Karen Herbert‘s fourth novel is described as a ‘psychological medical thriller’; but, if you’re worried about gory surgical scenes or murderous doctors, then perhaps it might be better to think of The Ghost Walk as a mystery with an unlikely detective at its heart, and focus more on the psychological aspect.
The protagonist of The Ghost Walk is Ruby-Rose Gillespie, a woman who lives with cystic fibrosis. As a result of her illness, Ruby, has spent a large portion of her life in a hospital- so much of her life, in fact, that she is close with a number of the medical staff and so familiar to them that she is more like one of them than a patient in most of their eyes.
When Ruby-Rose’s surgeon, Dr Gabriel Beaumont, is found dead in bushland on a nearby university campus, she finds herself uniquely positioned to find out what happened. Not only because many of the staff let their guard down around Ruby and tell her things perhaps they shouldn’t, but also because she and Gabe were in a relationship.
Acutely aware that, despite having had a lung transplant, she is on borrowed time anyway, Ruby-Rose uses gossip and observation, as well as the trail left in Gabe’s work emails to begin putting together the puzzle, all the while watching the police chase their tails. The investigation becomes as much a foray into Dr Gabriel Beaumont as it does into catching his killer, as the question morphs from ‘Who could have done such a thing?’ to ‘Which one of the people who wanted to harm Gabe actually went through with the job?’ Ruby-Rose draws on her own memories of Gabe- her friend through school and university before he became her surgeon- and the murky reality of their relationship, both personal and medical.
The restrictions on what Ruby-Rose can and can’t do have made her into a shrewd observer of the people around her, and while people seem to like her, many don’t seem to realise what she’s capable of, with one character even speculating over which one of Dr Beaumont’s patients he was having an affair with to Ruby, as if she couldn’t possibly be in the running. Using a close first person point of view, readers are treated to Ruby’s weary and slightly embittered voice, narrating the events as she sees them. But, there is still some fight in her for sure as she disobeys the advice of her friends and family and even the police in order to live the best version of her life that she can. At times, it is clear that Herbert is giving the reader all of the clues that they need, even when Ruby-Rose does not realise that what she is observing is significant until much later on.
The setting of The Ghost Walk may feel familiar to many West Australian readers, particularly anyone who has spent time on the campus at Murdoch University; although Herbert notes in her author notes that The Ghost Walk itself is made up. Yet the natures cape of it feels very real and very authentic, and it is easy to picture Ruby taking the bus along South Street, going to the pool, getting her coffee, being dropped off at the hospital by her brother-in-law.
Thriller is perhaps not the right word for this novel at all, implying a high octane, high stakes and high danger plot driven book. What readers can expect to find instead is a contemplative but compulsive novel about the things that people keep hidden, even from those who know them best, and about the hopefulness and hopelessness of life inside the four walls of a hospital.
The final revelation of the book felt less explosive than I was hoping for, and yet there is a versimilitude in acknowledging that in many of these sorts of cases in real life, answers are either never found, or turn out to be commonplace. It is the manner of how Ruby-Rose finds the final pieces that is of note, and represents perhaps a tonal departure into something a bit more gothic and literary. I will say no more, for fear of spoilers.
While Herbert’s novels do cover different sub-genres of the mystery and thriller oeuvre, her tightly plotted puzzles remain a constant and once again she has created a story-world which feels supremely real, peopled with characters who seem ready to walk off the page. Fans of Herbert’s first novel The River Mouth will love this latest offering from one of Perth’s best literary crime writers.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Karen Herbert’s The Ghost Walk is out now through Fremantle Press. Grab yourself a copy from your local bookstore HERE
