#SheReviews "Tipping Point" By Dinuka McKenzie

In the heavily nuanced realms of modern society, our (hopefully noble) moral compass would have us earnestly believe that in this fallible world there are most definitely the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’. And that hopefully for most of us who are making this sage judgement, we ourselves are the good guys. That the police and law enforcement officials in our communities are only after, maybe, the highly flawed five percent of the population that the public want off the streets, and in jail.

Such world views are fearsomely and intelligently examined and extrapolated, in conjunction with brutal and poignant insights into the human psyche, in stellar Australian author’s, Dinuka McKenzie, latest phenomenally good crime novel, Tipping Point.

Protagonist, Detective Kate Miles, takes centre stage (for us as readers) in the (fictional) town of Esserton, in the Northern Rivers region of northern New South Wales. Kate is married to the worn down, but nevertheless supportive, Geoff. Geoff is an architect, albeit an out-of-work one, who is the primary carer for preschool age Archie and baby Amy.

Kate takes her role as primary breadwinner seriously. Policing is in her blood, her father, ex-Chief Inspector Arthur Grayling, was once stationed at the Esserton Police Station, now Kate’s workplace.

It is leading up to Christmas in Esserton, the searing heat weighing down on everyone in town. Further cumbersome burdens are causing townsfolk to heave, as one of their own, Ant Reed (a welfare worker, living in Brisbane), has recently committed suicide (or has he?). Ant was tight with Kate’s brother, Luke (in the finance industry) back when they were in high school in Esserton. Their mate, Marcus (a construction worker), was also part of the ‘gang’ back in the day. Back when they knew so little about the world, but felt they actually knew everything about life.

Ant’s shell-shocked and grief-stricken father, Frank Reed, is convinced that Ant wouldn’t have taken his own life. He wants Kate to look in to the case, a case that the coroner has been convinced exhibits a cut and dry conclusion of suicide. The death took place in Queensland, so Kate it seems has her hands tied in terms of being able to reopen the investigation. Is there a favour she can call in? Will it make any difference to the outcome of the previous police work and forensics that have taken place?

Kate’s wayward and off the grid (in terms of being in touch with his family) younger brother, Luke, is back in Esserton for Ant’s funeral. Back from Sydney and it’s large distance from his family and childhood friends.

Alarmingly, only days after Ant’s funeral, Marcus (formerly married to the long-suffering and weary Fiona, mother of his young sons, Teddy and Jasper) is found on his rural property with a gunshot wound to the chest. Is it an unfortunate case of misadventure, suicide or something sinister? That is, has Marcus met with foul play?

Kate is leading the fraught investigation in to Marcus’s death, when it transpires that someone was with Marcus on his property the night he died. Life ricochets shockingly negatively for Kate when it is discovered that Luke was with Marcus that eerie night, and that Luke was the last person to see Marcus alive.

Subsequently, Kate, due to a conflict of interest, is taken off the case. A calamitous headache ensues for Luke, Kate and her dad, because Luke becomes a person of interest.

Sergeant Josh Ellis, hailing from Byron Bay, is now running the investigation in to Marcus’s death. To complicate matters, Marcus is the son of high profile actor, Eric Harrington. Thus the nation’s media are frothing at the mouth to cover every aspect of Marcus’s death and subsequent investigation.

Adding to Kate’s rapidly increasing woes, Luke has been found to have distributed a sex tape of a former partner, Payton Cavanaugh, a high-flying work colleague of Luke’s at Hull-Hayward Financial (“a leading financial services firm with head offices in…Sydney”). The resulting fallout has included Luke being fired from his job, and of course a torrential amount of undiluted embarrassment and caustic shame for Payton. It naturally spelt the end of Luke’s and Payton’s relationship. The case itself is being investigated by Sydney City Police Area Command.

Kate’s existence is firmly entrenched in Esserton. Having grown up here, she has childhood friend, Sarah (an aged care nurse), to lean on. Sarah’s younger sister, Nadine, was in to the murky underworld of drugs for years, but is now in Thailand in rehab. Nadine and Ant also shared a history back in the day.

Has Esserton just been the unenviable recipient of two suicides in a week?

And if so, is there something in the former school friends, Ant and Marcus’s, lives’ that would lead them to end their respective lives?

Or is there someone or someones who are out there who we need to be fearful of?

Can Kate put her past history history with Esposito, her boss, to the side?

Is it going to affect her ability to do the job?

Is Esserton a dreamily idyllic utopia……or a hotbed of crime and mayhem?

Which person at the Esserton Police Station is going to lose their life?

Why and how do Tactical Operations Unit officers come in to the story?

Dinuka has written a crime story with twists and turns that shock, startle and enthrall. Every page overflows with formidable intelligence and great insight in to what makes humans (from varied backgrounds) tick. The human condition is explored meticulously and successfully.

I was fortunate enough to listen to Dinuka talk at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival this year, and I can report that she was fascinating and captivating to hear speak.

Bravo Dinuka! Once again you have written a fantastic crime novel. Tipping Point is the third novel in the Detective Kate Miles series, the first two being The Torrent and Taken (I can also highly recommend these novels). The Tipping Point can be read as a standalone novel, however if you read The Torrent and Taken first, you will gain a further insight into the character of Kate Miles and prior events that have taken place.

I loved every minute of reading Tipping Point. Please put me down to read whatever Dinuka writes next.