Clever and crammed

Trent Dalton's latest has truth, lies and delusion at its heart.

- BY DAVID HILL

Australia’s Trent Dalton has written some terrific stuff. Nearly every reviewer and reader gave Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies five stars. So did I, with several tissues thrown in.

If he has a sin, it's one of inclusion. His recent Lola in the Mirror had an engagingly gutsy young heroine, daughter of a mum apparently fleeing brutality, who exists mostly in a junkyard near the Brisbane River. There was confrontation and revelation, puppy love and catty tricks and monkey business, an excellent cop who... no, that would be a spoiler.

But then in the last 60 pages, Dalton pumped in so much violence, natural disaster, heroic rescue, ugly and almost gratuitous death that the whole thing threatened to become a swollen bladder.

There's also been Love Stories. Cute nonfiction idea: set up a table at the corner of Adelaide and Albert streets in downtown Brisbane and invite passersby to tell you about their affairs of the heart. The result was sincere, respectful, affectionate, and ended up resembling a 300-page stack of Valentine's Day cards.

So I approached this new novel with apprehension as well as anticipation, especially since it comes in at 430 pages.

It's set in Dalton’s Brisbane. Freelance writer Noah Cork, a chap who will try anything, including crafting real estate ads, has landed a dream project. A killer has left an initialled note in his letterbox, along with a music box that plays