under your feet.
Set in 1989, the story is rich in references of the time. For those of us that were old enough, it’s a trip down memory lane. This is the fun part. Yet scratch the surface of this suburb and its inhabitants, and all is not as it seems. Tom Witter, local resident and high school teacher, discovers this when he takes an active interest in helping find the missing teen, Tracie Reed. Is she really the attention-seeking runaway some say she is? Or are other malevolent forces at play?
White nicely juxtaposes a seemingly ordinary suburb with the Wild Place – a small forest that backs onto residential properties. Seen in a positive light, the forest view affords residents privacy, as well as a wilderness they can enjoy. Conversely, it’s dense, it’s dark and an ideal place for nefarious activities. White continues this theme with the neighbours; we see what we want to see, or we see the façade presented to us. Throw in the disappearance of a local teenager and a community that starts looking much closer at themselves, and you soon discover that ordinary people are anything but when pushed to extremes.
THE WILD PLACE is a really entertaining read. I highly recommend it.
Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Netgalley.
Set in 1989, the story is rich in references of the time. For those of us that were old enough, it’s a trip down memory lane. This is the fun part. Yet scratch the surface of this suburb and its inhabitants, and all is not as it seems. Tom Witter, local resident and high school teacher, discovers this when he takes an active interest in helping find the missing teen, Tracie Reed. Is she really the attention-seeking runaway some say she is? Or are other malevolent forces at play?
White nicely juxtaposes a seemingly ordinary suburb with the Wild Place – a small forest that backs onto residential properties. Seen in a positive light, the forest view affords residents privacy, as well as a wilderness they can enjoy. Conversely, it’s dense, it’s dark and an ideal place for nefarious activities. White continues this theme with the neighbours; we see what we want to see, or we see the façade presented to us. Throw in the disappearance of a local teenager and a community that starts looking much closer at themselves, and you soon discover that ordinary people are anything but when pushed to extremes.
THE WILD PLACE is a really entertaining read. I highly recommend it.
Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Netgalley.
October 26, 2021
Wild Place is an engrossing and twisty mystery-thriller, set in the deceptively idyllic world of 1980s Australian middle-class suburbia.
It's the run-up to Christmas 1989 and 17-year-old Tracie Reed has gone missing from her home in the (fictional) suburb of Camp Hill, on the Mornington Peninsula in greater Melbourne. Initially, local police are dismissive, treating Tracie's case as that of a teenage runaway. She'd taken a backpack of clothes, after all, and had been affected by the recent breakdown of her parents' marriage. Tracie's mum, Nancy is adamant that Tracie wouldn't just disappear and not make contact, and tells the police that Tracie had felt that she was being watched in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.
Christmas comes and goes, and there's still no sign of Tracie. The lead detective goes on holidays, and the case is temporarily transferred to Detective Sharon Guffey, who grew up in the area.
Meanwhile, local resident Tom Witter, who had been Tracie's high school English teacher, attends his local neighbourhood watch meeting. Tom's family home is located on Keel Street, backing onto the same area of urban bushland reserve, known as "Wild Place", as Tracie's home in nearby Bright Street. For readers who may be unfamiliar, the proximity of areas of bushland is relatively common in suburban areas surrounding Australia's largest cities.
Tom is deputed to distribute "Missing Person" posters around the neighbourhood, and becomes preoccupied with Tracie's disappearance. His involvement leads him into contact with the police, and it transpires that he and Detective Sharon Guffey were close friends during their own school days at the high school where Tom now teaches. Both Sharon and Tom's wife, Connie, caution him against intruding any further into the investigation of Tracie's disappearance, but Tom is a little like a dog with the proverbial bone, and starts hypothesising about potential suspects. After the spectre of satanic ritual is raised as a possibility (I remember well the hysteria around this subject that flared now again during the 1980s and 1990s in Australia), his suspicions fall on local "goth" teenager, Sean Fryman. What follows is rather horrifying sequence of violence and xenophobia, during which the layers of this suburban paradise are gradually peeled back, revealing the fear, guilt, blame and jealousies that skulk beneath.
Having enjoyed Christian White's previous two releases, The Nowhere Child and The Wife and the Widow, I launched into Wild Place anticipating another multi-layered mystery plot with plenty of twists and surprises. And I wasn't disappointed - this was an engrossing read with a strong sense of setting in time and place. While a couple of aspects of the "big reveal" had occurred to me as possibilities while reading, the conclusion came as a shocking, but fitting, surprise.
