The Peak by Sam Guthrie

Australian novelist Sam Guthrie has spent many years in the foreign service, and it shows. Guthrie’s explosive debut The Peak is an international political thriller that often feels like it is pulling back some of the veils that shroud the workings of government. That said, Guthrie does is this in a particularly heightened way that very quickly and effectively diverts from reality to deliver a page-turning game of what-if.

The opening chapter of The Peak is a cracker. Narrated by Charlie Westcott who is the chief of staff for Sebastian, a junior trade minister in the Australian government. The two are also very old friends. A visiting Chinese businessman gives Sebastian a cryptic message from another senior Chinese official. Minutes later, Sebastian has committed suicide and Charlie’s life has been thrown into complete chaos. Charlie tries desperately to cover for Sebastian, but slowly details of Sebastian’s life emerge that turn Charlie’s understanding upside down. And while there are threads that go back to their school days, that understanding is all tied into a time when they were young men living in Hong Kong and they both fell for a Chinese woman called Chloe.

There are so many twists and turns in The Peak that it is best not to reveal any more about the plot. Suffice to say that what the reader understands about the situation will change numerous times over the course of the book. The only problem for Guthrie is that in order to do this he needs to deliver a lot of exposition. And while Guthrie does his best to intersperse this aspect of the novel with some action, and there is a growing threat in the background, there are still long sections that feel like being told about events rather than learning about them in a more organic way.

Overall, though The Peak is a great political thriller, a genre that is much more common in America and that we do not see much in Australia. Particularly not this well. There is a real feel of authenticity to the setting and the characters which helps carry the plot (and the reader) into some interesting uncharted territory. Because this thriller goes to some surprising places and it does it with refreshing verve and a level of veracity that helps it land.

The Peak by Sam Guthrie

8.5

8.5/10