Lyrebird
by Jane Caro
Allen & Unwin
Researching for her PhD in orthinology (the scientific study of birds) at Newcastle University, Jessica Weston was searching the thick bush of the Barrington Tops National Park (about three hours’ drive north of Sydney) for the illusive lyrebird.
Jessica was ecstatic to stumble across a male lyrebird beginning its mating dance, but horrified when it began its song – because it sounded like a woman screaming. Then she realised that lyrebirds are just mimics and the bird must have actually heard the terrified screams of a woman.
Having captured the evidence on video, Jessica went to the police. Unfortunately, despite enthusiasm from newly appointed detective, Magan Blaxland, there had been no reports of missing persons in the area and, with no body, the case was abandoned.
Twenty years later, Jessica is now an associate professor and former detective Megan realises that she is not enjoying retirement as much as she had hoped. Fortunately, she gets seconded to investigate the cold case that was ridiculed and dismissed because, after two decades, a body has been found near the location of Jessica’s lyrebird.
Still haunted by the lyrebird mimicking a woman screaming and sobbing and begging for her life, Jessica and Megan join forces to find out the identity of the woman that nobody has missed for the last twenty years, and to find out what happened to her.
As the two women hunt for clues, feminist icon, social commentator and Walkley Award winning journalist, Jane Caro, weaves the issues of violence against women, how the most vulnerable are let down by our society and the effects of climate change into this edgy thriller.
The heavy rain and the landslide that uncovered the woman’s remains are just one of the indications of the ravages of climate change on the Heritage Listed rain forest, as Caro shines a light on some of the horrific situations vulnerable women can be forced into.
Lezly Herbert