Christian White has created a cast of complex characters, ranging from the somewhat comical caricatures of the members of the Keel Street Neighbourhood Watch committee to Sean's teenage angst and isolation, to the family relationships within the Witter family unit, to Tom's own intricate knot of motivations and insecurities. While the reader doesn't necessarily support the decisions the characters make (sometimes feeling like yelling at the page; "NO! Don't do that!"), we can't help but understand their motives of self-protection, retribution or bystander curiosity.
I'd recommend Wild Place to any reader who enjoys high quality contemporary Australian crime fiction (albeit with a recent historical setting) featuring complex protagonists, multi-layered plot and plenty of twists.
My thanks to the author, Christian White, publisher Affirm Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication.
It's the run-up to Christmas 1989 and 17-year-old Tracie Reed has gone missing from her home in the (fictional) suburb of Camp Hill, on the Mornington Peninsula in greater Melbourne. Initially, local police are dismissive, treating Tracie's case as that of a teenage runaway. She'd taken a backpack of clothes, after all, and had been affected by the recent breakdown of her parents' marriage. Tracie's mum, Nancy is adamant that Tracie wouldn't just disappear and not make contact, and tells the police that Tracie had felt that she was being watched in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.
Christmas comes and goes, and there's still no sign of Tracie. The lead detective goes on holidays, and the case is temporarily transferred to Detective Sharon Guffey, who grew up in the area.
Meanwhile, local resident Tom Witter, who had been Tracie's high school English teacher, attends his local neighbourhood watch meeting. Tom's family home is located on Keel Street, backing onto the same area of urban bushland reserve, known as "Wild Place", as Tracie's home in nearby Bright Street. For readers who may be unfamiliar, the proximity of areas of bushland is relatively common in suburban areas surrounding Australia's largest cities.
Tom is deputed to distribute "Missing Person" posters around the neighbourhood, and becomes preoccupied with Tracie's disappearance. His involvement leads him into contact with the police, and it transpires that he and Detective Sharon Guffey were close friends during their own school days at the high school where Tom now teaches. Both Sharon and Tom's wife, Connie, caution him against intruding any further into the investigation of Tracie's disappearance, but Tom is a little like a dog with the proverbial bone, and starts hypothesising about potential suspects. After the spectre of satanic ritual is raised as a possibility (I remember well the hysteria around this subject that flared now again during the 1980s and 1990s in Australia), his suspicions fall on local "goth" teenager, Sean Fryman. What follows is rather horrifying sequence of violence and xenophobia, during which the layers of this suburban paradise are gradually peeled back, revealing the fear, guilt, blame and jealousies that skulk beneath.
Having enjoyed Christian White's previous two releases, The Nowhere Child and The Wife and the Widow, I launched into Wild Place anticipating another multi-layered mystery plot with plenty of twists and surprises. And I wasn't disappointed - this was an engrossing read with a strong sense of setting in time and place. While a couple of aspects of the "big reveal" had occurred to me as possibilities while reading, the conclusion came as a shocking, but fitting, surprise.
Christian White has created a cast of complex characters, ranging from the somewhat comical caricatures of the members of the Keel Street Neighbourhood Watch committee to Sean's teenage angst and isolation, to the family relationships within the Witter family unit, to Tom's own intricate knot of motivations and insecurities. While the reader doesn't necessarily support the decisions the characters make (sometimes feeling like yelling at the page; "NO! Don't do that!"), we can't help but understand their motives of self-protection, retribution or bystander curiosity.
I'd recommend Wild Place to any reader who enjoys high quality contemporary Australian crime fiction (albeit with a recent historical setting) featuring complex protagonists, multi-layered plot and plenty of twists.
My thanks to the author, Christian White, publisher Affirm Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication.
October 22, 2021
I can rarely resist a mystery set in a suburban neighbourhood, especially when it promises time travel back to the eighties. It’s fun to be reminded of a reality where kids played out in scrubland just like “the wild place” and there were no mobile phones to keep track of your every movement, and instead of the nosy parkers on social media there was neighbourhood watch.
