When Sarah Bailey’s stand-alone crime novel The Housemate ended it just felt like there may be more to come. And so we come to Click, once again featuring podcaster Olive ‘Oli’ Groves but this time she shares narrative duty with slightly messy, and as complicated but in very different ways, police detective Penelope ‘Pen’ Kibbs.
Click opens with a shocking image. A killer has sent a photo of a murdered woman to one of the local Melbourne newspapers. The woman is one that Pen and her partner had been looking for as she had been reported missing. The photograph seems to link the murder to the earlier killing of a backpacker and soon all police resources are on the case. This slidelines the case of another missing woman who it is believed has been the victim of domestic violence, although Pen is sure they are somehow connected. Meanwhile, Oli Groves is dealing with some devastating personal information while also working with her partner to grow their online news and podcasting business. These killings give Oli something to focus on while also finishing up her podcast series about domestic violence.
There is a lot going on in Click. Oli is dealing with her personal issues, an approach by her ex-boyfriend, an attempt to get together with her ex-partner who is one of the lead investigators in the Victorian police, finishing her podcast and then starting work on a new podcast series. Meanwhile Pen has her own relationship issues, is dealing with some questionable behaviour in her colleagues and is trying to link the murder cases and the missing persons case despite being dissuaded to do so by her superiors. And all that is before the twists and turns in the actual cases that the two are embroiled in which also includes blackmailing of high profile media personalities.
Given the amount that is going in Click it is possibly not surprising that some of the mystery gets sidelined in the rush. Two of the murders (one comes later and then there is possibly another disappearance) are never solved and the potential link between the murders is left hanging. It is unclear, once the dust settles, what the purpose of the media stunts was (although they do provide some very tense moments in the narrative). And Oli’s work on her second podcast, while on an interesting subject matter, is not really related to the main mystery and feels added just to increase the number of hot button issues at play (and there are plenty).
This frenetic pace mirrors the state of Melbourne (and many other Australian cities) at the beginning of 2020. Major bushfires had caused dislocation in the regions and come close to the cities and news and rumours of COVID were starting to filter into the public consciousness. Bailey then layers this with a potential serial killer on the streets and splashed all over the news to create a high tension, high stakes environment for her characters.
Click is an interesting but sometimes frustrating return to the world of Oli Groves. As a podcaster, Oli cannot be in the centre of the investigation. But by setting her up with a narrative partner in Pen Kibbs, Bailey is able to play both the police and media angles (similar to the way Matthew Spencer mixes police and media in his books). Bailey keeps the pages turning with tense moments, cliffhangers and a real feeling of peril for her characters. But with two complex characters and a mix of crimes and investigations, Bailey may have taken on just a little too much content here.
Click by Sarah Bailey
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