PUBLICATION DAY BOOK REVIEW 📚

Aussie author Nicola Wests debut novel Catch us the Foxes is a mystery / whodunit edge of your seat thriller set the small coastal New South Wales town of Kiama.

Ms West joins some of my favorite aussie authors in skillfully weaving the small town oppressive atmosphere into the narrative which really brings alive (the somewhat stereotypical) characters and their mentalities.

The book is told from a “book within a book” perspective (which I loved and thought worked really well) with Marlowe “Lo” Robertson as our main POV. I’ve seen mixed reviews on Lo’s characters but I have to say I was with her every step of the way in all her internal monologuing, judgmental , unstable narrative and there are plenty of rich and diverse “suspects” as we follow Lo’s journey to uncover who really killed her beauty queen best friend Lily. In a town where everyone has something to hide Lo sets about to uncover the real truth – even if it involves her closest friends and family!

The book is fast paced and it really gripped me from the start, the hint of cults and police cover ups kept it thrilling and scary and the showgrounds and description of various parts of Kiama were excellent and added to the atmospheric gothic nature of the book. The epilogue for me brings all the characters together and I was wholly satisfied with the ending, this book is a huge hit for me.

TW: mental health issues, suicide, murder, cults, homophobia, hate crime, sexual assault and gaslighting

I was so grateful to receive an ADR on the book in exchange for an honest review.
While reading the book I have followed the authors count down to publication on #bookstagram where she has been posting photos of Kiama with places and locations that feature in the book. I highly recommend you a) buy the book and b) follow Nicola on Instagram to bring the book to life and see the photos that clearly inspired her as an author for yourself!

I found it difficult to decide how I felt about “Catch Us the Foxes”. Throughout my reading I cycled through like, dislike, like again, and so on. In the end I wound up closer to dislike, but only because the central premise was so unbelievable. This is a strong psychological thriller that’s hard to put down.

In small town Kiama, Lo is on her way to watch the fireworks at the local show when she finds the body of her best friend – and strongest rival – Lily. Lo is interning at the local paper, and her journalist’s curiousity won’t let her accept at face value the explanations that are being offered.

Then Jarrah, who was more or less run out of town because of his homosexuality, returns to tell Lo about his recent interactions with Lily. Lo begins to suspect a wide spread conspiracy, but doesn’t know who’s involved, who is covering up, or who to trust. She’s beginning to feel she might be in danger. And yet, she simply can’t let it lie – she needs to keep investigating.

This opens in very much the style of a crime novel, and for a while this works very effectively. It became less effective as the investigation proceeded, and I began to doubt that it would be possible to have an investigation that slip shod (or that riddled with cover-ups) without someone noticing. Just as I was developing a dislike of the novel, though, it seemed to flip to a psychological thriller. As Lo spins between belief and doubt and suspicion, I found myself drawn in and strongly enjoying the novel again. And then I remembered that the bulk of the novel is a book “written” by Lo, and that it’s possible she is an unreliable narrator, and there was a whole new layer of intrigue.

For me, in the end, I simply couldn’t believe that the kind of conspiracy depicted could really stay effectively hidden. It simply involves too many people, too many things that happen in plain sight, and has been going on for too long. Although it is a well written and engrossing novel, it isn’t particularly convincing as soon as you think about it.

Lo is a strong character, and with her distaste of the small town she lives in, one that many people will empathise with. This dislike didn’t quite make sense, though; at 22, and with an university degree earned in Sydney, it isn’t initially clear why she returns to a place she despises. When it does become clear, you instead wonder why she rails so violently against the town.

Another puzzle for me was Lo’s relationship with her father. I didn’t feel that their hostile and conflict laden relationship was ever fully explained, and as a result, found it curiously jarring.

Other characters are less fully developed, but I feel this is probably deliberate: not fully understanding their motives, knowing them, or trusting their behaviour, contributes to Lo’s increasing uncertainty about whom to trust.

The novel is excellent at creating doubt and swinging the reader back and forth between beliefs, creating a sense of paranoia and confusion. This is an atmospheric novel, extremely good at conveying a rising sense of panic and bewilderment. It’s also great at conveying a sense of place; Kiama is a believable small town.

The bottom line here is that I really enjoyed reading “Catch Us The Foxes”, but felt that it didn’t successfully carry off its’ ending. I simply didn’t find it credible that something like this could happen. I think if you find it credible, you’ll feel this is a strong psychological thriller. If, like me, you need more convincing, you’ll probably feel that this just didn’t quite make the grade.

If you enjoyed this review, please visit www.otherdreamsotherlives.home.blog to read more.

Catch Us the Foxes is a dark, enthralling thriller from debut Australian novelist, Nicola West.

The novel opens with a prologue where Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson, is being introduced to an audience at the Sydney Opera House. She is to speak about her best selling true crime book, ‘The Showgirl’s Secret’, an account of the tragic death of a young woman, Lily Williams, seven years previously.

Marlowe was a 22 year old intern at the local paper when she found Lily’s body in the stables of the town showground. When her father, the town police chief, asked Lo to lie about some of the details of the crime, including the symbols carved into the young woman’s flesh, she reluctantly agreed, but then she is given Lily’s journals which suggest Lo’s father, and other prominent citizens, may have a reason to have wanted Lily dead.

