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Christian White is an author who can always be relied upon to come up with an unusual scenario, great characters and a rollercoaster plot that will keep readers enthralled, and vaguely baffled from start to finish.

Told in dual timelines, THE LEDGE is a story that spans childhood friendship and old secrets haunting very different adult lives. Twenty five years before the current timeline of this novel, Justin, Aaron, Chen and Leeson were typical young boys growing up in a small regional town in the Victorian mountains. They ride their bikes, wonder about girls, all pretty normal, until a tragic chain of events that haunts them into their adulthood. An adulthood that for a few of them is very complicated.

Dual timelines are nothing new these days, and they come with varying degrees of success. This one is slightly on the jarring side, told as it is from a single point of view, with the constant suspicion that when the reader is inside one head, the view could be skewed or deliberately obfuscating.

To be fair though, that observation only came to this reader at the end because the suspense is palpable in THE LEDGE, as is an overwhelming atmosphere of dread and "something not quite right". Starting at the opening stanzas when the narrator of the story seems almost reluctant to reveal his separation from his wife and family complications, and the reason why, after the discovery of a long dead body in the bush, he is compelled to return to his childhood home town of West Haven.

The dialogue is, however, spot on, right from when the four young boys were firm friends, to the current day awkwardness of three re-uniting. From the interactions with ex-wives, old friends, and people from the town who remember them, and what's known about the events from their past. There's also a clever use of place - from the small town - to the railway line - leading to a hidden path to The Ledge. A rocky outcrop known to the locals, used for parties, and more sinister events, The Ledge hangs over the town, and the boy's lives like a living / breathing entity. White also uses these places - the town, the ledge, the railway line alongside the boys, then and now, to explore themes of friendship, loyalty, masculinity - positive and toxic, and the way that young men who grow up in small towns with tragedy can so often find it a struggle to deal with that.

Having said all of that White's not known as "the master of the unexpected" for no reason and even coming to THE LEDGE expecting something, looking for it even, the twist, when it arrived, came utterly out of nowhere.

I don't know why I always seem to be behind with reading Christian White's books - every single time I finish one I kick myself for not jumping it to the top of the queue immediately on release.

Because I'd read (and loved) A RUNNERS GUIDE TO RAKIURA by Jessica Howland Kany first I was prepared for PARROT HEAVEN. Which was handy because the slightly chaotic styling of the first novel is ramped up even more in this one - to frequently hilarious levels, although anybody new to this series may just wonder what the actual... .

If you're in that space, stick with it. This is crime fiction (in that there is some crime sprinkled throughout), but it's mostly storytelling about a place, some people, and a life that's, well different, probably doesn't come close to explaining it.

If you need to know more about who Maudie and Vil are, along with many of Vil's extended family, and the slightly batty residents of New Zealand's Rakiura Stewart Island, as seen through the eyes of outsider Maudie, then I'd strongly suggest that you check out what details you can glean from the first book. Whilst it won't be necessary to have read the earlier to launch into this second outing it may help, but then again, if you're the sort of reader that can't settle into chaos then nothing may help. 

Short synopsis first - Maudie and Vil, now married, with a couple of young kids are getting on with small island / wild weather / mad community life quite well - albeit haunted by the death of their beloved parrot, and the havoc wreaked by Bathmat the goat. Life with a toddler is proving somewhat of a challenge that Vil mostly meets by sitting in a bathchair on the lawn looking at nothing in particular while Maudie texts him little gems like "is our girl batshit?", and the goat eats his phone, and his divorced parents remarry treating their guests to a wedding cake full of wormholes (you'll have to read the book), and his father (referred to throughout as Dogbox) is charged with murder. 

Of course nothing's as simple as a bit of a murder charge (which also comes such a long way into the book that you might be wondering if this thing has been mislabelled by then), there's also an axe cult, The Epic of Gilgamesh, a particularly mismanaged community astronomy course, and the local pub quiz. Meanwhile as the murder (yes it is sort of still in there), threatens to wreak havoc on the family, Maudie steps into conduct her own investigation - buggered knees, missing prosthetic toes (first book - or you'll work it out here), and surprisingly literate, but frankly vaguely batshit crazy, toddler daughter, son, fisherman husband Vil, mother-in-law, madhouse community and all.

Written in a slightly chaotic style of short paragraphs, flow shifts, funny observations, lunatic conversation ploys, mad people and crazy goings on, PARROT HEAVEN is so far from traditional crime fiction that familiar territory is so much further than a packed lunch and waterbag will take you. This is the journey is more important than the destination reading, although to be honest the journey seemed to have thrown the map and compass into the nearest tidal pool. All of which matters not a jot - get the sense of humour and gentle love for this community at the core of these books, and a reader is in for a hell of a ride.