Summer 1979 - A murder in a quiet suburban cul da cac has happened and is the talk of the street. Though that's not the only thing that's interesting, everyone in the cul da cac has secrets that they wanna keep to themselves but will it happen or will or the secrets come out?

I enjoyed the details described within the book and is a crime book to read in 2025, a few characters annoyed me but i truly loved tammy who is a silent kid who loves assignments and over the summer studies ants and doing detective work from information. I felt sorry for Collen, no one understands him but enjoyed the friendship between him and tammy.

it was interesting to read from the start on where the book was gonna go and how it would pan out.

If you enjoy Australian crime, neighbours/desperate housewives then you need to put this on your tbr.

Thank you Hachette for letting me read this earc.

What a clever, well written, engaging debut!

I quickly warmed to Tammy, an awkward, lonely 12 year old, as she relentlessly tried to solve the murder of her neighbour and friend Antonio - mainly to help her “street cred” when she began high school and to gain acceptance by her peers. I loved how her relationship with young Colin developed, with them both providing each other with care and acceptance.

The murder seems pretty well solved at the beginning of the book, but as the plot develops the reason why it took place and in fact who the murderer is, all becomes murky, before all is revealed and then the final twist is thrown.

There is certainly a lot going on in the suburban cul-de-sac of Warrah Place!! Plenty of interesting and flawed residents abound!! My only criticism here is I felt there were too many issues covered for it to be totally believable - racism, misogyny, homophobia, gender fluidity, emotionally absent mother, infidelity, grooming and teenage pregnancy……even for the 70s, that is a lot going on!

I liked the excerpts about ants in each chapter, an interesting addition, relating their behaviour to that of humans.

I definitely enjoyed this debut and really look forward to reading what Kate writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Kemp, and Hachette Australia & New Zealand for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be released on February 11, 2025.

Kate Kemp delivers a powerful debut that explores the vulnerabilities and strengths of her female characters, shaping them into complex, relatable figures whose voices are both silenced and defined by their circumstances.

The Grapevine is a crime/murder mystery centered around 12-year-old Tammy, who becomes determined to solve the murder as a way to redefine herself. Alongside Tammy’s journey, we also get an intimate look at the residents of the Warrah Place cul-de-sac, each with their own secrets and theories surrounding Antonio’s murder.

The title is a perfect fit, drawing from the phrase “I heard it through the grapevine”—a nod to the gossip and speculation running through Warrah Place. There’s always something happening, which keeps the drama engaging.

I really enjoyed Tammy’s character growth, especially as she realised the ripple effects of her words, particularly in her relationship with her mother. Her friendship with Colin was one of my favourite aspects of the book—it gave her a sense of true companionship and stability. The timeline shifts, while sometimes confusing, added depth to the story and kept me engaged.

A multiple POV approach could have helped clarify some of the timeline jumps and character perspectives. Some sections felt a little difficult to follow due to the changing timelines, but overall, they added to the mystery.

Readers should be aware that the book explores themes of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and absent mothers, in addition to the central murder mystery.

Despite some minor flaws, The Grapevine kept me hooked and made me think about how secrets and gossip shape communities. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a murder mystery filled with drama, set in a time when traditional housewives dominated the neighborhood.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

It's the height of summer in Australia, 1979, and on a quiet suburban cul-de-sac a housewife is scrubbing the yellow and white checkered tiles of the bathroom floor. But all is not as it seems. For one thing, it's 3am. For another, she is trying desperately to remove all traces of blood before they stain. Her husband seems remarkably calm, considering he has just murdered their neighbour.

As the sun rises on Warrah Place, news of Antonio Marietti's death spreads like wildfire, gossip is exchanged in whispers and suspicion mounts. Twelve-year-old Tammy, an amateur observational scientist, is not alone in feeling determined to find out what happened. There are secrets behind every closed door in the neighbourhood, and the identity of the murderer is only one of them . . .

