Past teacher and popular author Mark Smith is well known for his YA novels (some of which are included in the school curriculum) but Three Boys Gone (Pan Macmillan 2024) is his first adult psychological thriller, and what a fantastic debut into the crime/mystery genre it is! The story has high stakes, a propelling narrative tension and is written in Smith’s skilful and engaging prose.
This novel will provoke many thoughtful book club discussions with the question at its core: What would YOU do? (There are no spoilers here, as all of this happens in the first pages.)
Outdoor Ed teacher Grace Disher leads a Year 10 walking / camping excursion in the company of two other teachers and a noisy, feisty, typical group of adolescent boys. But in every teacher’s worst nightmare, in a quicksilver moment of surreal unbelievability, three boys slip into the ocean for a swim and are drowned in the horrendous conditions. It all happens so fast. Grace is the only witness. And she does not attempt a rescue, because the first rule of rescue is not to create another casualty, and she is sure she will drown if she ventures into the wild waves. This is a split-second decision made in perilous conditions but one that will haunt her doggedly as the days pass.
Investigations by the police, the coroner, the school and of course by the angry and frustrated parents all feature the same question: Should Grace have risked her life, or given her life, to at least attempt to save the boys? Even if she knew it was futile? As the days pass, the scandal spreads to the wider community, with keyboard warriors hounding Grace with hostility and vile comments. It becomes even more personal when she is identified and her address made known … she becomes a victim of even more outraged hounding, and both physical and verbal attacks. The attention is relentless as the media, the parents and the community search for someone to blame for the tragic deaths.
This scenario, or similar ones, have played out before in real life and Smith has recreated the fear, tension, mob mentality, vitriol, name and shame, anger and distress that accidental deaths like this cause. Readers will probably think of several actual cases that have stirred up the same level of blame and abuse as grieving parents and families try desperately to make meaning out of the awful truth. The story is punctuated by snippets of news and weather reports which distil the complex happenings into punchy, weighty, cold, hard facts.
But Smith adds an extra layer of intrigue to this narrative, hiding at the centre of the story a secret that at first is only revealed through subtle hints – a word misspoken here, a strange coincidence there. However, as the story progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that Grace’s safety is at risk not only because of this critical event, but because of this hidden intrigue that Smith deliciously slowly reveals, bit by bit, with each chapter. One thing is certain, Grace doesn’t know who she should trust.
Smith is known for his beautiful environmental writing, setting his novels in stunning locations along the Australian coast. His depiction of the beaches and the bush, the wildness and dangers, the beauty and harsh brutality, provides a familiar scaffold to the story that unfolds. The setting is almost a character itself and his knowledge of local ocean conditions, fast-changing weather and the accompanying risks to unwary individuals is an electric and charged background to the decisions made.
He explores themes of class, race, gender, sexuality and power with nuanced and well-developed characters, a pacy narrative and a nail-biting conclusion.
This is a story of a split-second tragedy, impossible choices, high tension and relentless and intense scrutiny surrounding a dangerous secret. Once you delve in, you will want to keep swimming to the bitter end, the page-turning story setting a fast pace with unexpected twists and reveals that only add to the high drama of the already tragic and testing situation. And always, at the heart, is the central question: What would YOU do?
At what point is your own life worth less than that of someone else? Most of us know we would risk our lives for our family, but would we selflessly risk death to save those under our care? Or even a stranger? How would you rationalise your decision? How would you live with yourself afterwards? How can such an impossibly dark situation, bereft of any good outcome, be survivable?
A brave, vulnerable, explosive and thought-provoking read from an author ready to challenge readers’ preconceptions of themselves and their own capabilities.