I love Jane Halifax, the character. And Rebecca Gibney was brilliant in how she brought her to life. Halifax is very smart, strongly independent but also surprisingly vulnerable. In this second novel of the TV series, Simpson turns Jane's world upside down. She's almost killed in a car accident that leaves her in a coma. When she wakes she's unable to remember much at all, including her name and her appearance.

Until she begins to remember a name, Robert Millard. From a case she vigorously defended the accused, Millard, twenty years previously. It's in going back to the case, Jane's memory slowly begins to come back.

She's always relied on her brilliant mind and intuition about people. It's what makes her a great forensic psychologist. But now she can't trust herself as her mind isn't what it used to be. But slowly things begin to make sense and she discovers that maybe she's made some mistakes in her cases and in her personal life.

It's an intriguing story because there are so many fragments to it. There's the Millard case of 20 years ago, the apparent stalker who perhaps was responsible for running her off the road, and her relationship with Tim, the adonis muso.

And then there's Luna. Luna is Robert Millard's younger sister. She's now all grown up but lost in her adult world. She's still traumatised from the double homicide death of her parents twenty years earlier and has a deep love for her brother. But there are secrets here that he, in particular, manifested through the use of poems he wrote for his much younger sister.

Jane can't help herself and wants to help Luna. It's in some way therapeutic for Jane and aids in her recovery.

Simpson writes the story so cleverly. We jump between 2003, the year of the Millard murders, and post-COVID 2023. The way he weaves these various fragments in and out to give us a picture of a very human Jane Halifax, with all her strengths and weaknesses.

I do hope Simpson writes more of them. Yes, I appreciate they're the TV series written as novels but seeing them in this form adds such depth to who is already such a brilliant character, Jane Halifax f.p.

I feel very fortunate to have received an early ebook copy of the novel from the publisher via NetGalley with no expectation of a favourable review.

This is the 2nd Jane Halifax novel in this series and I must say I am enjoying the series and look forward to the next book. Jane Halifax is back doing what she does best. After a car accident, time in a coma and now unable to remember her past she is back but will she remember, will she be able to again do what she does best?

I enjoyed the story of her recovery and how she coped, her getting back to where she was and remembering what had happened to her. This is a story of bringing the past back, to wondering what was missed, what was forgotten and what was happening now. It is a suspense, a thriller in some since and a well written and great story more about Jane herself.

I enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what the author does next with Jane Halifax. A great read, page turning, mind blowing, thrilling and intense.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

‘When something takes your memory away, the void is all you’ve got.’

A near fatal car accident left Jane Halifax in a coma. When she awakens, she has no idea who she is. Jane, who cannot recognise herself in the mirror, also does not recognise the friends who are looking after her once she leaves hospital. The police believe that Jane was deliberately run off the road, but by who and why?

Jane learns that she had been looking into an old case from 2003 (there were legal files in her car). The case involved Robert Millard, a man who confessed to killing his parents, changed his confession saying that his parents were dead when he found their bodies and then took his own life. Jane had been helping Robert’s sister Luna before the accident. Can helping Luna help Jane? In the meantime, Jane has no memory of the past two years, including of her relationship with Tim. Two stories unfold – Jane’s struggle for recovery in the present, and memories of cases she was involved with.

‘That’s the trouble with people who tell tall tales – you never know when they’re on the level.’

This is the second novel Mr Simpson has written about Jane Halifax, forensic psychiatrist. While I didn’t watch the television series Mr Simpson created in the 1990s, Jane Halifax is familiar to me from some of the telemovies I have seen since. I find her an intriguing character and I found her struggles with both injury and amnesia at the beginning of this novel challenging. Slowly Jane’s memory returns. Some connections are jogged by music, but others remain elusive.

Jane’s amnesia is nearly as discombobulating for the reader as it must be for the character, and it took me a while to get into the story. What unfolds is more of a mystery than a thriller, with plenty of twists that held my attention. I am already looking forward to a third instalment (I hope) – once Jane makes a full recovery!

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Back in the 90s Roger Simpson created the popular TV series Halifax f.p. based on Melbourne forensic psychiatrist, Jane Halifax (played by Rebecca Gibney). Now he is writing a series based on that character. In this second of the series, Jane has been involved in a near fatal car crash and wakes from a coma to find she has totally lost her memory.

Poor Jane doesn’t even recognise herself in the mirror, let alone her friends and partner who are caring for her after she is released from hospital. She learns that she was looking into an old case from 2003 when a man called Robert Millard confessed to killing his parents and then changed his statement to say they were already dead when he found them. He later killed himself when found guilty. Before her accident Jane had been helping the man’s younger sister Luna and had just met with the prosecutor to borrow his notes from the trial.

It was fascinating to watch Jane struggle through her fog of amnesia and to see inside her thoughts (her names for her doctors and the friends she doesn’t recognise are very amusing). As she slowly regains her memory starting with the details of Robert’s trial and conviction, she starts to recall popular music and what she was doing when she heard it and events gradually spread beyond that. However, she was unable to recall anything of the last two years following the murder of her husband Ben ,or anything about her accident.

This is more of a mystery than a thriller, but it is nevertheless an engaging page turner. Apart from the question of what really happened with Robert and his parents, the police are still trying to find out who forced her off the road. She also has a stalker, a man charged with coercive control of his partner who she carried out a psychological assessment on (before her accident) that he refuses to accept. I enjoyed the development of Jane’s complex character and look forward to seeing more of her once she is back practising as Halifax f.p.

"I cry for what I can't recall, for the gaps and the blackness, and friends that are strangers, for lovers whose kisses feel like an assault." I nearly put down Resurrection as it had a clunky, awkward voice to the start, but I quickly got invested in the lead protagonist, Dr Jane Halifax. Or is she? The novel begins with her being caught up in a car accident—or maybe a car on-purpose—and losing her memory. She tackles the problem like a true forensic psychiatrist, and dives into a twenty-year old case she does remember, that has haunted her ever since, putting aside the things she can't remember, like her boyfriend, Tim whose "sexual longing is all-pervasive."

"Be wary of the voices in your head. They are invariably your own." The case centres around Robert Millard, a fabulist, "performing for his audience, leading them on outrageously and delighting in every step on the way; he is, more than anything, entertaining himself," until he ends up gaol after the deaths of his parents. This idea is interesting, as it's not mental illness per say, but rather someone who prefers "the truth to be blurred". As the novel progresses you find out why that might be.

What I think Roger Simpson does better than others is integrate the inner workings of a clever protagonist's mind into the action. For example, instead of just telling us how barristers behave, Jane wonders about them scribbling notes as she gives her expert testimony. I also liked the duelling storylines, Jane recovering her memories and solving why she lost only the most recent two years, and the crime itself. I also liked the way the novel was situated in Australia, referencing our own mythologies: "Who can forget 'a dingo's got my baby' and the conviction of Lindy Chamberlain based, in part, on evidence of blood that turned out to be a sound deadening compound."

I think expression needs some work particular in the initial stages, and the end chapter tying up all the mysteries wasn't as well written as the middle of the book. So it just scrapes in at four stars for me, based mostly on liking the characterisation.