Strap yourselves in and hold on tight for the ride of your life with Anna Downes’ third psychological novel Red River Road (Affirm Press 2024), a breathtaking, nail-biting, edge of your seat crime thriller that had me firmly gripped from the first pages, with the tension not letting up a jot for the entire book. Incredibly pacy, bone-tingling with suspense and intrigue, this is Downes’ best book yet.
Set on the beautiful Western Australia coastline, solo traveller (#vanlife) Katy is on a mission: to find her sister, Phoebe, who disappeared a year earlier while following the same route. Using Phoebe’s frequent Instagram posts as a guide, Katy attempts to retrace Phoebe’s journey, stopping at the same sites, camping at the same places, talking to people who might remember her sister, while trying to unravel the mystery of Phoebe’s mysterious disappearance – not only her, but her van too – seemingly vanished off the face of the earth.
Along the way she meets Beth, another young woman travelling solo but for very different reasons. Beth is escaping a violent situation and with no money, ID or resources, she is relieved that Katy agrees to allow her to accompany her in return for her help in tracking down Phoebe or at least finding out more about her last movements. The two women, at first wary of each other, become more trusting and then become friends, as they travel the gorgeous Coral Coast.
The setting for this novel is spectacular, with every detail of the WA coast depicted as from a tourist brochure – the natural wonders, the beaches, the bush, the red dirt, the collegial atmosphere as grey nomads mix with young van owners and short-term travellers enjoying the impressive natural environment. Downes may as well be on the payroll for WA Tourism as she does such a great job of showcasing the region at its tantalising best.
But all that beauty hides some unsettling and possibly sinister secrets. Travellers up and down the coast have disappeared, and like some other notorious stretches around Australia (north Queensland, the Milat backpacker trail), there seem to be certain places that are renowned for people going missing. Is there an innocent if tragic explanation? Drownings, unprepared travellers lost in the bush, car accidents caused by fatigue? Or is there a more sinister reason? Gangs of organised smash and grab thieves not averse to murder if necessary? A serial killer in the area? Unexplained, ghostly, haunting urban legends that may have more truth to them than is supposed?
As Beth and Katy travel, they are both individually pulled into their histories through memories and unexpected liaisons with people from their past, and it becomes apparent that they are both trapped in a web of complicated lies, secrets and stories. And as the conclusion approaches, every chapter contains another unexpected twist or revelation which only makes the reader question every character, every motive, every action, until we hardly know which way is up. The resolution is mind-blowing.
This story examines the rights and responsibilities of solo travel, and the dangers that face the unwary or unprepared. The wildness and isolation are immensely attractive and addictive but also highly unpredictable, and potentially dangerous. The freedom of taking to the road in a van with no fixed purpose other than to explore all possibilities is infectious. But the intent of taking to the road to discover what happened to a missing family member is fraught with grief, terror and loss.
The other main character who has a point of view, besides Beth and Katy, is Wyatt, a highly interesting and well-crafted adolescent who shape shifts throughout the novel but becomes, in the end, crucial to the entire story.
So many themes explored in Red River Road: journeying, grief, the dangers of travelling alone, the rights of women to nevertheless travel unmolested, family dysfunction, mental illness, sibling dynamics, determination, unresolved trauma, domestic and family violence, vulnerability, resilience, regret, strength, empowerment, female friendship, abuse, coercive control and intergenerational patterns. And Downes leaves plenty of themes quietly unexplained, minor but important details that become apparent after the end of the novel, when they dawn on the reader: ‘oh, THAT was what that was about!’
I absolutely inhaled this book and could not stop turning the pages. Downes writes with captivating intensity, a cliffhanger on every page, and explores complicated themes whilst not letting that get in the way of the pace, action and propelling energy of the story. And while I KNEW that, as a psychological crime thriller, there was certainly going to be red herrings and twists I didn’t see coming, I was still absolutely surprised by the extent of misdirection she invented, the final revelations a complete shock even though I had plenty of hints along the way. This is one of the best crime books I’ve read this year and cements Downes’ reputation as an Australian writer to be reckoned with, not only in terms of her incredible narratives and plots, but also the complicated and complex backstories she invents to flesh out the characters so that they become living, breathing people we think we know. Extraordinary writing.