Author: Natalie Conyer
Publisher: Echo Publishing (Allen and Unwin)
Reviewer: Ashleigh Meikle
What would you do if a decades-old case brings up old secrets and memories about your family and the past? Jackie Rose faces this when she is given the very public, and very cold case of Belle Fitzgerald. It’s been a mystery for almost forty years, and now, finally, maybe, she’ll get some justice.
As the story begins, Jackie and her colleagues are pulled off Task Forces that investigate drugs to deal with the case, and find out who killed Belle. It’s complicated, as everyone involved is ageing, dead, or dying. Everyone is hiding something and Jackie can sense she is going to have her loyalties tested as a cop, a mother and as a daughter. Secrets that have plagued her for decades gnaw at her. Meanwhile, everyone sees this as her chance to shine, by solving one of the biggest Missing Persons cases in the nation. The complexities of the case unravel throughout the novel as the story goes between the late 1980s and now.
Corruption is a driving force in this novel, where good cops like Jackie could be compromised by other cops who want to sweep things under a rug, to hide their own connections to anyone who might be involved or nefarious, and ensure that their secrets are kept. It’s what this book is all about: secrets. Secrets that could harm a family. Secrets that could alter the future. Secrets that could destroy careers and reputations. To tackle this, Jackie has to deal with her own father, the man who raised her, but who felt closed off from her for forty years.
At the heart of this book is a girl who was spirited and honest, who wanted to help people, fight the good fight and live. Belle’s story was inspired by a real-life cold case that has never been solved. I was unaware of the case she’d been inspired by until I got to the end, so for me, it was a good fictional story that looked at how the course of justice can be perverted, how the men and the corrupt cops kept getting away with crimes and how people like Jackie and Belle have to deal with the fallout and the consequences.
I think this is meant to be part of a series, or at least a series that is loosely connected by the characters, so I felt at ease reading this. There were a few things referred to that happened in the 2024 book, Shadow City. These weren’t important to the plot though, as they were used to establish Jackie’s position in terms of relationships. What was important was the case and uncovering of decades-old secrets that changed so much for everyone in the novel. It showed that the author, Natalie Conyer, had a good grip on her story and it was compelling, making me want to read on, as I wanted to know what had happened and who was guilty. And, of course, I was invested in whether justice would be served, or if the very nature of the case would mean things remained buried forever.
This is what good crime books do: delve into secrets and human flaws, exposing the things that have shaped us, or show that what the characters once believed to be true are complete lies. That someone is always trying to manipulate things or cover up secrets. It’s what makes this a powerful book, as there is no easy answer to justice. And when it’s a cold case, if the perpetrator is caught, how is justice served after four decades of living free?
Finding the Bones is a compelling story that tugs on threads of family, corruption, cold cases and secrets.
Publisher blurb
Destroy your beliefs or destroy your family? How could anyone decide something like that? And yet there was no choice.
Sydney, 1980s: Belle Fitzgerald, young, rich and spirited, lives in Kings Cross, the city’s bohemian heart. When she learns of plans to demolish her street and evict its residents, she commits to fighting the development, even though this brings her up against the Cross’s crime lords and their servants, the notoriously corrupt local cops. Recklessly, dangerously, against her better judgment, she embarks on a passionate affair with one of those cops, Sergeant Stanton Rose.
Then Belle goes missing. Her disappearance becomes one of the nation’s great mysteries.
Sydney, today: Stanton Rose, retired, is an Australian icon, celebrated for his undercover work in the Cross. Jackie Rose, his daughter, has followed in his footsteps. She’s a homicide detective, uncompromising and ambitious.
When Belle Fitzgerald’s bones are discovered, Jackie is given the very cold and very public case. This will be her moment to shine. But what she uncovers threatens to turn her life – and the lives of those closest to her – upside down.
As her investigation deepens, Jackie has to decide how far she will go to navigate the fine line between love and betrayal, loyalty and corruption.