JESSE is just twelve years old when his dad dies and his mum moves him from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, to a village in Wales where it never stops raining. And that’s where his luck really runs out.
He’s stuck with a grieving mother, classmates who won’t accept him, and worst of all - no-one to go surfing with. Until he meets John. Cool, handsome, confident. He’s head boy at the nearby private school, and a keen surfer. Jesse is so keen to make friends he barely notices the little things that aren’t quite right. Will Jesse realize what he’s getting close to before it’s too late?
NATALIE is beautiful, newly qualified as a clinical psychologist and recently married to the perfect man. But her charmed life is torn apart when her husband goes missing in mysterious circumstances. Can she discover what happened to him? And can she keep her own dark secret hidden while doing so?
~~~oOo~~~
MY REVIEW
What's the best way to ensure adolescent boys will do something? Psst. Tell them they are not allowed to do whatever it is.
You see, Town Beach is getting crowded from a surfing standpoint, while Jesse and his friends want to check out another part of the shore, which just happens to be at a point where there are posted "No Trespassing' signs. As it, you could get arrested if you go in there. So, of course, Jesse and his friends cross the forbidden zone to surf. They do it so often that they leave one board near Hanging Rock and get new boards to show so no one asks them where their boards went.
There is also the story of Natalie, whose husband likes to surf. One day, Jim decides to go surfing, and does not come home. Is he alive or dead? If he's dead, is it suicide? If he's alive...he'll have some 'splainin' to do.
I enjoyed the second half of The Wave at Hanging Rock better than the first half. At the beginning you had the two story lines and the only thing in common was surfing. It was kind of like reading two books at the same time, going back and forth.
When Natalie (Jim's wife) and Dave (Jim's business partner) start investigating his disappearance is where the tension starts to ratchet up, and the book becomes more and more riveting as the time goes on. By the time the helicopter makes an appearance, I would be white-knuckled, and not just for imagining being up in the air with very little but space between me and the ground.
So keep reading, or else miss the spine-tingling hairpin curve twists and turns in the latter chapters of The Wave at Hanging Rock.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Gregg Dunnett worked as Staff Writer and Photographer for the windsurfing magazine Boards for nearly ten years. He was sent around the world testing equipment and reporting on competitions and locations. Eventually Boards went bust, which wasn't entirely his fault, and he turned to writing novels instead. His first to be released is The Wave at Hanging Rock.
He lives on the UK’s south coast with his Spanish partner Maria and their two young children.
Sounds like the book picks up speed as it goes on. Awesome that the second half kept you turning the pages. I am curious about what happened to Jim. Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDelete~Jess