If you’re going to write a book that presents a small coastal town as closed minded, prejudiced, murderous and potentially home to a cult, it might be an idea not to set it in an actual location. Catch Us The Foxes is set in the distant, far off and mysterious land of … Kiama. This reader could catch a train closest to his workplace in the CBD of Australia’s largest city and arrive in Kiama within two hours. Maybe there’s crime there, but it’s probably not on this scale. Nicola West makes her debut with … potentially actionable slander?

Marlowe “Lo” Robertson is a young journalist cadet desperate to escape Kiama. When her childhood friend and professional, Lily Williams, is murdered at the Show, Marlowe sees it as a chance to make her name — and a chance to realise that Kiama is much more sinister than she ever suspected.

Again, it is impossible to overstate precisely how real a place Kiama is. There’s a reason that Jane Harper sets her novels in fictional townships and that Chris Hammer went completely off the rails when he introduced Martin Scarsden to the streets of Sydney. Even if the body of Catch Us The Foxes is set in 2008, it’s gutsy to condemn a real place as a “xenophobic” (used in place of “homophobic” every time it’s uttered — perhaps because the term can literally translate to “fear of the other/outsider”, but that’s not the modern usage) hotbed of prejudice and cult activity.

So Catch Us the Foxes never feels like it’s set in a real place, like it might have done if it had been set in a fake one. For one thing, West populates Kiama with 20,000 souls, all of whom seem to know each other; Wikipedia pegs Kiama as having 7,700 residents as of 2016, most of whom are presumably as innocent as each other. This is an ARC, but it was provided remarkably close to press time and it’s doubtful that West wrote Kiama as a placeholder that could be glossed over with a find and replace on the manuscript.

Put aside this major quibble and you’re left to deal with the style of the book itself: there’s a framing device here that means that the body of the text is a true crime book, “The Showgirl’s Secret”, but it’s written like a standard thriller rather than anything approaching objectivity or reportage. Lo is part of the story, but the hooky nature of her telling doesn’t work in something that is supposed to be written by a character who has won a Walkley.

There are other exceedingly strange stylistic choices made: every time someone says something homophobic, the slurs are censored half-heartedly: you get “f*ggot” a couple of times and, one of the most bizarre typographies ever committed to the modern page, “q*eer” — which is only contextually a slur, anyway. The homophobia of the characters is never justified, but West also makes her gay character a horrible goblin who is needlessly antagonistic and “mischievous”. To add further poison to this deadly linguistic cocktail, especially given the mental health awareness elements of the book, there’s this paragraph:

But there was a common denominator — the real monster.
[…]
It was her. All of this was her. Or, at least, her mental illness.

It’s possible that this would not survive any pass with an actual style guide, and it certainly seems irresponsible in the context of the stated purpose of “The Showgirl’s Secret”, which is to honour and demystify a dead girl’s legacy. It definitely means that Catch Us The Foxes has the veneer of social consciousness while often playing to several of society’s worst prejudices without making any effort to dispel them.

These are huge problems, and they cast a pall on what would otherwise serve as a mostly okay example of Australian crime. Lo is an effective outsider, and her hostile town would do the job if it was both smaller and less real. The conspiracy that she uncovers is interesting, if vague, and maybe doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. If her offsider wasn’t written wasn’t written as a gold plated bastard, completely ruining the tension of a walk in the mountains, more sins could be forgiven. Catch Us The Foxes exists in the zone of wanting to know what comes next, and being constantly put off by finding out actually follows. The final run recontextualises most of what came before, yet it feels almost like an afterthought rather than a proper revelation.

Catch Us The Foxes comes to us from an alternate Australia, one lacking in verisimilitude on both a geographical and textual level. It’s a nestled narrative that doesn’t quite work in the format presented, although many people will be able to get over that: most importantly, though it’s got the narrative propulsion, it’s more of a curio than a book.

An ARC of Catch Us The Foxes was provided by Simon & Schuster Australia in exchange for review.

If the mark of a good thriller is that it invaded my dreams and raised my blood pressure, this one nails it. It gripped me by the throat from the first couple chapters and didn't let go.

