HIGH WIRE

by Candice Fox

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia, 2024

Publisher’s blurb

A notorious unmarked track through outback Australia, the ‘Wire’ crosses slabs of lawless land, body-dumping grounds and mobile-phone blackspots. 

Harvey Buck is certainly desperate. Racing to be with his dying girlfriend, he encounters Clare Holland, whose car has broken down. He offers the hapless traveller a ride . . . and then their nightmare begins.

The pair are ambushed by a vengeful crew – and strapped into bomb vests. As part of a deadly game, Harvey and Clare are forced to commit a series of increasingly murderous missions, or else be blown to smithereens.

Senior Sergeant Edna Norris is dealing with a runaway teenager; not an unusual job in a place where people go to disappear. But an unfolding crime spree turns this outback cop’s night into a fight for survival. Hot on Harvey and Clare’s trail, Edna finds a burnt-out car, a missing woman, a bank robbery and a bullet-riddled body. 

And this road trip from hell has only just begun . . .

Review 

by Karin Kos

Moody, suspenseful and riveting; the cover introduces Candice Fox’s newest crime novel High Wire with the phrase “Welcome to Australia’s badlands …”, underscoring the heart of the story. Here, Fox captivates her readers early on through the setting of a mysterious road named the High Wire. The road is as sinister as it is enigmatic, a location known only to those who are escaping their complicated and sometimes nefarious pasts, as they desperately travel through the emptiness of the Australian Outback. 

Fox masterfully creates a “secret track”, as a backdrop that becomes a character in its own right “flat, even, mostly hazard-free”, yet when traversed by those wishing to escape the notice of others it becomes “one flat black mass … that was peppered with stars and milky galaxies” that mixes a sense of unease with equal parts expectation. 

The plot is narrated through parallel stories. First we meet Harvey Buck – an ex-Army soldier with a dark past. A man who lives in anonymity, works in uncomplicated odd jobs – as he tries to escape his demons. However, those demons set in motion an unexpected journey “into the dusty forgotten corners of the states that joined hands” when he meets Clare Holland. Clare is escaping her own confronting past. Their journey leaves the reader bereft with the complex crime spree that renders Harvey and Clare confused and bewildered about their place in humanity. That is, if there still is a humanity left for them.

Their story parallels with Senior Sergeant Edna Norris and her charge, Talon, fleeing a house rife with domestic violence. This unlikely duo finds themselves searching for justice in a story that has more red herrings and twists than seems fair. Edna refuses to allow the powerbrokers of the outback justice system to impede her from gaining the truth; even when she needs to bend the rules. And bend the rules she does.

Fox’s closely intertwined narratives feature characters who have “pushed away their memories”, yet their troublesome backstories become moments of insight and understanding as the pressures of the unfolding circumstances start to fragment. With the predators seeming more like prey as they “lay there listening, breathing” the tension keeps rising and it is difficult to imagine how Clare and Harvey will escape their increasingly precarious circumstances. Fox builds a mixture of the anti-hero, where villains and good guys become blurred at times, leaving the readers to question broader social standards surrounding morality.  

Fox brings an elegance of writing, matched with insider knowledge of military behaviour, which makes the characters seem plausible, lifelike and at times relatable. Fox acutely observes: “while in its best parts it was deliciously protective, at its worst it was infected with terror, secrets and suffering.” This portrayal rings true and is enhanced by a mirrored view of the justice system; an institution at odds with itself, with striking a balance between protecting others and itself.

Candice Fox is well known for her collaborative works with James Patterson. Her writing glides from literary engagement to the rising tension of a profound thriller. I found myself wanting to continue reading late into the night, hoping that somehow the odds fall in the right direction for its characters. High Wire is definitely not a cozy mystery. If you want a story that packs a metaphorical punch, this one is hard to stop reading. It kept me guessing at the end of every chapter, kept me wanting more.