Title: Shelter by Catherine Jinks
Publisher: Text Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 327 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
Meg lives alone: a little place in the bush outside town. A perfect place to hide. That’s one of the reasons she offers to shelter Nerine, who’s escaping a violent ex. The other is that Meg knows what it’s like to live with an abusive partner.
Nerine is jumpy and her two little girls are frightened. It tells Meg all she needs to know where they’ve come from, and she’s not all that surprised when Nerine asks her to get hold of a gun. But she knows it’s unnecessary. They’re safe now.
Then she starts to wonder about some little things. A disturbed flyscreen. A tune playing on her windchimes. Has Nerine’s ex tracked them down? Has Meg’s husband turned up to torment her some more?
By the time she finds out, it’ll be too late to do anything but run for her life.
Review:
Shelter by Catherine Jinks is a poignant mystery set in the Australian bush.
After her divorce from her abusive husband, Keith, Meg Lowry starts over with the couple’s only daughter, Emily. But when Emily moves away, Meg purchases land and a house outside the small town of Bulwell. She does not have much but she is content working a couple of days a week in town. Given her own struggle to escape her marriage, Meg is quick to say yes when a friend asks her to allow Nerine and her two daughters to stay with her for a short time. Meg soon has serious reservations about Nerine who is jittery and frightened her violent husband Duncan will find her and their daughters, Analiese and Colette. Exhausted and worried, will Meg give in to Nerine’s pressure to borrow a gun to protect them?
Meg has serious regrets about not leaving Keith sooner so she does not hesitate to help Nerine. She knows the detrimental effects abuse has on children, so she does not allow her own concerns to change her mind about assisting Nerine and the girls. While Nerine is difficult to calm down, Meg adores Ana and Colette.
Nerine does not like the isolation and wide open spaces which make up Meg’s property. She has wild mood swings and she refuses to believe Meg’s reassurances they are safe. As strange things begin to occur around her house, Meg cannot decide whether her Keith is to blame or if Duncan has found them. Nerine is fixated on obtaining a gun and Meg’s resistance begins to wane. Will borrowing a gun calm her temporary houseguests fears?
Shelter is a dark and gritty mystery that has a unique plot and an atmospheric setting. Meg is a sympathetic character who is flawed yet likable. Nerine is irritating but her children are absolutely adorable. Meg’s property and the surrounding area spring vibrantly to life. With stunning plot twists, Catherine Jinks brings this riveting mystery to bittersweet conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend this brilliant mystery to fans of the genre.
