Robyn's career as a school teacher ended 10 years ago and she's now the Caretaker on Finch Island, located off the coast of Queensland. One of Robyn's clients is a group of Veterans who run a camp for troubled teens in an effort to turn their lives around with group activities, discipline and teamwork. The island is a former leper colony and served as the perfect setting for the action that follows.

Unfolding in two timelines (2009 and 2019), we flick between Robyn's teaching days and her current position on Finch Island. The increasing drama taking place at the school had me transfixed as a young boy is at the heart of a domestic custody battle involving his mother, domineering Policeman father and despicably bitchy Grandmother. I wanted Robyn to take more of a stand against the behaviour being exhibited by a number of the characters in the book and I found myself wishing her colleagues would do more to help.

Meanwhile, some of the boys on the camp are acting up with some pretty nasty pranks and Robyn notices one of them looks uncannily like Aaron. Except his name is Darren now. Can it be the same boy?

Slowly the tensions rise and situations escalate until we finally learn what happened to cause Robyn to leave her career behind and choose to live an isolated and lonely life on Finch Island.

The Attack by Catherine Jinks is a satisfying and entertaining read with a good mystery at its heart. Catherine Jinks is an accomplished Australian author of more than thirty books, however this is my first time reading any of her novels.

The Attack by Catherine Jinks is recommended for fans of domestic noir and Aussie crime thrillers.

* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing * ( )

Quite a suspenseful read with a bit of unravelling to do. We flit between two main time frames: the present, and what happened ten years before, as well as Robyn's immediate past which led her to taking the job on Finch Island, literally getting away from everything.

It is hard to imagine Shaun's program on Finch Island for troublesome and troubled boys in their teens ever being particularly pleasant, but this particular group bring together a heap of real problems. Even putting potato peelers in their hands is fraught with danger. But many of the boys have their own vindictive agenda, not necessarily against Robyn, but she is a relatively vulnerable target.

There are a number of dramatic points, but the day of their graduation ceremony brings it all together, ( )

“I took one look at him and it all came flooding back. Otford. Joyce. The lies. The police. I’d fled to a deserted island, but I couldn’t seem to escape Aaron Rooney.”

Robyn Ayres is the caretaker of Finch Island /Buangan Pa, a former leper lazaret, repurposed for the use of campers and organised groups. The basic facilities and lack of phone/wifi service dull the island’s appeal to holidaymakers, but Vetnet, a boot camp for troubled teen boys run by ex military officers, are one of the island’s few regular bookings. When Shaun and his staff arrive with the latest group of delinquent recruits, Robyn is shocked to realise she recognises one of the boys. He is ten years older than the last time she saw him, and using a different name, but she is sure it is Aaron Rooney, who indirectly led to her self-imposed exile on the island. The knowledge leaves Robyn on edge and her anxiety worsens as she is targeted by a series of malicious pranks.

The story of The Attack unfolds over over two timelines, Robyn’s past as a kindergarten teacher in a small town caught between two warring families locked in a custody battle, shows why the sudden appearance of a now sixteen year old Aaron is so destabilising.

There is tension as Robyn wonders if Darren/Aaron remembers her, which builds with a series of worrying incidents, among them rubbish dumped on her bed, deliberately broken plumbing, and a kitchen fire. Robyn considers Aaron the most likely suspect, but there are fourteen other troubled teens on the island who might think that harassing Robyn would force the VetNet operators to send them home.

Though the pace for much of the book is quite restrained, there is a definite sense of anticipation that develops in both timelines. Everything comes to a head in the last quarter of the novel where Jinks provides a thrilling, action-packed climax as Robyn is forced to confront the past.

I really enjoyed The Attack for its original premise, interesting setting (inspired by Queensland’s Peel Island) and characterisation. This is a well written, absorbing and satisfying thriller. ( )