The first line of the blurb for THE CAMPERS describes it as "An engrossing and provocative exploration of privilege, hypocrisy and justice... " which is about as perfect a description as you'd ever want. This is discomforting, confusing, and confronting reading, a story that is classified as crime fiction for unusual reasons.

The first crime, and the obvious one, in this novel is the juxtaposition of the have and the have-nots. A safe, seemingly community-orientated enclave in the inner-city, "The Drove" is an idyllic location for those privileged enough to be able to live there. A community with its own messaging group, that shares abundance of produce, social interactions, and a desire to protect the natural beauty that they live within. You'd think it was a community that had nailed coherence and cooperation, until the itinerants set up camp in the park opposite the houses.

The catalyst to the second crime is in some of the wildly varying reactions to the "campers" as they are called by the community members. The resentment, the intrigue, the attraction and the virulent hatred that slowly builds in people who, on the face of it, have everything, to those who have nothing. That's not to say there weren't triggers and noise where there is normally none, and pointless vandalism, but the explosion had been building, as they argued about their reactions to the interlopers

The second overt crime is the rioting of the campers, a loud party leading to damage and wanton destruction (and yes some animal cruelty towards defenceless chickens), at which point the simmering rage community to outsiders, turns partially inwards as well and becomes a mishmash of hatred, power playing, resentment and tension.

At the heart of all of this are Leah, her older husband Moses, their young children Fleur and Harley, and his son Miguel from his first marriage. It's this family that holds the focus throughout this novel - with an externally happy marriage, beset with suspicion, and money problems. Leah's currently a stay at home mother, obsessed, in particular, with her baby son Harley, she was a tricky customer for this reader to deal with. Conflicted by the need to return to work, paralysed by a fear of loss of connection with Harley as he goes into childcare, she's suspicious of Moses having an affair, whilst sleeping once with the "leader" of the itinerant group - an alpha male type called Sholto, who is, manipulative, and quite obviously up to something. Even the other members of the camping group are aware that Sholto is not all that he seems, and his behaviour becomes increasingly threatening and overbearing, as the "Drovers" become increasingly fraught and snippy.

Reading this novel, you'll spend a lot of time in Leah's head, which frankly, is an uncomfortable place to be. Not only younger than her husband, she's one of those impulsive, but then regretful people who float around making bad decisions, judging everybody else, panicking about the implications of people knowing what's she's done with Sholto, and just being, off-putting. While she's dithering about though, the community around her is increasingly falling apart.

THE CAMPERS isn't a traditional crime novel in that the riot and the wanton destruction is the crime. There are arrests made over that, there are repercussions and there's a community, and a marriage and family left teetering on the edge. Maybe the real crime here is the reactions of everyone. The "get rid of them regardless" versus "but they have nothing". The "not our problem" versus "they need help", the uselessness of the authorities, the lack of options, services, preparation for events like the ones that play out here. Given that homelessness, mental health, the working poor, and the lack of services and options for people who find themselves on the fringes - frequently through no fault of their own - is an increasing problem, you have to wonder what it's going to take for everyone to wake up to the ramifications of lack of funding, preparation and empathy.