This engrossing novel is written in deceptively simple prose, and takes us into the lives of three women involved with a Baptist church headed by the mesmerising Reverend William King. The setting is Perth, mainly in the early 1980s, and Tracy Ryan has skilfully crafted a portrait of suburban Australian life. The character development is superb. Cody is a teenager who questions all before her; Kylie is a young mother and a simple, trusting soul; Carol is older, and discovers that all is not as she thought in her life. The omnipresent King works differently on each woman. Ryan begins with a perfect first sentence: ‘The lift says OUT OF ORDER’. With that, the tone of the story is set. A lot is left to the reader’s imagination, including what might be driving the reverend’s zeal. This is a literary novel with appeal to a broad range of enquiring readers. It is an interesting accompaniment to recent nonfiction about religious faith. Tracy Ryan is a West Australian poet and author of two previous novels.

Sue Bond is a freelance writer and reviewer, and has worked in the bookselling industry

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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