Just Finished Reading

DIRTY! is the second novella in the Bloodline series, BANG! being the opening salvo. It's a series that might not have to be read in order, but would certainly benefit from doing so - the central characters are the same, the storylines follow on, and the themes are as dark as they could possibly be, with DIRTY! ramping that up just a bit more.

Events in BANG! bought bikie, but bewildered and surprisingly compliant, Toby into contact with Jen. This novella takes Jen's story, in particular, forward, but not in a way you'd expect from the background of murder, bikie gangs, drugs and organised crime. Jen's been using her older sister's identity, as she's underage for most things she's been involved in, including marrying Toby in a quickie ceremony in a small country town, after they both fled Perth in the wake of the murder at the centre of the first story. It's not just Jen's identity that's under question though, she's not at all what she seems - manipulative and cold as ice, she's utterly psychopathic.

Jen grew up in a reasonably normal suburban family in Melbourne. There's no particular reason why they would spawn a daughter quite like her - one who went from stabbing her younger sister repeatedly with a compass, to working her way across Australia in brothels, a wild child with a distinct facility for violence, but a preference for manipulation and control. There's questions about the death of a man in Kalgoorlie where she was working, before she arrived in Perth and set her sights on Toby, an easily manipulated young man, perfect as a foil, and a way into a dangerous lifestyle. Where Jen thrives - a lot more than Toby it has to be said. There's something frighteningly ruthless about Jen though - and when her younger sister falls in love with Toby, and finds herself pregnant to him, Jen's reaction is not what anyone expected.

DIRTY! is a short sharp, and very clear-eyed foray into manipulation and extreme antisocial tendencies with the less expected scenario of a young woman being the case study. Jen is, as the blurb puts it, a monster wearing, eventually, the mask of a mother, and this story really gets into some potentially challenging areas for readers to contemplate. Particularly when you consider there is a third planned outing in this series. The ruthlessness of Jen, with what seems like a complete lack of triggers, reasons, motives, justification for why she behaves as she does is particularly sobering - that whole idea of whether somebody can simply be born evil, or it's down to circumstances / conditioning. It's both fascinating and utterly repellent, presented as it is in these novellas - short, sharp, pointed and as cold and clear as you'd imagine Jen would be if you were unfortunate enough to come across somebody like her in day to day life.