by Angie Faye Martin
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia, 2025
Review
by Sarah Jackson
Gripping, poignant and believable
Unable to secure in-home support for her aging mother, Renee Taylor takes a temporary demotion to Constable in order to move back to her hometown of Goorungah. Her return brings with it memories of her experiences as a child; her Aboriginal father wasn’t around and she was raised by her single white mother
Renee is disappointed by the ineffectiveness of the small rural police department, when the body of a young Indigenous woman is found by the creek. She convinces her sergeant to reinstate her as a detective and allow her to take charge of the case. Renee reviews the station files and stumbles across a 30-year-old cold case. The links are undeniable.
The story moves between the present, with Renee’s investigation hampered by a seemingly unwilling sergeant, and the past, covering the disappearance of two girls. The momentum builds as both narratives move towards a startling climax. Melaleuca is hard to put down as the reader finds themselves eager to consume the next bite.
The setting, a small rural town west of Brisbane, is exactly as one would expect. The descriptions of entropy of failed businesses and rusting agricultural buildings is true to form. Martin captures the stifling heat, steamy rain and scrubby bushland, often a feature of this part of the country.
The story’s themes go beyond issues relating to the historic (and current) treatment of First Nations communities, violence against women, the lack of aged care resources in regional communities and the failings of the justice system. Martin gives great care and attention to friendship, sisterhood, and mother/daughter relationships.
But the real magic in this book is the portrayal of Renee.
Renee is like so many women of her generation, putting aside her own career development and plans to care for others in need. It’s more than a case of being kind-hearted, she is constantly alert to the feelings of others. She actively and almost anxiously assesses every interaction, every situation, trying to read everyone’s moods and reactions. She goes out of her way to make herself small, not be seen as pushy or over-emotional, not to rock the boat or upset anyone’s feelings. But when it comes to protecting others she pushes through her self-doubt and acts. One of the victims puts it best:
“You’re a strong woman, Renee. But I hate to tell you, you got a lot more work in front of you. Lord knows, our people need tough ones like you.”
The supporting characters are a mix of real-life-average-joes, and colourful local identities. There are some deeply moving scenes involving the cold case girls and their friendships and some touching, genuine moments between Renee and her mother. There are a lot of relatable experiences throughout the story.
Melaleuca is Angie Faye Martin’s debut novel and will hopefully be the first of many. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Garland, The Saltbush Review and The Rocks Remain. She is a member of the First Nations Australia Writers Network.
If you enjoy thrillers like Jane Harper’s The Dry and works of Gary Disher, then you will love Melaleuca by Ange Faye Martin.
Publisher’s blurb
A country town, a brutal murder, a shameful past, a reckoning to come… The injustices of the past and dangers of the present envelop Aboriginal policewoman Renee Taylor, when her unwilling return to the small outback town of her childhood plunges her into the investigation of a brutal murder.
Renee Taylor is planning to stay the minimum amount of time in her remote hometown – only as long as her mum needs her, then she is fleeing back to her real life in Brisbane.
Seconded to the town’s sleepy police station, Renee is pretty sure work will hold nothing more exciting than delivering speeding tickets. Then a murdered woman is found down by the creek on the outskirts of town.
Leading the investigation, Renee uncovers a perplexing connection to the disappearance of two young women thirty years earlier. As she delves deeper and the mystery unfurls, intergenerational cruelties, endemic racism, and deep corruption show themselves, even as dark and bitter truths about the town and its inhabitants’ past rise up and threaten to overwhelm the present…