REVIEW

Review - DEAD GUILTY (aka An Act of Reparation) by Susan Godenzi

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

Originally published under the title AN ACT OF REPARATION, DEAD GUILTY uses the complex subject of domestic abuse as a vehicle to explore the ongoing abuse and exploitation of women in very vulnerable situations.

Starting out with the murder of an abusive husband Sean Laidlaw, journalist Lexie Reed stumbles upon the subsequent disappearance of his wife and daughter's from a local crisis shelter. Whilst the police are initially focused on the murder, which was caused a particularly brutal head-injury inflicted by a wood splitter, they are forced by Reed's discoveries to also look for / consider the fate of the wife and children. 

Having recently returned to Melbourne after her divorce, life is not exactly panning out as she had intended. Trying to re-establish a career in journalism once she returns, the causes and results of domestic abuse have been something she's been working on for some time, so the commissioning of articles for a local women's magazine is serendipitous. As a result of these articles, Reed gains access inside many local crisis shelters, but there's something very odd about the one that Jillian Laidlaw fled to after deciding to leave her abusive husband. For a start it's odd that Sean found them - and was seen standing outside the house yelling for his wife. It's also odd that this particular shelter hires a security guard who is always on call - and is immediately under suspicion when police start to discover some details of the night that Laidlaw dies.

DSS Wil Saddington is a man whose personal life mirrors Reeds in that he's also looking at divorce, although he's not a willing participant in that. Whilst his career is more settled than that of Reed, he feels like a man who is lost, not sure what to do with himself next, whereas Reed is sad about the breakdown of her marriage, but more determined to move on. As they start to work together there is no obvious romantic "frisson" between them, in fact there's quite a bit of suspicion and dislike to start out.

There's an equal focus between the investigative roles, although it could be that this dual perspective is part of what makes the plot leap ahead in some places and lag in many important aspects. For example it's hard to understand why, on the rescue of the badly abused Jillian, it takes what feels like an interminable time for either Reed or DSS Saddington to twig that two young girls are obviously still in danger. None of which is helped by a number of meanderings around in sub-threads of sexy neighbours, idiot young policemen, magazine bosses who are tricky to read, difficult mothers, supportive sisters and heaps of personal issues. Whilst many of these elements have merit, they also sometimes feel like they are drowning the main threads out.

For a debut novel DEAD GUILTY is one seriously big undertaking, introducing a couple of strong central characters with similar personal problems that affect them both differently. They are sympathetic together, and their reasons for co-operating worked well. There's also a strong relationship between Saddington and his side-kick who is a tricky prospect however you look at him. DEAD GUILTY is the first in a series of novels featuring Reed and Saddington, so it will be interesting to see what issue Godenzi decides to tackle next time out.

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1
BLURB

When a battered wife disappears from a women's crisis shelter after her husband's murder, guilt-driven journo Lexie Reed, has to push the already besieged DSS Wil Saddington to help as she uncovers human trafficking of Melbourne's most vulnerable.

If her husband hadn't been murdered - would anyone have noticed she was missing?

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