When a teenage girl goes missing from the suburb of Camp Hill, a close-knit neighbourhood that borders an area of wild bushland called simply “Wild Place”, the whole community is thrown into turmoil. Worried parents forbid their children to play in the bush. Emergency neighbourhood watch meetings are being hastily arranged. And of course suspicion falls on the one oddball in the neighbourhood, Sean, a teenage boy who has been seen brandishing the tattoo of a pentagram and is spending most of his time indoors listening to heavy metal music.
Like most neighbourhood mysteries, Wild Place relies on the slow unravelling of secrets the residents of Camp hill keep close to their hearts. Even Tom Witter, a high school teacher at the local Christian college, is perhaps not as lily white as he pretends to be. As residents decide to take matters into their own hands and point the finger at the most likely culprit – in their eyes at least – things soon escalate.
I’m not sure why I didn’t love this book more, seeing it had all the elements I usually enjoy in a slow burning mystery: characters with secrets to hide, time travel back to the eighties and a few twists and turns that surprised me. But somehow I found it difficult to engage with any of the characters at an emotional level, which made this just an ok read for me. I appreciated the author’s tongue-in-cheek humour sprinkled through the pages and the characters’ dialogue; the many references to religion not so much. I also thought that the satanic rituals featured only very peripherally and could have been used much more to create the spooky atmosphere I had hoped for. There were also too many side characters that added little to the overall plot in the end. I remember saying very similar things about White’s first novel THE NOWHERE CHILD, so maybe his style just doesn’t quite gel with me (though I really enjoyed his previous book THE WIFE AND THE WIDOW). That said, this was an easy popcorn read to devour in a couple of sittings and was entertaining enough to keep me reading.
WILD PLACE will appeal to readers who enjoy slower, character driven mysteries featuring neighbourhood dynamics and a large cast of characters. Set in Australia, it is also full of that slight tongue-in-cheek humour that charactersises many Australian novels and allows a bit of a chuckle whilst trying to solve the mystery. If you usually enjoy White’s writing style, then you should definitely pick this one up for some satanic time travel to the eighties.
2.5 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and Affirm Press for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
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When a teenage girl goes missing from the suburb of Camp Hill, a close-knit neighbourhood that borders an area of wild bushland called simply “Wild Place”, the whole community is thrown into turmoil. Worried parents forbid their children to play in the bush. Emergency neighbourhood watch meetings are being hastily arranged. And of course suspicion falls on the one oddball in the neighbourhood, Sean, a teenage boy who has been seen brandishing the tattoo of a pentagram and is spending most of his time indoors listening to heavy metal music.
Like most neighbourhood mysteries, Wild Place relies on the slow unravelling of secrets the residents of Camp hill keep close to their hearts. Even Tom Witter, a high school teacher at the local Christian college, is perhaps not as lily white as he pretends to be. As residents decide to take matters into their own hands and point the finger at the most likely culprit – in their eyes at least – things soon escalate.
I’m not sure why I didn’t love this book more, seeing it had all the elements I usually enjoy in a slow burning mystery: characters with secrets to hide, time travel back to the eighties and a few twists and turns that surprised me. But somehow I found it difficult to engage with any of the characters at an emotional level, which made this just an ok read for me. I appreciated the author’s tongue-in-cheek humour sprinkled through the pages and the characters’ dialogue; the many references to religion not so much. I also thought that the satanic rituals featured only very peripherally and could have been used much more to create the spooky atmosphere I had hoped for. There were also too many side characters that added little to the overall plot in the end. I remember saying very similar things about White’s first novel THE NOWHERE CHILD, so maybe his style just doesn’t quite gel with me (though I really enjoyed his previous book THE WIFE AND THE WIDOW). That said, this was an easy popcorn read to devour in a couple of sittings and was entertaining enough to keep me reading.
WILD PLACE will appeal to readers who enjoy slower, character driven mysteries featuring neighbourhood dynamics and a large cast of characters. Set in Australia, it is also full of that slight tongue-in-cheek humour that charactersises many Australian novels and allows a bit of a chuckle whilst trying to solve the mystery. If you usually enjoy White’s writing style, then you should definitely pick this one up for some satanic time travel to the eighties.
2.5 stars
Thank you to Netgalley and Affirm Press for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
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March 27, 2022
‘The best thing we can do for the kids is to be there for them, together. Just promise me you’ll be careful.’ – ‘Careful?’ – ‘When you tip over the first domino,’ she said. ‘You can’t always control how the rest will fall.’
