The Low Road (Chris Womersley, Scribe, $32.95 tpb, ISBN 9781921215476, September) ****

The publishers of this extraordinary debut novel correctly describe it as ‘part classic film-noir crime-thriller, part modern tale of despair and desperation.’ Lee, a petty-criminal wounded in a botched hold-up, is patched-up by Wild, a disbarred doctor. Both men are on the run, one from fellow criminals and a traumatic stint in jail, the other from
malpractice and morphine addiction. As a wary alliance grows, they decide their only chance is to hide, either with Lee’s sister, or in the country withan eccentric friend of Wild. What up till this point seems a conventional crime story of two desperate men unwillingly thrown together, now suddenly becomes a bleak, almost Gothic tale of regret and the search for new beginnings. Their shared journey becomes a nightmare series of violent encounters, where even the landscape seems threatening. The pair finally arrive only to find a deserted, decaying mansion. There is nowhere left to run, and each must face the consequences of their actions. The Low Road is richly and powerfully written. It is also an almost unbearably intense, tragic, and unrelentingly dark story of addiction, regret, despair, and failed dreams that left this reader mightily impressed but emotionally drained.

Graeme Moore is a freelance writer and online bookseller

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2007, Thorpe-Bowker