Considering those two paras are the blurb for The Grapevine by Kate Kemp you'd be forgiven for thinking you know everything you need to know about the murder. It starts out pretty clear but descends into more and more secrets and intrigue as young Tammy pokes her nose into the lives of her neighbours.

The Grapevine is set in a cul-de-sac in Canberra in one of the older suburbs. I had a clear idea of what this place looked like based on memories of friends' houses that I used to visit. I have a particular suburb in mind!

This was a great mystery read. The minimal violence was all off the page and it was all about learning more about the neighbours and trying to see where the author would take the ending. It was probably a bit more domestic fiction even but that made it an enjoyable easy read. There were perhaps just a few too many characters which made it a bit tricky to keep track of who was who but it was an original storyline with quite the twist that I enjoyed.

Thank you @netgalley and @hachetteaus for my #gifted copy.

This isn’t an easy glimpse into 1979 Australia—misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, absentee mothers, and a murder at its core. Yet, at its heart, The Grapevine is about the women of Warrah Place—their mistakes, their longing to be seen and accepted, and, for some, their journey to finding their voice.

Kate Kemp crafts a compelling debut that explores the vulnerabilities and strengths of these women, creating complex, relatable figures silenced and shaped by their circumstances.

Told through the eyes of 12-year-old Tammy, desperate to solve the murder and redefine herself as she enters high school, this story is gripping, thought-provoking, and quietly stunning.

I *loved* it!

Released 11 February 2025.
Thank you @netgalley and @hachetteaus for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

#TheGrapevine #KateKemp #NetGalley #HachetteAustralia #AustralianStories #HistoricalFiction

There's been a gruesome murder in what seems like a normal Australian suburb. It's summer in 1979, and this Canberra neigbourhood is as much of a character as the people that live there. The neighbours gossip and stories grow. There's a diverse group of residents, all getting in each others business. Who saw what, who did what, and who knows more about the murder than they are saying?

There was a potentially wonderful novel hidden in here, but it seemed a bit lost. I found it hard to keep track of the different characters and what their involvement in the murder mystery was. I kept forgetting who was a kid and who was an adult. It moved quite slowly in the beginning too. I did want to keep reading to find out the solution to the mystery, and I'm glad I did because the last 20% or so of the book was great.

In Kate Kemp’s debut novel, The Grapevine, suburban life in 1979 Australia takes a dark turn with the chilling murder of young Antonio Marietti. The novel opens with a housewife, Naomi, frantically scrubbing blood from the bathroom tiles at 3 a.m., suggesting that her husband Richard is involved in the crime. As the investigation unfolds, it is not only the murder that keeps readers on edge, but the hidden secrets and simmering tensions in the seemingly peaceful neighbourhood of Warrah Place.

The story is told through the eyes of 12-year-old Tammy, an inquisitive girl who, fascinated by the murder, starts piecing together clues in a quest to uncover the truth. As rumours spread and suspicion mounts, the tight-knit community reveals its darker undercurrents, all of which threaten to boil over in the oppressive summer heat.

Kemp’s portrayal of the characters, particularly the women, is masterful. She gives voice to their vulnerabilities and strengths, creating complex, relatable figures who are both silenced and shaped by their circumstances. While The Grapevine is classified as a crime thriller, it’s more a psychological study of community dynamics and the lies that bind people together. The book’s clever twists and sharp social commentary make it an engrossing read. This debut marks Kemp as a promising new voice in fiction.

Wow … Warrah Place in the late 1970’s is a whole lot of nastiness! Nearly everyone on the street is hiding massive secrets, judgemental gossip runs rife, and the neighbours are either having affairs with, or tearing each other apart. Added to this mix is 12yr old Tammy who spends her summer break studying ants and spying on the neighbours, including sticking her nose into everything including the murder. Or, what appears to be murder because at first all that is found is a foot!

The story is set in the late 1970’s and tries to capture that time by jumping back and forth to various times and characters all connected to the street and murder. At times this got a tad confusing and i would love to have read the story with a few less jumps. Even with that though, it was still a fascinating story that captured the time well and bought back a lot of flashbacks to the past!