December 1989. When 17-year-old Tracie Reed goes missing from picturesque Camp Hill on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, short-staffed police dismiss it as a teenage runaway, pointing to the parent’s messy relationship (they are separated). Her parents believe otherwise and enlist the help of attendees at a local Neighbourhood Watch meeting, including Tom Witter, one of the missing girl’s former teachers, who takes a particular interest.
The street backs onto a bushland reserve "Wild Place" and suspicion falls on Sean Fryman, teenage son of Tom’s neighbour, single-parent Debbie. Sean is going through a ‘goth’ stage, engrossing himself in heavy metal rock bands with lyrics and symbolism suggesting Satanism.
Sean likens the local close-knit community to that of a snow globe – which is pretty close to the mark - the twitchy curtains and kitchen-sink dramas hide secrets, bringing out old grievances and bullying. Desperation leads to tragedy, drawing three families and the police into an uncomfortable truth.
Author Christin White’s 3rd novel is well-written, evoking suburban Australia in the late eighties, but not my kind of book. Verdict: claustrophobic.
December 1989. When 17-year-old Tracie Reed goes missing from picturesque Camp Hill on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne, short-staffed police dismiss it as a teenage runaway, pointing to the parent’s messy relationship (they are separated). Her parents believe otherwise and enlist the help of attendees at a local Neighbourhood Watch meeting, including Tom Witter, one of the missing girl’s former teachers, who takes a particular interest.
The street backs onto a bushland reserve "Wild Place" and suspicion falls on Sean Fryman, teenage son of Tom’s neighbour, single-parent Debbie. Sean is going through a ‘goth’ stage, engrossing himself in heavy metal rock bands with lyrics and symbolism suggesting Satanism.
Sean likens the local close-knit community to that of a snow globe – which is pretty close to the mark - the twitchy curtains and kitchen-sink dramas hide secrets, bringing out old grievances and bullying. Desperation leads to tragedy, drawing three families and the police into an uncomfortable truth.
Author Christin White’s 3rd novel is well-written, evoking suburban Australia in the late eighties, but not my kind of book. Verdict: claustrophobic.
January 28, 2022
Let me preface this review by saying that I’ve enjoyed all of Christian White’s other mystery novels. They’re a bit by-numbers but I’ve always found the resolutions satisfying and even unique.
But ‘Wild Place’ is appalling. The dialogue is terrible. The characters are dull and unbelievable. The implicit misogyny is disappointing. And the editing is atrocious (at some point a character accuses someone of “gaslighting” them and it’s set in the 90s). Bad bad bad bad.
But ‘Wild Place’ is appalling. The dialogue is terrible. The characters are dull and unbelievable. The implicit misogyny is disappointing. And the editing is atrocious (at some point a character accuses someone of “gaslighting” them and it’s set in the 90s). Bad bad bad bad.
February 3, 2022
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**4.5 stars**
Wild Place by Christian White. (2021).
In the summer of 1989, local teen Tracie goes missing from the idyllic Australian suburb of Camp Hill. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When police won't listen, he takes matters into his own hands along with Tracie's dad and a local neighbourhood watch group. But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it...
This author is one of my favourites so I fully expected to really enjoy this book and lo and behold that's exactly what happened. I found myself racing through the pages, totally absorbed by the story. Suspicion is quickly directed at the local young man who dresses in all black and listens to heavy metal music; one can easily picture the families in suburbia fearing this boy who fits outside the box and I think the author has depicted this very realistically. However, the twists, turns, secrets and red herrings will leave the reader guessing what exactly happened to Tracie and why, until all is revealed by the end.
Overall: highly recommend this fantastic novel for any fan of mystery/thriller/suspense fiction.
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**4.5 stars**
Wild Place by Christian White. (2021).
In the summer of 1989, local teen Tracie goes missing from the idyllic Australian suburb of Camp Hill. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When police won't listen, he takes matters into his own hands along with Tracie's dad and a local neighbourhood watch group. But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it...
This author is one of my favourites so I fully expected to really enjoy this book and lo and behold that's exactly what happened. I found myself racing through the pages, totally absorbed by the story. Suspicion is quickly directed at the local young man who dresses in all black and listens to heavy metal music; one can easily picture the families in suburbia fearing this boy who fits outside the box and I think the author has depicted this very realistically. However, the twists, turns, secrets and red herrings will leave the reader guessing what exactly happened to Tracie and why, until all is revealed by the end.
