reviews

  

Angel Rock

Darren Wiliams (Harper Collins-2002)

This would have to rate as one of the best Aussie YA books ever read, its going up on the shelf next to other all time faves such as Jasper Jones, Past the Shallows, Floundering and Last Ride. 

This compelling tale is set in Angel Rock a small, isolated logging town in northern NSW in the late 60's. When two little boys go missing, the whole town bands together to search for them. But their long held suspicions of each other soon surface, driving them all apart again until the search is abandoned.

Ten days later the older boy, Tom turns up dazed and confused with no clue as to what has happened to his little brother, Flynn. The local cop, Pop Mather has given up hope of finding him alive and is kept busy enough trying to keep his town from 'getting all stirred up again'.


But when another young life is lost, it seems the sins of the past are haunting them all. Pop's daughter Grace befriends Tom and together they begin their own search uncovering more than a few nasty characters pushing deep dark cracks into the towns' peaceful facade. 

In the end it takes all of them including Matthew Gibson a mixed-up detective from Sydney, with his own personal agenda, to finally reveal the dark truth about Angel Rock.


It's a classic coming of age novel but its also a chilling portrayal of life in a small town with great big doses of drama, humour, anger and affection adding to the reality of both the people and the place.