Lowbridge is the first novel by Australian author, Lucy Campbell. Moving to her husband’s hometown of Lowbridge was meant to help Katherine Ashworth come to terms with her profound grief over the loss of their teenaged daughter without being constantly confronted by well-meaning people who know the story. But it’s not really working: she’s just about hibernating in the Hayward house, while Jamie commutes to Sydney daily for work.

When she leans a bit too heavily on alcohol and sleeping tablets, Jamie issues an ultimatum, and her vows to get out, to interact, to do more, accidentally find her at the Lowbridge and District Historical Society, where her interest in the town is piqued. Employing her promotional skills results in a successful bushfire awareness campaign, but the focus of her next campaign has Jamie concerned.

He claims to be worried that bringing the early 1987 in broad daylight disappearance of sixteen-year-old Tess Dawes, back into the pubic eye, may hinder Katherine’s recovery, but she eventually learns there’s something he’s not sharing. He tries to discourage her from looking into it, but Tess’s mother Julianne welcomes any action that will put her daughter’s name on people’s lips: maybe someone will remember something, even thirty years on.

Soon enough, Katherine learns of another teen whose earlier disappearance never raised the same degree of concern: Jacklyn Martin was from the wrong side of the tracks, a motherless teen whose father was an abusive drunk, and everyone accepted without question the story they were told. But now, the answers that Katherine’s queries invoke put that in doubt, while several people in town would rather she didn’t dig up the past.

Campbell effortlessly evokes her era and setting with popular culture references and topical issues of the time. She populates her tale with players whose emotions and reactions are easily credible, whose dialogue is natural, and many of whom have appeal, for all their very human failings.

The dual-timeline narrative alternates between Katherine’s narrative and the events of summer 1986/7 mostly from Tess’s perspective. Campbell certainly keeps the reader guessing right up to the final reveal, offering up plenty of potential suspects who could have stopped to give Jac and later, Tess, a lift. This is an outstanding Australian rural crime debut.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Ultimo Press.