Overall: highly recommend this fantastic novel for any fan of mystery/thriller/suspense fiction.
November 15, 2021
Wild Place is the third novel by best-selling Australian screen-writer and author, Christian White. The audio version is narrated by Sam Smith. When seventeen-year-old Tracie Reed disappears, in early December, 1989, from her Camp Hill home on the Mornington Peninsula, the police soon conclude she’s another runaway. But even though her parents are in the throes of divorce, neither is convinced of this, and both are frustrated at police inaction.
Nancy Reed says that her daughter reported feeling watched, and she had changed her appearance in an effort to thwart this. Nancy is religious in maintaining her daily contact with the police, and vigilant of unusual activity in the area, but three weeks later, there is still no progress.
At the Keel Street Neighbourhood Watch meeting, local high school English teacher Tom Witter is tasked with posting fliers about the missing girl: he checks with his sons, who claim only vague knowledge of Tracie.
Summer vacation allows him time to take a good look at Wild Place, the community forest backing onto his home, and that of the Reeds, something that brings him to the attention of Detective Sharon Guffey, a former girlfriend, with whom he shares what he has found.
When Tom learns of an item found in Tracie’s bedroom, he becomes suspicious of a local youth. An extraordinary Neighbourhood Watch meeting, with Tracie’s father, Owen Reed in attendance, quickly evolves into a witch hunt, and an unwise visit results in accusations and drastic actions that cannot be undone.
If this novel is at first a bit of a slow burn, once the action starts it does not let up. White’s plot has a generous helping of secrets and lies, twists and surprises leading up to the climax and, while many readers will reject Tom’s suspicions, even the most astute are unlikely to pick the perpetrator much before the reveal.
Most Australian readers of a certain vintage will agree that White’s depiction of both the setting and era are faultless: his use of topical news items, TV, movies, foods, songs, toys and cars firmly cements the story in the late eighties; he easily conveys the accepted attitudes and community mindsets common at the time, and the characters that populate his suburbia are wholly credible. Another Christian White winner.
Nancy Reed says that her daughter reported feeling watched, and she had changed her appearance in an effort to thwart this. Nancy is religious in maintaining her daily contact with the police, and vigilant of unusual activity in the area, but three weeks later, there is still no progress.
At the Keel Street Neighbourhood Watch meeting, local high school English teacher Tom Witter is tasked with posting fliers about the missing girl: he checks with his sons, who claim only vague knowledge of Tracie.
Summer vacation allows him time to take a good look at Wild Place, the community forest backing onto his home, and that of the Reeds, something that brings him to the attention of Detective Sharon Guffey, a former girlfriend, with whom he shares what he has found.
When Tom learns of an item found in Tracie’s bedroom, he becomes suspicious of a local youth. An extraordinary Neighbourhood Watch meeting, with Tracie’s father, Owen Reed in attendance, quickly evolves into a witch hunt, and an unwise visit results in accusations and drastic actions that cannot be undone.
If this novel is at first a bit of a slow burn, once the action starts it does not let up. White’s plot has a generous helping of secrets and lies, twists and surprises leading up to the climax and, while many readers will reject Tom’s suspicions, even the most astute are unlikely to pick the perpetrator much before the reveal.
Most Australian readers of a certain vintage will agree that White’s depiction of both the setting and era are faultless: his use of topical news items, TV, movies, foods, songs, toys and cars firmly cements the story in the late eighties; he easily conveys the accepted attitudes and community mindsets common at the time, and the characters that populate his suburbia are wholly credible. Another Christian White winner.
January 16, 2022
Wild Place by Christian White AA
Synopsis /
In the summer of 1989, a local teen goes missing from the idyllic suburb of Camp Hill in Australia. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom Witter becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When the police won't listen, he takes matters into his own hands with the help of the missing girl's father and a local neighbourhood watch group.
But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it. Wild Place peels back the layers of suburbia, exposing what s hidden underneath guilt, desperation, violence and attempts to answer the question: Why do good people do bad things?
My Thoughts /
"When you tip over the first domino", she said. "You can't always control how the rest fall".
Let's learn things.
Wild Place is the third novel by author and screenwriter, Christian White. White also co-created the Netflix hit Clickbait and, co-wrote the screenplay for the 2020 Australian psychological horror film Relic.