I sped through the pages in two sittings - partly because I was enthralled and partly because I was terrified enough that I knew the only way I'd get relief was by finishing it. I had to admire the writing, the way the author created tension, made my heart pound in my chest and left me second-guessing every thing and every one.

I guess now that I'm finished, I feel impressed but...disturbed too. The subject matter has shaken my centre of gravity a little and left me searching for a decidedly sweeter next read. So, mission accomplished, right?

A powerful psychological thriller and a wonderful debut for a talented new author.

When I saw this was written by an Australian author I proceeded to download the ARC straight away as I like to support Aussie authors. I recommend giving this a go as I thought this was a decent read for a debut author.

I found the main character annoying and often contradictory. In one moment she would express a particular opinion and then in the next she would express the complete reverse. This seemed to be a recurring thing throughout the book.

I found the cult activity touched on in the book interesting and would have liked to read more about this.

Although I didn't predict the ending, I felt that it could have been expanded on a bit more as it felt a bit anticlimactic.

I would be interested to see this author's next work as I felt that this had great potential and with a bit more character development could have seen a extra star in rating.

I read 21% of this book but it just didn't hold my interest. It reads like a young adult book that I found disappointing after reading the blurb. I do like to read Australian books but I hardly think it can be likened to Jane Harper's writing. There is a lot of repetition and extraneous detail that I found irritating. More editing would improve it for me. That said, I feel privileged to have begun Nicola West's novel and wish her every success in the future.

I really enjoyed this crime fiction novel, which follows Marlowe, a journalist who is reluctantly covering the show for her local paper, and comes across the body of her best friend. Marlowe is drawn into the mystery of the murder, and the book is filled with twists and turns, secrets and lies.
This reminded me of both The Dry and Twin Peaks, with a very Australian backdrop and a mystery to keep you turning the pages!
Thoroughly enjoyed this.

An engaging psychological murder mystery/thriller with twists and turns that kept me wondering what was true all the way through. The story is set in Kiama, a coastal town south of Sydney and small town intrigue and issues around growing up in small towns are themes. It begins really well, and I was drawn into the story of Marlowe(Lo) Robertson a young woman working as an intern at the local newspaper. Her friend Lily is the Showgirl at the Kiama show, and Lo finds her body in the stables. Her father is the local policeman and asks her to cover up that there are symbols carved into Lily’s back. What follows is Lo’s search for the answers. There’s Lily’s diaries with mysterious symbols and references to a cult, that dresses in fox hunting outfits and hunts children with fox masks through the rainforest. But is this just her mental illness or delusion speaking? Lo is the narrator and often her doubts and suspicions make the story unsettling, is she suffering PTSD herself?
The setting and ideas are great, there were a lot of creepy moments making this a satisfying read.

I really liked the pacing of the book and found my self making time to read it. As someone who wouldn’t normally pick up a thriller I felt engaged and pulled along by the pace of the story for the first 2/3.

Marlowe was an interesting character who had some traits that were nice to see even though they didn’t necessarily enhance her appeal. I appreciated the creation of the small town insular mystery and following the threads and red herrings on the way.

As I approached the end I was keen to see the resolution and simultaneously concerned as to how the story would resolve letting down the great start made.

Overall I enjoyed the book but felt let down by the ending and the choices made by the author in concluding the book.

At times I felt the book fell into some problematic tropes that ultimately left me feeling disappointed and left me with a 2 star rating instead of the 3 or 4 I thought it would be

I would be interested in reading more of her work to see how she progresses

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an ARC for the purposes of this review.

Thanks, first, to the author and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. Nicola West is a writer to follow - her first book is enthralling and near impossible to put down. Catch Us The Foxes tells of the story of and Australian cult where the community members of a small
Country town aren’t just hunting animals, they’re hunting children! Just when I thought I knew the direction the story was headed, there were twists and turns I never could have expected. This book kept me on my toes right up until the last page. A must read for 2021!

