by Darcy Tindale
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia, 2025
Review
By Deb Bodinnar
Set in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, we again meet Detective Rebecca Giles and her cohorts. In her debut novel, The Fall Between, which was shortlisted for a Davitt Award in 2024, Rebecca was confronted by a floating body in a cattle trough. It was a great read, by the way. In Burning Mountain a human skull is found by a dog out for a walk with its owner near Mount Wingen. I discovered that Burning Mountain is an actual place in the upper Hunter Valley, and not a figment of the author’s imagination. By the end of this story I added Mount Wingen to my travel list.
Rebecca Giles is determined to solve this mystery and discovers that the original disappearance of the skull’s young owner was investigated by her dad, a former senior police officer, 20 years ago. His prime suspect is still in the district, but is he responsible for this crime?
Five young people went out for a fun day, which turned sour. How often do these events still happen and how many people hold on to guilty knowledge that they never talk about? This story makes you wonder about some of the adventures of your own youth that could have ended up so differently, but gladly they didn’t.
I really enjoy Darcy’s style of writing. She introduces us to all the people – even those who are peripheral to the action – and she always has backstories for them, which adds layers and nuance to even some of the minor characters. It makes for great reading and a few laughs at times. One of the quips in the book that had me laugh out loud was from Constable Griffin, after a very hulky man decided a cigarette was more important than clobbering a cop, “I think my balls have just disappeared into my bladder”.
In my opinion her character development makes the story so much more intriguing, and gives us a rich insight into the relationships between them. There were moments when I thought, “what does this bloke have to do with anything?“, then wham, it hits you! Darcy has a knack for weaving characters and situations together and of ratcheting up the tension. I found myself needing to know “what happens next” and kept reading well into the night.
I’ll be keeping an eye out for Detective Rebecca Giles’ next case. Highly recommended.
Publisher’s blurb
When the bones of a teenage boy are discovered on Mount Wingen, Detective Rebecca Giles dives deep into a missing persons case that has haunted her rural town for twenty years . . .
Five went up. Only four came down . . .
In April 2006, fifteen-year-old Oliver went hiking to the lookout on Burning Mountain – and vanished without trace.
His schoolfriends – Bob, Bell, Phil and Paul – were the last ones to see him on the trek, yet the teenagers were never able to explain his disappearance.
Almost twenty years later, Detective Rebecca Giles is called to bushland on nearby Mount Wingen. There a skull has been dug up, reviving the mystery that has haunted the Upper Hunter area for years.
Giles is convinced that they have finally found the missing boy, and that his four friends – all now in their mid-thirties – have always known much more than they revealed. In particular, about the argument that caused Oliver to head down the mountain on his own.
But when she discusses the case with her father, retired Superintendent Benjamin Giles, another suspect is thrown into the mix. One that for Giles is uncomfortably close to home . . .