Can you remember what life was like in the late 1980's? The music; what cars were popular; what mum cooked for dinner? The fashion?? This is where our story begins, in the final weeks of 1989 in a small community of Camp Hill on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. A local teenage girl has gone missing and police believe she's a runaway. However, Tracie Reed's disappearance stirs something in our protagonist - Tom Witter (a lifelong resident of Camp Hill and English teacher at the local high school), he remembers that he taught Tracie but can't really recall her. Tracie lived on the other side of a parcel of land the locals have nicknamed The Wild Place, which is where Tom's own house backs onto as well. Tom thinks he may have stumbled upon the reason for Tracie's disappearance, but the police are not taking him seriously. In an attempt to get to the truth, Tom teams up with the missing girl's father and a local neighbourhood watch group and quickly becomes obsessed with solving her disappearance.
Wild Place has a few underlying themes - masculinity; grief; secrets. Plus, there is mention of the violence, xenophobia and the wave of hysteria and outrage around "Satanic Panic" that crept into suburban society in Australia during the 1980s. It asks us the question, 'Why do good people do bad things?'. But, back to the story, Tracie's disappearance……are there more sinister and macabre factors at play or is it something far more mundane? Family secrets and the lengths people will go to for their family are in abundance here; whether it be Tom’s relationship with his two sons, one of whom is moving away and the other pulling away, or Owen Reed’s fixation on finding out what happened to his daughter. White does well to make the reader feel like they have worked out the answer before it is revealed, only to pull the rug out from under them. To make all of these twists work, though, White has to hold back critical information, and when these hidden truths are revealed, and more importantly, who knew those truths and when… you will find yourself saying: “Oh, of course! Why didn't I see that!".
The epilogue left me with my mouth open as White drops yet another surprise in at the very end. This is a compulsive read and I'm keen to read his previous releases.
Synopsis /
In the summer of 1989, a local teen goes missing from the idyllic suburb of Camp Hill in Australia. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, schoolteacher Tom Witter becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When the police won't listen, he takes matters into his own hands with the help of the missing girl's father and a local neighbourhood watch group.
But as dark secrets are revealed and consequences to past actions are faced, Tom learns that the only way out of the darkness is to walk deeper into it. Wild Place peels back the layers of suburbia, exposing what s hidden underneath guilt, desperation, violence and attempts to answer the question: Why do good people do bad things?
My Thoughts /
"When you tip over the first domino", she said. "You can't always control how the rest fall".
Let's learn things.
Wild Place is the third novel by author and screenwriter, Christian White. White also co-created the Netflix hit Clickbait and, co-wrote the screenplay for the 2020 Australian psychological horror film Relic.
Can you remember what life was like in the late 1980's? The music; what cars were popular; what mum cooked for dinner? The fashion?? This is where our story begins, in the final weeks of 1989 in a small community of Camp Hill on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. A local teenage girl has gone missing and police believe she's a runaway. However, Tracie Reed's disappearance stirs something in our protagonist - Tom Witter (a lifelong resident of Camp Hill and English teacher at the local high school), he remembers that he taught Tracie but can't really recall her. Tracie lived on the other side of a parcel of land the locals have nicknamed The Wild Place, which is where Tom's own house backs onto as well. Tom thinks he may have stumbled upon the reason for Tracie's disappearance, but the police are not taking him seriously. In an attempt to get to the truth, Tom teams up with the missing girl's father and a local neighbourhood watch group and quickly becomes obsessed with solving her disappearance.
Wild Place has a few underlying themes - masculinity; grief; secrets. Plus, there is mention of the violence, xenophobia and the wave of hysteria and outrage around "Satanic Panic" that crept into suburban society in Australia during the 1980s. It asks us the question, 'Why do good people do bad things?'. But, back to the story, Tracie's disappearance……are there more sinister and macabre factors at play or is it something far more mundane? Family secrets and the lengths people will go to for their family are in abundance here; whether it be Tom’s relationship with his two sons, one of whom is moving away and the other pulling away, or Owen Reed’s fixation on finding out what happened to his daughter. White does well to make the reader feel like they have worked out the answer before it is revealed, only to pull the rug out from under them. To make all of these twists work, though, White has to hold back critical information, and when these hidden truths are revealed, and more importantly, who knew those truths and when… you will find yourself saying: “Oh, of course! Why didn't I see that!".
The epilogue left me with my mouth open as White drops yet another surprise in at the very end. This is a compulsive read and I'm keen to read his previous releases.
