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A review by paulabrandon
The Bluffs by Kyle Perry
2.0
Four girls (Jasmine, Georgia, Bree, Cierra) disappear in Tasmania's Great Western Tiers during a school camp. Because one of the teachers, Eliza Ellis, got conked on the head, it's believed something sinister happened to the girls. Jasmine's father, Murphy, becomes a prime suspect because he's the neighbourhood dope dealer.
Detective Con Badenhorst is brought into the investigation, and he is your standard detective haunted by a previous case. He battles his PTSD while trying to find out what happened to the girls. But he can't seem to get very far, due to both being bad at his job, and the whole town of Limestone Creek seemingly being in the thrall of Cierra's twin sister, Madison, a teenage YouTube superstar (I guess this was written before the advent of TikTok.) Seriously, this sociopathic bitch runs the town, and detectives can even get thrown off the case if they dare to challenge her in a YouTube video. Which is what you would think cops should be doing, you know, challenging witnesses. But nope, not in Limestone Creek! Things are done differently there, as we keep being told.
Anyway, I digress. (Sorry, I absolutely fucking hated Madison and couldn't understand why everyone was treating her with kid gloves when she was CONSTANTLY publicly undermining the investigation. Suspend her YouTube channel! Give the bitch a clip around the ears! SOMETHING! WHY ARE ALL THESE COPS LETTING A 16 YEAR OLD WALK ALL OVER THEM???
And I'm digressing again! If you can get past an entire police force letting a sociopathic 16 year old brat basically run the show, there is some stuff here to enjoy. Kyle Perry is a strong writer when it comes to creating a sense of time and place, and it's hard to believe he wasn't even yet 30 when he wrote this. The Bluffs is confidently written in that regard. But he doesn't have as much as a grasp on characterisation, or character motivations, and once again, I had trouble believing that any police force would let Madison get away with what she does here.
A large portion of the book involves Jasmine's father, Murphy, either going off on psychopathic rampages against people, and then crying. After about the 30th time he had confronted someone in a manic rage, I was just wanting the book to get a move on. There's also this thing where the whole town is instantly accusing Murphy of being a pedophile and practically carrying out vigilante group justice against him. It was like something out of The Simpsons!
(And what sort of drug dealer brands their product to make it instantly recognisable as coming from them?)
Similarly, the book just goes around in circles in regards to the investigation into the disappearances. Badenhorst never seems to make any progress, firstly because Madison is allowed to get away with bloody murder and hinder and compromise the investigation at will, and secondly, because he just doesn't seem all that cluey, forgetting to interview people and letting people get the jump on him. I got fed up frequently because the book felt like it was spinning its wheels and not going anywhere.
I also loathed the fact that
Ultimately, this didn't work for me. Jane Harper has spearheaded some sort subgenre of Australian noir, where the setting of the book is a character in itself, but I need something more than pretty descriptions of the location to get me through a book. Such as well-rounded characters acting believably in a cohesive plot. This book seemed to take place in some 16-year-old girl's fan fiction view of the world, in which all the characters operate in ways that aren't credible because they're seemingly bizarrely terrified of crossing a spoiled teenager. It just didn't make sense.
Note: There are lots of references to a bunch of girls disappearing without a trace in 1985 and its links to an entity known as The Hungry Man (and Madison is obsessed with The Hungry Man), but this aspect is somewhat dropped, and there is no resolution to that storyline.
Detective Con Badenhorst is brought into the investigation, and he is your standard detective haunted by a previous case. He battles his PTSD while trying to find out what happened to the girls. But he can't seem to get very far, due to both being bad at his job, and the whole town of Limestone Creek seemingly being in the thrall of Cierra's twin sister, Madison, a teenage YouTube superstar (I guess this was written before the advent of TikTok.) Seriously, this sociopathic bitch runs the town, and detectives can even get thrown off the case if they dare to challenge her in a YouTube video. Which is what you would think cops should be doing, you know, challenging witnesses. But nope, not in Limestone Creek! Things are done differently there, as we keep being told.
Anyway, I digress. (Sorry, I absolutely fucking hated Madison and couldn't understand why everyone was treating her with kid gloves when she was CONSTANTLY publicly undermining the investigation. Suspend her YouTube channel! Give the bitch a clip around the ears! SOMETHING! WHY ARE ALL THESE COPS LETTING A 16 YEAR OLD WALK ALL OVER THEM???
And I'm digressing again! If you can get past an entire police force letting a sociopathic 16 year old brat basically run the show, there is some stuff here to enjoy. Kyle Perry is a strong writer when it comes to creating a sense of time and place, and it's hard to believe he wasn't even yet 30 when he wrote this. The Bluffs is confidently written in that regard. But he doesn't have as much as a grasp on characterisation, or character motivations, and once again, I had trouble believing that any police force would let Madison get away with what she does here.
A large portion of the book involves Jasmine's father, Murphy, either going off on psychopathic rampages against people, and then crying. After about the 30th time he had confronted someone in a manic rage, I was just wanting the book to get a move on. There's also this thing where the whole town is instantly accusing Murphy of being a pedophile and practically carrying out vigilante group justice against him. It was like something out of The Simpsons!
(And what sort of drug dealer brands their product to make it instantly recognisable as coming from them?)
Similarly, the book just goes around in circles in regards to the investigation into the disappearances. Badenhorst never seems to make any progress, firstly because Madison is allowed to get away with bloody murder and hinder and compromise the investigation at will, and secondly, because he just doesn't seem all that cluey, forgetting to interview people and letting people get the jump on him. I got fed up frequently because the book felt like it was spinning its wheels and not going anywhere.
I also loathed the fact that
Spoiler
Madison not only survives the book, but faces absolutely zero consequences for her actions, when she was basically encouraging her friends to kill themselves! What the fuck? She should be in jail!Ultimately, this didn't work for me. Jane Harper has spearheaded some sort subgenre of Australian noir, where the setting of the book is a character in itself, but I need something more than pretty descriptions of the location to get me through a book. Such as well-rounded characters acting believably in a cohesive plot. This book seemed to take place in some 16-year-old girl's fan fiction view of the world, in which all the characters operate in ways that aren't credible because they're seemingly bizarrely terrified of crossing a spoiled teenager. It just didn't make sense.
Note: There are lots of references to a bunch of girls disappearing without a trace in 1985 and its links to an entity known as The Hungry Man (and Madison is obsessed with The Hungry Man), but this aspect is somewhat dropped, and there is no resolution to that storyline.