The Bluffs by Kyle Perry. (2020).
**3.5 out of 5 stars**
When a school group of teenage girls goes missing in the remote wilderness of Tasmania’s Great Western Tiers, the people of Limestone Creek are immediately on alert. 30 years ago, 5 young girls disappeared in the same area and the legend of ‘the Hungry Man’ still haunts locals to this day. Now, authorities can determine the teacher, Eliza, was knocked unconscious. Jordan Murphy, the local drug dealer and father of missing Jasmine, is instantly a suspect. But Detective Con knows that in a town this size – with corrupt cops, small-town politics, and a teenage YouTube sensation – everyone is hiding something, and bluffing is second nature. More questions arise when a body is found mauled at the bottom of a cliff with the girl’s shoes at the top of the cliff, laces neatly tied…
This is the debut novel from the author, and I think it’s a pretty decent first novel. The storyline is all thriller with just a hint of supernatural – is ‘The Hungry Man’ real, and if he is then is he a supernatural entity? The character perspectives primarily alternate between Eliza the teacher, Con the ‘incomer’ detective, and Murphy the local drug dealer and father of one of the missing girls: all have their own dramas going on aside from the current missing girls. Madison the teenage YouTube sensation features a lot in everyone’s chapters: what an extraordinarily unlikable teenage girl she was, that held an unbelievable amount of power and control over other characters.
I felt by the end some things weren’t fully addressed, and the ending itself is one that you’ll either love and consider it clever or you’ll be frustrated from it.
Overall: I enjoyed the premise of this one although there were a few little things I didn’t like. I look forward to seeing what the author’s next book is like.
