When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole by Geoff Parks

Former New Zealander (now Australian) Geoff Parkes’ debut crime novel When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole takes readers back to small town New Zealand in 1983. Like much recent historical rural crime fiction, Parkes takes many of his cues from the attitudes and culture of the day, which only forty years later, can feel like another world.

Emilia Sovernen comes from Finland to the small New Zealand town of Nashville to try and find out what happened to her sister Sanna. Sanna had been in town helping with the shearing and had gone missing the year before. The police never found Sanna and suspect that her disappearance may be connected to a long string of similar disappearances over a number of years across rural New Zealand. Emilia is not so sure. She believes that the police did not look closely enough at the townsfolk and tries to get Ryan Bradley, one of the shearers who knew Sanna, to help her. As Emilia’s investigation progresses, Parkes takes readers back to the year before and the lead up to Sanna’s disappearance, on the way implicating a wide range of locals who were either obsessed with or annoyed with the beautiful but brash traveller.

When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole is essentially an exploration of all of the different types of toxic and abusive masculinity at play in rural New Zealand in the 1980s. Pretty much every male character is a suspect as they all are… well, suspect. Ryan is having a secret relationship with Sanna. Neville, who rents out his shed to the shearers, and Carl, the head of the shearing gang, both spy on Sanna. Bull, one of the shearers, is both dangerous and hypocritically religious. Ryan’s estranged friend Phillip and his even weirder friend Slurps try to hit on her and do not take kindly to being rebuffed. Meanwhile Phillip’s father Jack is trying to control his life and is keeping secrets of his own. Even Ryan, who is portrayed as having a mutual and mature relationship with Sanna, keeps that information from Emilia.

When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole effectively evokes small town New Zealand in the 1980s. But it is also a little over-written and the split between the current investigation and the flashback sections is out of balance (there ends up being very little of the former). Parkes relies on too many different points-of-view which dilutes the story-telling and somewhat undermines the resolution of the mystery. As a result, while it is a promising debut, When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole does not do quite enough to stand out from the growing sub-sub-genre of southern cross historical rural crime fiction.

When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole by Geoff Parkes

6

6.0/10