For me, my favourite parts of the book were the beginning which set the scene in a whole lot of blood and mystery; and the ending which was pure brilliance! Thanks to Netgalley and Hachette Australia and New Zealand for providing an advanced copy in exchange for review. Due out in Australia 11th February 2025.

Oh the nostalgia in this book! This book kind of reminds me of Desperate Housewives but in a street in suburban Australia in the late 70’s. I can almost see the curtains twitching! It begins with a fairly damning scene of a husband and wife getting cleaned up and sorted out after a murder. We find out a young man has been killed, his severed foot has been found and identified. Young Tammy, who also lives on the street, finds it all rather fascinating and decides to start looking into it. The story slowly uncovers all kinds of secrets and mysteries on the street, it unfolded at a pace that kept me hooked and unable to put it down. Loved it!

A slow burner novel, THE GRAPEVINE is the tale of a murder from the perspective of its fallout in a small suburban community in Canberra, in 1979.

It's also a breathtakingly clever takedown of much of what remains flat out stupid - xenophobia, racism, homophobia, misogyny, and the restrictiosn place on women. Done so cleverly in fact, that it may take a while for reader's to get to grips with what's going on in THE GRAPEVINE, which leads the reader oh so gently, persuasively into a false sense of the mundane, the suburban, the predictable.

Helped in that undertaking by the weather. It's a stinking hot summer in 1979, without the benefit of the ubiquitous air-conditioners and backyard pools of the current period, this is the sort of summer that many of us remember from our childhoods. When it's so hot that moving is an effort, clothes stick to damp and sweaty bodies, car seats are an unbearable combination of heat and sticky vinyl, and people get very snarky.

In Warrah Place, the sun rises to the news of the presumed death of Antonio Marietti. He's from the "Italian House" in the street, an outsider, but the neighbourhood is transfixed with the horror and, frankly for some, excitement, of a murderer in their midst, before the adults all take up a divide and conquer model that does not play out well for any of them. Meanwhile twelve-year-old Tammy, amateur observational scientist, switches her attention from tracking ant colonies and their behaviour, to tracking the nearby human equivalent. Getting herself into a lot of hot water along the way, and very nearly dragging young Colin, their neighbour, a sad, lonely little boy, into it all with her.

For fans of traditional crime fiction, where a murder investigation forms the major focus of a story, THE GRAPEVINE will be an unusual undertaking. What this novel is doing is looking at the outward waves from a murder that shake a small community. By creating this focus on the small place, a few houses clustered together, a few mismatched families with their internal divisions and problems, it starts off slightly claustrophobic and uncomfortable viewing for the reader. Add to that the tensions within the community and the outspoken awfulness of the 70's - the overt racism, xenophobia and homophobia, and if nothing else, THE GRAPEVINE should serve as a reminder that this is NOT a way of living that anybody should be aspiring to. The interactions of a small cast here serve to reinforce just how pathetic preconceptions based on mindless bigotry are. In an elegant twist, a pointed choice has been made here in terms of us and them. The us forms from a group of outsiders, the them insiders. Frankly if I had to choose, it would be the outsiders every time - the insiders were just plain awful people - even if there were excuses posited for some.

By using the perspective of a young girl, the observational aspects of this novel are clear-eyed, and cutting. The layers of justification and explanation that adults tend to have put into place for behaving like buffoons haven't formed in this young girl, and her identification of short comings all the more crystal clear, as she searches to find descriptors for them. The resolution to the murder has a kicker of a twist sure, but even then, the fallout from that is the thing. The characters in this novel, alive and dead are vibrant, and the observations cutting, and unflinching.

I haven't read a good thriller in quite a while and this did not dissapoint.

Set in a quiet suburbian street in Canberra, everyone knows everyone and secrets aren't well kept, or so we thought..
This had me hooked from start to finish. I love nothing more than trying to piece together the story while sifting through what is lies and truth. The characters were very well written with some humor thrown in amongst some heavier themes.