Cold Skin by Steven Herrick
This is one of those books that is almost impossible to put in a genre. It is set in recent history, but it is not really a historical novel. It is about a son’s fight against his father’s wishes, but it isn’t really a family relationships story. The plot is built around the discovery of a dead body, but it really isn’t a who-done-it. But it is a good book about life in small town Australia in the latter half of last century.
Eddie lives in a small town dependent on the local coal mine. He wants to leave school and go to work in the mine, but his father won’t lear of it. So Eddie drifts through life wondering what he will do when school runs out. Then one Friday night a dead body is found and every man in the town comes under suspicion. The reader follows the investigation through Eddie’s eyes, watching as Eddie discovers that people are not always as they seem.
I have always loved the way Herrick writes his verse novels. His poetry seems almost a very private expression of deep emotions, and yet even from his male characters, this ‘diary’ format works. This novel is no different.
