Robert Drewe

Perfect reading for a West Australian heatwave - I'm about half a generation younger than Drewe and arrived in Perth about a decade after him but there is a familiarity about his description of the sand people with their peeling skin and cracked lips, the barefoot children and the scorn for the shod, the limestone foundationed houses, and the "big fish in small pond" social life of my home city. Beautifully written, funny and poignant, showing the angst of a suburban adolescence (long before Dave Warner from the Suburbs sang "Suburban Boy") and set against the real backdrop of the murder spree that is still remembered as the time Perth "lost its innocence", this book would speak to anyone, not just locals like myself. Highly recommended.… (more)

The retelling of a childhood in Western Australia. A young boy growing up in the most remote capital city in the world. He ran free with his mates, riding bikes, swimming in the surf and playing sport. In the background was a serial killer, stalking the women in the community.

The writing is joyous and creates evocative images of the 50s in a developing city in Australia. The brightness and beauty of the natural landscape is such an incongruous setting for murder. As a cadet journalist the author reports on the trial of the killer.… (more)