
Memory (defined definitively and resolutely as “the ability to recall information that you have learned” and further as “a vital human process that involves encoding, storing and retrieving information”) can be a fickle beast. What if this integral aspect of human survival is adversely affected and interrupted in some way? What if certain memories aren’t being stored as they should be? What if you had ‘blanks’ in your memory, causing alarming fear and confusion? What if there are periods of time that you simply don’t remember?
Such highly disturbing propositions are forensically and insightfully examined in stellar Australian author, Petronella McGovern’s, latest superlatively written psychological thriller/crime novel, “The Last Trace”.
Thirty-seven year old, and quintessentially laid-back Aussie larrikin, Lachy Wilson, has seen better days. Divorced from his former young love, Amber, he finds himself ‘holed up’ in his parents’ property, “Mimosa Hideout”, in Australia’s rugged yet scenically sublime alpine country, near the towns of Warabina (where Kai goes to high school and is mercilessly bullied and tormented by fellow student, “Grug”) and Cooma, in New South Wales.
Lachy is on a tenuous hiatus from his job working on aid projects around the world (including water purification projects) for an international company.
Lachy has been having vehemently unwelcome memory lapses when he rapidly drinks alcohol. And these chunks of lost memory have him petrified.
Now Lachy’s fifteen year old lost and wayward son, Kai, has come to live with him, and Lachy has ‘lost time’ when they’ve been on a night out to the local pub. Lachy realises “They were at the Dalgety pub. Bloody hell, he must have had a blackout. That had never happened before with his son around. Oh God, had he driven here from the cabin?”.
Lachy laments to himself, “How was it that the things he wanted to forget wouldn’t leave him alone while other stuff vanished into the ether?…..he was a mess. A shit parent, shit employee, all-round failure”.
Lachy’s older and wiser (?) sister, Sheridan, is a driven life coach for some motivated and some lazy clients, whilst being a devoted mother to young girls, Eloise and Mabel, and a loyal and loving wife to Nick (a thoughtful accountant in Sydney).
When Sheridan, Nick and the girls share a blissful (or is it?) Easter in the mountains with Lachy and Kai, life appears to be idyllic for the Wilsons. But when a terrible accident occurs (an accident in which a stash of Kai’s drugs are involved), a life-and-death dash to hospital in Cooma is the nightmarish result. Add in a visit to the police station for Kai, and we come to understand the negative ramifications from the ‘incident’. And that Sheridan’s relationship with Lachy and Kai may be irretrievably broken.
Lachy and Nick worked together as naive and idealistic (or were they?) teenagers at a summer camp in Pennsylvania in the United States some seventeen years ago. A camp that happened to be named optimistically as “Camp Happiness”.
Lachy gave Tiffany (another camp leader) a lift from camp one night, and is worried still all these years later because Tiffany hasn’t been heard from since and Lachy is panicked that he may have done something to her, as his memory of that night is a blank.Gloria Wilson (Sheridan and Lochy’s American mother) is burdened with dementia and living in a Sydney nursing home. Why is she so attached to a doll called “Betty” and why does Gloria think she killed a Betty? Gloria’s children don’t know of any Betty apart from the doll.
Why does an American woman named Juliet want Lachy to do a DNA sample? Lochy remembers talking to her at a bar in America, but not anything after that. Is Juliet pregnant?
What has Lachy’s supervisor from work, Henrik, been reporting about him? What has Lachy reported about Henrik?
What are the terrible family secrets from Gloria’s childhood and teenage years in America? Why did Gloria leave America for Australia? Does Gloria hold the key to Betty’s existence?
Will Lachy and Sheridan ever connect with their American relatives and find out what skeletons have been rattling in the family’s closet for decades?
Who is Dr Charlie Stanbury and what is his part in the story?
Will the American detectives ever solve the cold cases that have baffled them?
What is Lachy’s neighbour (the abrupt and opinionated Ronnie) hiding from?
Petronella has written a robustly impressive psychological thriller/crime novel that overflows with intelligence, insight and wisdom.
Themes of family, memory, DNA samples, loyalty and love are examined so well. The human psyche and condition are expertly looked at and written about. I found myself turning the pages faster and faster as I progressed in my reading of this supremely captivating novel.
Bravo Petronella! This is a five star read for me. I loved every second of reading The Last Trace and I will be lining up to read whatever Petronella writes next!

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