Robyn Ayres works as the camp caretaker on Finch Island, a former leper colony off the coast of Queensland. Her current clients are a group of ex-military men who run a tough-love program for troubled teens.
The latest crop looks like the usual mix of bad boys and sad boys. Then Robyn takes a second look at a kid called Darren. Last time she saw him his name was Aaron, and Robyn was his primary school teacher. And she was somehow at the centre of a vicious small-town custody battle involving his terrifying grandmother.
Bruising classroom dynamics, manipulative parents and carers and horrendous small-town politics form the backdrop to a nail-biting thriller in which the tensions of ten years ago start to play themselves out, building to a violent climax in the present day.
Robyn escaped the past once. Now it’s back—and this time there’s no way out.
INTERVIEWS and REVIEWS
2SER: Final Draft
Australian Book Lovers podcast (0:41:54)
Pile by the Bed
Readings: The best new crime reads in September
Sisters in Crime: Cross-genre Writing (op-ed)
Sisters in Crime
andThe Attack
‘[Jinks] is a masterful storyteller, able to easily carry the narrative exigences of plot and character regardless of genre…[she] knows how to dole out the tension, letting the suspense slacken and then ramping up the terror lest you become complacent for a few minutes.’
‘Cranking up the suspense with methodical focus, [Shelter is] a brutally effective potboiler.’
‘A slow-burner that canvasses familial conflict and builds to a violent crescendo…[Will] appeal to new and recent converts to Jinks’ brand of dark revelation’
‘A nail-biter.’
‘A consistently tense ride for any reader…The Attack once again demonstrates Jinks’ capacity to build that tension around characters who can be both vulnerable and resilient in situations which are not far from reader’s lived experience.’
‘A tense thriller…[with a] brutal and terrifying climax…Jinks can certainly tell a good story.’
‘A tense, intimate island thriller.’
‘Catherine Jinks cements herself as a must-read Aussie crime writer with this book. It’s atmospheric and hard-hitting; if you’re a fan of Australian crime thrillers, don’t miss this.’
‘You will want to read it all in one gulp.’
‘Robyn is a great character, resilient and strong…I highly recommend this for a good, suspenseful read (but maybe don’t take it camping with you…)’