It was well after midnight when I finished Catch Us the Foxes. Living in a rural coastal location somewhat similar to the town of Kiama of which Nicola West’s debut novel is set, I did not dare look out my curtain-less windows for fear of what might be prying at me from the empty paddocks beyond my house. This was a creepy read, and I didn’t realise how much so until everyone in the house had left me in silence and gone to sleep.

The beginning of the novel was a bit slow going for me, and it wasn’t until I was confronted with the disturbing suspicions behind Lily’s death that I thought, actually this could get really interesting, and for the most part it did. I can’t say that there were any moments that really got my heart pounding, which is what I like to feel when I’m reading a suspenseful novel. Much like protagonist and novice journalist, Marlowe, I had a borderline apathetic response to certain aspects of the crime which didn’t seem entirely plausible, or perhaps it is clever writing on West’s part and I was more in-tune with the lead character than what I realised. There is a lot happening in the story with multiple twists and turns to keep you second guessing your own sanity.

This is an entertaining read, where the lead up to the finale brings the majority of the open ends to a close. I have to give mention to the structure which has been cleverly formatted as a book within a book, provoking thought on the validity and credibility of mainstream media sources, and perhaps authors themselves. Given the nature of the characters I think this is a book that will have a strong appeal to YA mystery lovers, there is definitely a lot to like about it. The final twist was artfully executed, and was enough for me to go up a star - well played West, well played.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Australia and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of the book.

This is an engaging debut novel by Australian author Nicola West. Eerie and nicely paced, this small town murder mystery held my attention all the way through. I do love a thriller with intriguing twists and multiple suspects, however I did find this one a little frustrating to follow. The narrative had a tendency to offer a possible answer to the mystery before suddenly throwing it out and then heading off in another direction, making it difficult to keep up.
I liked the writing, the premise and the characters, however the numerous potential solutions weakened the second half of the story for me.

Yay, another Australian crime author I thought. This book started so well, a very interesting plot line with interesting characters. Things were going great, until the end. What a weird ending. I just couldn’t follow it and so many questions were left unanswered with no way for me to ever find out. What a downer, I was so bummed and disappointed.

There is a great and abiding darkness in Catch Us the Foxes by Nicola West which belies its setting in the bucolically sunny climes of the NSW South Coast, specifically the popular tourist town of Kiama, known most famously for the Blowhole which attracts sightseers from around the country, and in pre-COVID times, the world.

The darkness is readily apparent almost immediately with Marlowe “Lo” Robertson and her friends seemingly at edge on what should be a fun outing to the town’s annual show.

What you might think would be a typically riotously fun and escapist jaunt from the banal tones of the everyday instead feels suffocatingly inadequate with Lo clearly not happy that she is still living in the town, and dissatisfied with her relationship with her father, the local police chief, and with her internship at the local paper whose limited reporting outlook the nascent journalist is eager to escape.

But wanting to escape and actually getting away are two completely different things, and when Lo’s childhood bestie, Lily, is found murdered at the show’s stables, it becomes apparent that the protagonist’s inner darkness might in fact have an outer manifestation stalking the town.

Quite that this is best left to the reading of brilliantly thrilling novel which keeps unsettling you just when you think you know where it’s heading and that its outcome will be, proof that West is not inclined to simply tell a quietly unassuming mystery that goes from A to B with only a few mild bumps along the road.

In fact, what you get with Catch Us the Foxes, which takes its title from the Bible book The Song of Solomon 2:15, is a narrative that builds up to one supposedly clearly evident point before whisking the tablecloth out from under your feast of mystery and tension and heading in an entirely different direction before switching back again until you don’t know if you are coming or going.

In the context of a thriller, this is an exceedingly good thing given the propensity of many mysteries to build and build to a certain point and finish there, a resolution pleasingly reached but with minimum fuss or sense of upset.

There is nothing wrong with this Agatha Christie-ish approach and indeed, there are many occasions where clearly-reached and fully-sustained justice is an intoxicatingly reassuring antidote to the chaotic uncertainties of life.

But by constantly upsetting the mystery-solving apple cart, and taking immersively compelling deep dives into the dark places of the human soul, and there are many in evidence here, West gives us in Catch Us the Foxes, a mystery thriller that sustains the tension endlessly and with only minor breaks while still reaching a fantastically unsettling conclusion.