October 25, 2021
Christian White's latest mystery/thriller is a good read, but unlike his previous two novels, I couldn't really identify that one thing that would make it stand apart from all the other good Aussie domestic thrillers that are out there. Reading his note at the end, I understand where the inspiration came from and what he thought was the one thing, but for me it wasn't strong enough to make it a memorable read.
It's just before Christmas 1989, and Tracey Reed has disappeared from her Camp Hill home. At first the police tend to think she has run away, but her separated parents know better. The local, active Neighbourhood Watch group are doing what they can to help, which is why Tracey's former teacher, Tom Witter, is putting up posters around the suburb and exploring Wild Place, the 'community forest' on the edge of the neighbourhood. He knows which house the Reeds live in, because everyone knows everyone, and is dismayed to see that there is a view into Tracey's bedroom from the forest. Someone could have been watching her, as she had told her mother the night before she disappeared. The finger of suspicion is pointed at a number of different people in the community as secrets are revealed and the investigation gradually builds momentum.
White captures the era very well and deftly conveys the sense of claustrophobia that can build in a small, suburban community when something goes wrong. If you like your beach reads a little on the darker side, this could be a perfect choice.
With thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for an eARC to read and review.
It's just before Christmas 1989, and Tracey Reed has disappeared from her Camp Hill home. At first the police tend to think she has run away, but her separated parents know better. The local, active Neighbourhood Watch group are doing what they can to help, which is why Tracey's former teacher, Tom Witter, is putting up posters around the suburb and exploring Wild Place, the 'community forest' on the edge of the neighbourhood. He knows which house the Reeds live in, because everyone knows everyone, and is dismayed to see that there is a view into Tracey's bedroom from the forest. Someone could have been watching her, as she had told her mother the night before she disappeared. The finger of suspicion is pointed at a number of different people in the community as secrets are revealed and the investigation gradually builds momentum.
White captures the era very well and deftly conveys the sense of claustrophobia that can build in a small, suburban community when something goes wrong. If you like your beach reads a little on the darker side, this could be a perfect choice.
With thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for an eARC to read and review.
November 22, 2021
2.5 stars.
SPOILERS BELOW
I loved Christian White's previous two books, but this one just didn't work for me. I don't know if the pacing was off? Or maybe it was because Tom spent exactly one day reading books about satan and ? After reading the author's note, my sense was thematically the book was about what fear can drive ~good people to do, but That didn't get a gasp so much as a huh.
SPOILERS BELOW
I loved Christian White's previous two books, but this one just didn't work for me. I don't know if the pacing was off? Or maybe it was because Tom spent exactly one day reading books about satan and ? After reading the author's note, my sense was thematically the book was about what fear can drive ~good people to do, but That didn't get a gasp so much as a huh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2021
After reading two Christian White titles in the space of a few weeks I was convinced he was a new favourite author. Now, having finished Wild Place in the space of two days I'm torn. I needed to keep reading because it was very good and I loved the twists and surprises his other titles presented. However, at the same time I needed to keep putting the book aside because I found myself feeling stressed by these characters. I was invested in them. I liked them but I couldn't tell if I was dealing with an unreliable narrator, a genuinely good person making dumb, even dangerous decisions, or something else altogether. If I wanted to find out I'd need to keep reading so that's what I did. I'm glad I did as sure enough there were plenty of twists and oh what an unexpected ending.
Set in Australia in an outer Melbourne suburb in 1989, Tom Whitter was the protagonist. He's the protective father of two teen boys Marty and Kieran, husband to Connie, and a teacher at the local high school. Wild Place is a section of native land in the midst of the homes. When local teen Tracie goes missing the police treat her as a runaway and are fairly lacklustre in their search efforts. Three weeks on, the local neighbourhood watch steps in to assist by putting up posters and Tom, having taught Tracie at some point, takes it a bit further beginning his own investigation. When his youngest son Kieran owns up to having snuck out to use a Ouija board with next door neighbour Sean - a boy who has recently dressed and behaved strangely, listens to dark music, has a pet snake and a tattoo of a pentagram on his arm - Tom worries. He heads to the library and finds himself immersed in theories about satanism and from here his suspicions about Sean ratchet up a notch or two. It was right around this time my own nerves were jangled.
