Lost Wings in Angel Rock. "Angel Rock", by Darren Williams. [review]

Abstract

"Angel Rock" revolves around the story of lost children. First, the two Ferry boys go missing, then a sixteen-year-old girl from the town. The anti-hero detective, Gibson, is also a lost child seeking answers to a crime committed in his youth. The novel is essentially a picaresque, within the crime fiction genre, but also a kind of Australian Gothic filled with evangelical preachers, forbidden desire and idiot savants. If Williams had followed the crime fiction genre more closely, "Angel Rock" might have ushered in something new in Australian writing. A tighter narrative would have improved the novel’s overall pace. Williams does, however, create a strong sense of place and community.