For all its pell-mell hurtling into the blackened reaches of the world around us and the inner depths of people with whom we share it, Catch Us the Foxes isn’t populated by one-dimensional characters simply put there to service the plot.

In fact, there is a pleasing complexity to the likes of Lo, exiled gay artist Jarrah Walton whose relationship with his hometown is complicated to say the least, Lo’s best friend Dan, whose holding tight to a secret of his own, and Lily’s father Michael Williams, the local psychiatrist who it is alleged might be the mastermind behind something diabolical and terrible that lies of the very heart of Kiama’s seemingly innocent town life.

It is the richness of characterisation and the time West takes to build the world of the town and its people that alleges a pleasing amount of substance to the story.

So, while we get our thrills and spills, our ever-building sense of something wicked this way comes, we are able to enjoy it more fully because the people who bring it to life (and, of course, death) are so fully and engagingly realised.

One of the central themes that emerges from the book is the way people react to being in small, easly-known environments.

Some residents, like Michael and Sharon Williams, who have been in the area since white people arrived in the area, are wholly subsumed into and consumed by the town, happy to stay put for the full extent of their lives and never look further afield.

By way of stark, narrative-propelling contrast, however, there are those like Lily, who has just won a cadetship at a major newspaper in Sydney, Jarrah, whose art career has sent him far from the town that treated him so badly, and Lo who will do whatever it takes to get away to somewhere that is not where they grew up.

In the context of a book like Catch Us the Foxes this comes with a tremendous cost.

For Lily, it is her life but for Lo, it is her willingness to sell out her soul to break what could be a career-establishing story, one whose full ghastly extent is suggested by strange symbols on Lily’s back which her father swears she will never mention to anyone.

Quite why that is, and the secrets that their revelation might unleash, forms the darkly alive heart of Catch Us the Foxes which is unrelenting brutal in its depiction of the terrible things people will do to realise their particular version of a good and successful life.

The novel thus spends much of its engrossing time beneath the pretty surface of a tourist town, happily exposing how far people will go to build their lives and to protect the secrets that inevitably sustain them while taking on a nerve-wrackingly vibrant dash from one beguiling set of possibilities to another.

Catch Us the Foxes is a seamlessly good mystery thriller that goes dark and goes there hard and without hesitation, crafting a story that weaves in and out of the seen and the not seen, constantly playing with what we think and what we see, to the point where, when it reaches its captivatingly unsettling end, we are left wondering just what it is lies beneath and whether we even want to raise the reassuring rug of familiarity to see.

The are some great Australian writers and now we have another one... Nicola West. After reading 'Catch Us The Foxes' I am so looking forward to the next book. 'Catch Us The Foxes' is breath taking and full of twists and turns. I am still trying to come to terms with final twist. Well written and wonderful story line. Loved the interactions between the 'players' and their personalities. This is a five star novel and very highly recommended.

The first half of this book had me hooked with an interesting storyline involving a crime in a regional Australian town. There was mystery, interesting characters, a dash of humour and plenty of building suspense.

So I was somewhat thrown in the second half when the solution to the crime kept going back and forth between scenarios. I had serious whiplash.

And then I came to the end of the novel within the novel. (It is not a spoiler to tell you that the main character had written a book which filled the bulk of the pages.) Now I love a book with a twist but this was going too far. I can't say too much more without spoilers.

I liked the writing, the setting, the characters, the premise. But the tricks that were played on the reader made me frustrated and angry enough to drop from 4 out of 5 to 2 out of 5.

I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book has had comparisons with Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, The Dry by Jane Harper and David Lynch's tv series Twin Peaks.
Ummm, no.
No to all of those comparisons. It doesn't deserve to share breath or space with any of those.
To me this book read like a teenage girl writing older than her age, parts of it were passable, parts of it were cringe-worthy and parts of it were just plain bad.
I've given it 2 stars for the fact that I finished it and that it had a beginning, a middle and an end.
Not for me, but hopefully others can connect with this story better than I did.

