Warwick-born Brisbane author Christopher Currie is, on the basis of his debut novel, a writer to watch for.
Read:
- The Ottoman Motel (2011) where eleven-year-old Simon Sawyer's family arrives in the creepy rundown semi-ghost coastal town of Reception to visit his allegedly ailing maternal grandmother. It's one of those places that has been allowed to quietly go to seed, but under the unimpressive exterior there's a number of not quite secrets that are brought into the light after Simon's parents disappear while the boy's asleep after checking into the Ottoman Motel. Then, while Simon is asleep, his parents disappear.
Alone in a strange town, unsure about who he can trust, suspecting the police and the local community could be doing more to find his parents Simon is taken in by a B&B owner (his grandmother, coincidentally lives in the same establishment) and his interactions with the owner's kids and orphaned fifteen-year-old Pony start to uncover the secrets lurking underneath the surface. Moody and effective writing, characters you know aren't what they seem but turn out to be not quite what you thought either, it's an impressive debut.