Carmel Reilly

In her first full length novel for adults, educational and children's writer Carmel Reilly has delivered a crime fiction book that tackles sibling relationships and family secrets full on.

Set in two main timelines, in 2016 Lori receives a visit from a policeman to tell her that her estranged brother Scott is in hospital, seriously injured in a hit and run accident. Back in 1993 we meet Lori and Scott as teenagers, and discover the secrets that tore the family apart. Is it this that triggered the hit and run, or was it simply an accident?

Given that this is a crime fiction debut for Carmel Reilly, the writing and plotting of LIFE BEFORE is assured and extremely readable. It's also another one of these frequently occurring cross-over's between mystery and suspense set within a big family saga novel - these definitely do seem to have become the flavour of the month at the moment.

Dripping with tension and suspense, the multiple timeline works well, with the pacing of the release of past information nicely balanced against current events. The switching backwards and forwards is elegantly presented, not confusing or jolting the reader from the main storyline at all. There's the added bonus of 1990s small town Australia in the earlier timeline that will undoubtedly ring very true for many readers.

Peopled by really good characters, what made this novel stand out amongst what has become a rather crowded sub-genre was the sense of reality to the plot. It's all to easy to imagine going about your daily, mundane sort of life, after teenager events that rocked your world but seem to be safely tucked in the past, only to have everything explode in your face when you least expect it. How somebody would handle that, how you would make sense of it, and how you face up to the consequences, is really at the core of LIFE BEFORE.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/life-carmel-reilly… (altro)