Lyrebird by Jane Caro

Jane Caro follows up her debut crime novel The Mother with the cold-case procedural Lyrebird. Lyrebird opens with a clever hook. While researching in the Barrington Tops, Jessica Weston hears a woman screaming for her life in what sounds like Spanish. But the screaming is actually that of a lyrebird, a bird that has the ability to mimic any sound that it hears. Unfortunately at the time, the police do not believe that this is evidence that a crime has been committed. It is not until twenty years later that a body is discovered in the area and the police realise that Jessica may actually have been on to something.

Detective Megan Blaxland is brought out of retirement to run this very cold case. And soon, evidence found on the body opens up into tale of people trafficking and illegal sex work. Jessica, who has remained friends with Megan since the original non-investigation, now has a daughter of her own who is getting involved in climate protests. And it is the climate that creates the ticking clock in this book, as bushfires threaten the crime scene and the investigation.

The recording of the lyrebird which opens the book is a great hook and provides some colour but in the end, once the body is found, really has very little to do with the solving of the case. There is no real synergy between this case and the climate change aspects of the book, except that it is hard to set a book in present day Australia, particularly rural and regional crime, without considering the impacts of climate.

That said, the bushfire as plot device that threatens evidence and puts characters in peril and puts suspects on the fireline is becoming a bit of a go-to in Australian crime fiction (see also books like Adrian Hyland’s Canticle Creek, Into the Flames by James Delargy, Jane Harper’s The Dry and Chris Hammer’s Scrublands). In this case, the jeopardy is also built around a kidnapping that makes little sense except as a way of keeping various characters in play and creating some additional tension.

Caro uses the crime and the people around it to deal with some fairly dark issues. Blaxland and her investigative team are well drawn as are many of the side characters. Taken together with a well realised sense of place – the Newcastle area and nearby Barrington Tops National Park – Lyrebird is a fairly down the line but engaging cold-case procedural.

Lyrebird by Jane Caro

7.5

7.5/10