Melaleuca by Angie Faye Martin

Angie Faye Martin is a writer with Kooma, Kamilaroi and European heritage. She has a masters degree in anthropology and has been published in several literary journals. Melaleuca is her first published book, a crime novel which has received high praise from critics for its fearless treatment of contemporary race relations issues.

The book is set in a fictional small rural community (Goorungah) about 200 km west of Brisbane. In a short forenote to readers, Martin says that Goorungah is based on the town where I grew up – Oakey – but my characters and their actions are not representative of any of the people from this town, past or present.

29-year-old Detective Renee Taylor has taken a demotion to Constable to enable her to return to her hometown to assist her mother, who has severe arthritis in her hands. She expects that policing in the small town will be quite mundane, after two years of high-pressure detective work in Brisbane, mostly involving serious crime and homicides. Going “home” is initially quite comfortable as she re-establishes relations with her mother, a First Nations woman who was a respected senior nurse at the local hospital for many years, and catches up with school friends. But she also remembers the racism she experienced at school and the derogatory treatment of First Nations people like herself by the privileged white residents of the town.

Everything changes when Renee answers an emergency call and discovers the bashed body of a young indigenous woman on the banks of the local creek. Given her Brisbane experience, the sergeant in charge of the police station reluctantly reinstates Renee as a detective to head up the investigation.

Renee discovers links to the mysterious unsolved disappearances of two adolescent girls 35 years before, but her investigation is hampered by the sergeant, who discourages her from following up leads against prominent community members, including a known violent drug dealer who seems to have prominent lawyers in his corner. But Renee persists and despite violent acts against her, eventually uncovers a web of criminality and corruption, leading to perpetrators being brought to justice and the crimes of the past resolved.

Along the way she encounters both deliberate and subconscious racism and even resistance from the local First Nations community, which has little trust in the police, including Renee.
This book is a promising debut novel, well-constructed and credible. Written from an Indigenous perspective, it causes the reader to consider serious issues about racism, stereotyping and violence against women. Characters are well written and believable. I suspect that Renee Taylor will appear again in future novels possibly alongside some of the strong personalities from her supporting cast in Melaleuca.

Reviewed by Peter Maywald
SMSA Member