I don’t recall the last time I was so chilled by a book as this one – and I mean that in a good way! The story of young widow, Callie and her attempt to put the tragic death of her husband behind her and the suspicion cast on her by a click-bait hungry media, by hiding in a small town in Tasmania – New Norfolk – Devil’s Lair is suspenseful, atmospheric and really very scary!
Grateful that her friend has offered her a safe haven in Tasmania, what Callie doesn’t expect is the kindness of the strangers she encounters, or the eerie surroundings in which she finds herself. Located in the smaller gatehouse of a large property in which a curmudgeonly recluse lives, Callie nonetheless makes a real effort to get on with her life and interact with the people she finds herself among. More than anyone else, she finds herself drawn to Connor, one of the siblings who own a huge tourist-based property nearby and who gives her much-needed work.
But when strange letters, stories of ghosts and unexplained deaths as well as the sense of being watched start to overwhelm her, Callie finds that the most rational of explanations don’t add up. Wanting desperately to trust someone, Callie is no longer sure, after all, how can you trust anyone when you can no longer trust yourself?
I really enjoyed this book. The plot was terrific, the pace just right and the way it which it managed to capture the almost suffocating and frightening sense of being in a small house, at night, on the edge of the river and the feeling of being watched (I was looking over my shoulder in my bedroom!) against the gorgeous expanses of the Tasmanian countryside, was superb. Evocative, eerie and compelling. A wonderful read.
I cannot wait to read Sarah’s other books.
The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte is the fantastically titled second novel by Melbourne-based writer, Lesley Truffle and I have to say, it is unlike any book I have ever read. Part historical fiction, part-fantastical and whimsical romp, part crime mystery, cooking extravaganza and cautionary fable, it’s also a picaresque novel that tells the tale of the irrepressible Sasha Torte, flame-haired daughter of a murderess and heiress to a bad reputation and melancholy, who becomes not only a world-famous pastry-chef in, of all places, the wilds of Tasmania in the early 1900s, but courts men, drugs and danger with abandon.
