WHAT REMAINS. By Tracey Lee. Xlibris. $32.99.
Reviewer: ROBERT WILLSON
What Remains is the first novel by local author Tracey Lee and is a murder mystery set around Lake George and the Canberra Monaro region. I enjoyed reading it and I am pleased that it is projected as the first of three in a series of mystery/human interest stories.
The central character, who tells her story in the first person, is Lily O'Hara, whose Irish family has lived in the area from pioneering days. One day in 1975, when Lily is a baby only six weeks old, her father Cillian takes his wife Moya, and little Brannen, Lily's older brother, out onto Lake George for a spot of fishing. Moya and Brannen vanish and are apparently drowned but Cillian can not explain how or why. Did he murder them or not? There is not enough evidence to arrest him and nine months later he hangs himself, which confirms his guilt in the minds of many.
Lily continues to live on the property, raised by loving guardians Billie and Darcy. After an excellent education she gets a job in Canberra, curating exhibits in the National Museum. Then the past suddenly returns to haunt Lily, with the story of the parents she had never known.
A young landscape photographer named Eddie arrives. Lake George is gradually drying up and shrinking to nothing. Eddie ventures out to the last muddy portion of the vanishing lake and there he makes a shattering discovery. He finds two sets of human bones tangled up with a rusted chain. One is clearly an adult and the other a small child. This discovery is to change Lily's life forever.
Lily feels exposed and haunted. Moya and Brannen are identified after extensive testing and what has been a case of disappearance, presumed drowned, is now pronounced a murder case with Lily's father Cillian as the murderer. After Lily recovers somewhat from this shocking discovery, she decides to use her research skills to unravel the details of the deaths of parents and brother.
In the course of her research she becomes friendly with Detective Sergeant Phillip Swan, who is in charge of the case. As the novel unfolds we see Lily and Phillip drawn to each other, as one would expect. Slowly Lily sifts through a mass of family papers to discover that all is not as it appears. What Remains is an impressive first novel.
Robert Willson is a regular Canberra Times reviewer.