Twin Peaks meets The Dry is an apt comparison! I’ve never read anything quite like this. I was captivated, chilled and thrilled! It wasn’t what I expected, but I was totally there for it every step of the way. Highly Recommended!

Catch us the Foxes is the first novel by Aussie author Nicola West is a lively mystery/thriller and is certainly worth a read.

This story centres around the small coastal New South Wales town of Kiama located approximately 90km south of Sydney. The main character here is a young journalist called Marlowe “Lo” Robertson, the daughter of the local police officer. Incidentally, the author is also the daughter of a rural copper. Lo discovers the body of her best friend Lily Williams after a dodgy ride on the ghost train at her town’s annual fairground show. Lily’s body has some ‘cultish’ looking images carved into her back. Lo uses her journalistic skills and natural curiosity to find out who is responsible for this horrible crime, sometimes putting herself in peril. I really liked Lo, and felt like I was with her every step of the way.

The author skillfully introduces the reader to several likely suspects. All are gradually introduced in believable aliquots, particularly as the story moves into its latter stages. Of course, the dodgy markings on Lily’s back introduce the possible concept of a local cult being responsible. There is a real dark, moody atmosphere created here – not unlike the well-known 'Wicker Man' tale. It all sounds a bit horrible.

The pacing of this book is very good, it reads quickly due to the gripping narrative. It’s fair to say there isn’t much in the way of detailed descriptions of this beautiful part of the world, as this story is largely dialogue based. That’s okay – it works. I really like the Australian-ness (is that a word?) of the exchanges between the characters, naturally I found that very familiar. Especially the bits involving the wonderful city of Sydney.

I won’t say if there is a massive shock or surprise when one discovers the final reveal, but I will tell you – there are several credible suspects throughout, it certainly kept this reader totally engaged and guessing. Make sure to read the Epilogue!!

I have one small gripe. Ms West referred to a ‘tap’ as a ‘faucet’ – I’m afraid if the latter was said in Australia most people would be left scratching their heads. This was obviously to indulge our American friends.

A really good read, most enjoyable and highly recommended.

4 Stars

Many thanks to Netgalley and publishers Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review

I like Catch Us the Foxes; I think it is a strong horror- thriller story. The ending that I do not expect, yet when it happens it is not surprising, maybe because it's 2am when I reach the end. Marlowe loves drama and explosiveness, so it fits into her character to end her story that way. In the end, this is a book you close with a sigh of satisfaction. A journey that the heroine completes with you by her side the entire time, when it ends you let go with a firm goodbye.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with a copy of this eARC.

This is the kind of book I tend to go for - mysteries, secrets, and one intrepid person digging to the bottom for answers. This book, however, was more than that. It opens with Marlowe “Lo” Robertson getting ready for an interview about her book, and then we get a book within a book. It finishes off with the conclusion of the interview, which I thought was different but in the context of the ending it makes perfect sense.

The content was pretty heavy. The author has a way of painting pictures with her words and I could almost breathe in the claustrophobic small town atmosphere, the type of town where everyone knows everyone else and their business, and your friendships in school are dictated by events that happened between grandparents 50 years ago. The characters aren’t likeable. They are flawed and selfish and gray and unreliable (Lo especially), but it also makes them feel more real.

Without giving too much away, the big town secret is also pretty heavy and tends to be a topic I avoid. However, rather than wanting to throw the book down, I wanted to see what would happen next and what Lo would discover.

But, may I say, that ending was brilliant and I wasn’t expecting it although I really feel like I should’ve!

CW: episodes of harm towards children, homophobic slurs.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Australia for the Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve really been struggling with thrillers this year and unfortunately that continues with this book.

I picked it up due to the comparison to Twin Peaks and whilst Kiama is a small town woven with secrets and the description and imagery of claustrophobia, that’s where I felt the Twin Peaks comparisons ended.

I wish I loved this, small town, solving a crime that happened years ago, friendship steeped in jealousy. All things I love. But this novel just fell flat, I felt like it was trying to hard with so many red herrings.

I’m saying all that, I’ll continue to check out Nicola West’s work