The Herb Gardner, Maris Morton, Odyssey Books, 2014, 279 pages, ISBN: 978-1-922200-09-9 Ebook
A young woman in a car with a young child is driving along a road in a landscape filled with wide open spaces. She’s anxious and troubled. Newly divorced Joanna and her daughter Mia, are going to spend a weekend with a man, a farmer she has recently been introduced to. Has she missed the correct turning? Is she doing the right thing or will this weekend in the country turn out to be a colossal mistake?
Immediately the reader is pulled into a very different world; a world that Australian readers are more familiar with, but which, to me, is as exotic as India or the jungles of South America. Up here on this side of the equator we haven’t until recently had access to much of the very fine work that is percolating up from Oz. Fortunately, that is starting to change. The Herb Gardner by Maris Morton, is another provocative offering from the always interesting Australian publisher, Odyssey Books.
“She could see no other house or any other building. The ground undulated away into the distance like the swell on the ocean; greyish dry grass, a few trees, a scattering of sheep like dry smudges.”
This opening, with our heroine wondering if she is lost in a vast, potentially threatening environment, very quickly establishes the framework of the story as well as the immensity of the Western Australian landscape. Just before doubt gives way to panic she sees a car in the distance approaching from a side road. A smiling young man assures her that yes, this is the road to Chris Youngman’s place. Everything is going to be all right - or is it? On Monday, after a weekend packed with incident, many pleasurable, some not so, the nice young man, Jesse Woods, whom Joanna had looked forward to seeing again, doesn’t turn up for work.
Later Monday night some children find his body parked in a lover’s lane near a quarry. From here the book zigzags a line back and forth across woman’s romance and crime/detective territory. Joanna must decide if Chris is the man to mend her broken heart and confidence, while fending off threats from jealous workmen and neighbours. Entwined with this is the question of, ‘Who killed Jesse Woods, and why and how?’
There is much about this book that I liked. The characters, for the most part are well drawn and believable. I sympathise with Joanna wanting a stable life for herself and her child after escaping from an abusive husband, I really do. But I wish she been allowed to try a little harder and longer to establish an identity not-dependent on a man before falling back into the standard woman’s role. This is personal observation and I realise that many women who read this will applaud Joanna for her choices.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
But #2: Beginning with the title to a heavy handed drawing of the poisoner as a selfish and decadent individual, there is no suspense about, ‘Who done it.’ This I think could be improved.
And finally, Chris’ high school teacher, Catherine, was the lover he had been meeting when he met his death. Although their affair didn’t begin until he was her student, she admits falling in love with him when he was only 14 years old. Did she already begun grooming him then? After she confesses this to Mollie, the school head, and to Joanna, they decide that, because she had suffered so much through losing her lover, she should not be exposed and punished further.
As a teacher of students in the same age group, I have a lot of problems with this. The prohibition against teachers becoming inappropriately involved with students exists for very real and strong reasons. Young people of that age are often very confused and vulnerable. It is criminally easy for a charismatic teacher, such as we are told this Catherine is, to convince herself and a susceptible young man that what they are feeling is ‘real love’, if only society could see the truth. So who are they harming?
Indeed! Let’s look at this from a different perspective. We are told that Jesse was an excellent student and star football player who should have gone on to university but inexplicably, to the community, did not. We know why he didn't. He remained in this small Western Australian town to be near the woman he had become involved with - his teacher; and because of this, he ended up dead. I’m sorry, and I’m not usually this judgmental, but I feel that this Catherine got away with what is a major violation of teacher ethics, with virtually no consequences. To me this sends a very unfortunate message.
OK, a couple of disclaimers, I received this ARC through Net Galley for the specific purpose of writing a review. I personally requested to review this title because the author and I are of a similar level of maturity and experience and as a wannabe author I was interested to read the work of a writer following a similar delayed path. I know that Ms Morton has more work coming out in the future and I wish her all the best of success, but I also wish she would consider the implications of her plot lines a little more thoroughly. So, while I enjoyed the writing and visions of fantastic Australian landscapes, I can only give 3***