What happened to Tracie on the night she went missing? Could she have run away to get back at her parents for divorcing? What did Tracie and her best friend fight about on the night she went missing? Were Tom's suspicions about Sean and Satanism correct? So many questions and you'll get your answers and some surprises to boot if you dare to take a plunge into the very well written Wild Place.
My thanks to Affirm Press andNetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.
Set in Australia in an outer Melbourne suburb in 1989, Tom Whitter was the protagonist. He's the protective father of two teen boys Marty and Kieran, husband to Connie, and a teacher at the local high school. Wild Place is a section of native land in the midst of the homes. When local teen Tracie goes missing the police treat her as a runaway and are fairly lacklustre in their search efforts. Three weeks on, the local neighbourhood watch steps in to assist by putting up posters and Tom, having taught Tracie at some point, takes it a bit further beginning his own investigation. When his youngest son Kieran owns up to having snuck out to use a Ouija board with next door neighbour Sean - a boy who has recently dressed and behaved strangely, listens to dark music, has a pet snake and a tattoo of a pentagram on his arm - Tom worries. He heads to the library and finds himself immersed in theories about satanism and from here his suspicions about Sean ratchet up a notch or two. It was right around this time my own nerves were jangled.
What happened to Tracie on the night she went missing? Could she have run away to get back at her parents for divorcing? What did Tracie and her best friend fight about on the night she went missing? Were Tom's suspicions about Sean and Satanism correct? So many questions and you'll get your answers and some surprises to boot if you dare to take a plunge into the very well written Wild Place.
My thanks to Affirm Press andNetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.
September 23, 2021
Not everybody can do this as well as Christian does. This is so tightly wound I had to devour it in one day. Each part of this book is brilliant but something that stood out to me, without giving too much away, is my admiration for how Christian manages to make motivation so clear, without resorting to info dumps. I got where every character was coming from. Everybody feels authentic. Which made the whole journey even more brutal. So good!
November 22, 2024
Thriller set in the 'burbs. This is why I don't interact with my neighbours much beyond a quick smile and wave. Clever twists and a great pace that is ever increasing as it leads the characters into a frenzied climax. This book is an indictment on toxic masculinity, or so I thought. One star off because the ending really left me quite disturbed.
Great narration
Great narration
October 28, 2021
This is a book thriller lovers will not want to miss. And fans of Christian White, Wild Place does not disappoint! It might just be my new favourite. It’s brilliant!
I devoured this twisty and enthralling read. The suburban Australian setting is a familiar but eery backdrop to the story, the cast of townsfolk intriguing with lots of grey, and the time period, 1989 as the new decade approaches, delivered mounting pressure and an excellent dose of nostalgia for this child of the ‘90s. (Think cassettes & the legendary dessert that is a Viennetta!)
Christian White dials the tension and dilemmas up a notch with each chapter and I could feel the screws tightening & the pressure mounting.
The very last page had me gasping. The ending was on my mind for days.
If you’ve read Christian White’s earlier novels, you must read this book. If you haven’t read his books before, this is a great one to start with!
Thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for an e-ARC of this book.
I devoured this twisty and enthralling read. The suburban Australian setting is a familiar but eery backdrop to the story, the cast of townsfolk intriguing with lots of grey, and the time period, 1989 as the new decade approaches, delivered mounting pressure and an excellent dose of nostalgia for this child of the ‘90s. (Think cassettes & the legendary dessert that is a Viennetta!)
Christian White dials the tension and dilemmas up a notch with each chapter and I could feel the screws tightening & the pressure mounting.
The very last page had me gasping. The ending was on my mind for days.
If you’ve read Christian White’s earlier novels, you must read this book. If you haven’t read his books before, this is a great one to start with!
Thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for an e-ARC of this book.
July 13, 2022
Wild Place is a polished genre crime thriller, Christian White’s fourth stand-alone crime book. This one revolves around satanism in the suburbs, a middle-class 1989 family neighbourhood and a missing teenage girl who might’ve gotten tied up with satanist psychos. Her teacher as one of the two detectives gives it a unique edge. The writing is taut and spare, full-tilt pace, cliff-hangers abounding and shock revelations from most characters. And quirky humour shining through the darkness. Devoured in three long nights, until eyes were like scratched marbles. Christian White’s screenwriting background leaves its stamp on the narrative, which reads at times like a Stephen King movie. Entertaining and dark as pitch in turns. Pure roller-coaster at the end. Four and a half stars rounded up.
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