The House of Now and Then by Jo Dixon

This debut crime thriller is set in country Tasmania, where author Jo Dixon lives on a rural property. The plot revolves around the lives of two different groups of young people who lived there in 1986 and 2007. In the latter year, Olivia Haymers is trying to hide from a scandal involving an affair she had with a famous married screen star which became public when a woman she regarded as a close friend leaked revealing videos to the media. Olivia became infamous as a “scarlet woman,” but the “friend” attempted to blackmail the celebrity and was subsequently gaoled. Olivia imagines that everyone knows her face and the shame she had heaped on her, so has taken refuge in an imposing rental property on a rural property near a tiny village east of Hobart.

Her life begins to change when a stranger knocks on her door, trying to locate Pippa French to deliver a sealed package from his father in England, who had died a year earlier. Pippa and her friend Jeremy had been house-sitters at the property during a blissful summer 30 years before.

Wild child Pippa had fallen deeply in love with Leo, a young local man she met at a party and together they plan to travel abroad for a life of passion and adventure. Leo’s conservative parents strongly disagree and try to persuade him to take up university studies and ultimately join his father’s legal practice. One night, he leaves to confront his parents and to retrieve his passport, but never returns. Police and family conduct extensive searches, but no trace of Leo is found and foul play is suspected. Jeremy moves to England and breaks off all contact with Pippa and her family.

Thirty years later, Olivia is initially reluctant to assist her young English visitor (Tom) in trying to unravel the mystery of Leo’s disappearance by helping him to find Pippa. But she is gradually drawn into the quest, and begins to uncover a web of complicated relationships in both time periods: rooted in 1986. but with ramifications thirty years later.

Despite meeting with hostility and obstruction and negotiating many twists and turns, Olivia and Tom locate Pippa, deliver the package and discover that there has indeed been a murder – although perhaps not what they had suspected. Along the way Olivia, with help from Tom, begins a path to redemption, and Pippa is eventually able to obtain justice for the loss of her friend.

This is a complex novel – not just a crime thriller, but an engaging examination of family, romance, love, rejection and desolation. Jo Dixon has now embarked on writing a second crime novel after this encouraging first effort.

Reviewed by Peter Maywald
SMSA Member