West presents a compelling, intricate mystery where the truth is shockingly elusive to the very last page. Lily’s diaries suggest a frightening cult is operating in their small coastal town, and while the allegations seem absurd, Lo is prompted to dig further when a carnival worker is arrested for Lily’s murder on threadbare evidence. If what Lily has written is true, there are plenty of possible suspects among the townsfolk, and West cleverly portrays them with an interesting ambiguity. Suspense builds as trust is eroded, and Lo attempts to ascertain the truth.

Lo presents as smart, resourceful and ambitious but there is an edge to her character that is disquieting. Doubt is thrown on the validity of her investigation when other characters suggest Lo is suffering from PTSD, and the possibility is a nag as she continues to piece information together, so that her reliability as a narrator is in question. It’s a clever conceit that West manages well.

The plot makes good use of the setting, small towns seem capable of hiding secrets behind their bucolic facades. I’ve been to Kiama (on NSW’s south coast) where Catch Us the Foxes takes place, and it’s a pretty coastal town, not so different from the one I live in now, but West successfully paints it as a claustrophobic, corrupt community.

With its clever structure and twisting, gripping plot, Catch Us the Foxes is an impressive read. The stunning final reveal seems to divide readers, but I thought it was terrific.

My rating:

Plot: 4 out of 5 stars
Writing: 4 out of 5 stars
Character development: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars

Recommended for readers of:

Historical Fiction
General Fiction

Review:

This is interesting story that has a dark and hunted feel to it. Not appears quite as it seems. The plot is suspenseful with a few twists and turns that keeps you captivated and guessing till the end as to who has done it. The writing is very atmospheric and the uniquely small town Australian feel with its quirky and unique characters is described well although in a very dark way.

Overall:

A unique story full of twists and turns, suspenseful a little bit dark at times that keeps you guessing until the end. The book is well written and flows well. The characters are interesting and described with enough detail so that they appear realistic. This book is highly recommended if you enjoy suspense and murder mystery books.

Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

I’m really and truly thrown by the authorial decision here to set a gothic thriller featuring a child-hunting group of cultists in a real-life small town. It’s one thing to base a fictional town on a real one, or to set a story in a major city, but to basically demonise the entire town of Kiama as full of homophobes and cultists is, well. It’s not a decision I’d have made.

And to make the main character asexual and also imply that this means they lack empathy [spoiler] and make them into a sociopath complicit in awful crimes and cover-ups [/end spoiler] is just another incomprehensible decision.

There is actually a really remarkable message here about the stigmatization of mental illness, and the fact that people would rather believe in outlandish conspiracy theories rather than tragic truths about human frailties, and it’s completely ruined by the ‘twist’ in the last couple of pages. A twist that, in my opinion, actually totally messed up the book and destroyed a lot of the excellent work that had been done up to that point. Without that entirely unnecessary twist, I would probably have given this book four stars - it was always losing one because of the bizarre decision to use a real small town as the location - but with it? Two stars, for equating asexuality and sociopathy and validating the outlandish conspiracy theories. The only reason it’s not getting one star is that the writing is genuinely excellent and I was truly engaged in the story right up until that last page.

Twisty, well-written little Aussie murder mystery. However, I found the plot twists too convenient and untethered to the narrative at times. At the third plot twist back on itself I felt overly manipulated and lost interest.

Catch Us The Foxes is the debut novel for Nicola West. Hailing from the coastal town of Kiama it was a gutsy move for Nicola to set the novel in her home town, but I think the risk has paid off. It is all kinds of creepy and has a darkness that gave me chills. There were plenty of characters for you to hate which is always the making of a terrific psychological thriller and ones you will grow to love as well.
Catch us The Foxes focuses on the murder of a local beauty queen, who was discovered by her friend Marlowe (Lo). Lo is desperate to find answers and will stop at nothing on her quest to find her friends killer. Is there a crazy coastal cult leading children into the rain-forests of Kiama? is the protagonist Marlowe a reliable narrator? Are her friends who they say they are? There are so many stories interwoven to keep you guessing and ultimately turning the pages. I must also mention the cover it is glorious, such a credit to the designer.
A brilliant debut novel that will have to reading long into the night to reach the explosive conclusion. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this early reading copy, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

First off, I will say that I liked the premise of this book, but once finishing the book I didn't have the same feelings that I did going in.

The book was set in Kiama (NSW), and as someone who has actually been to that coastal city, it was hard to imagine the whole plot (i.e. a major crime, corrupt police force) going down in a town where nothing of that scale ever happens. I've seen a few other reviewers say this, and I agree that it would have probably been better to set this in a small town with a made up name, but could have the same features as Kiama. Kiama's locals in the novel were very heavily portrayed as xenophobic and very small-minded, which again, which made it hard to separate the Kiama I personally know, from that of the novel as i have never come across it on that scale in the small town.

I did find that the novel was paced really well, and constant tension was built which is what kept me reading. But often at times if felt like there were too many twists, or tension-building scenes which became distracting and confusing at times. I also felt that main character Lo (Marlowe “Lo” Robertson) was alright, but at no point did I really come to like her.

Overall, I somewhat enjoyed it, but it's not necessarily a book that I would read again.

Catch Us The Foxes is the chilling and mind-boggling debut book of Nicola West. It follows the journey of Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson as she tries to unravel the truth about her best friend’s murder. This book has some content that some readers might find triggering for example mental health issues and homophobia so please be aware of that before jumping in.


This book was not what I was expecting and I think that’s what I really liked about it. I enjoyed the fact that this was a story that existed inside another story because in my opinion it made it more intriguing and mysterious. We only have Lo’s perspective which you have to be very weary of because she plays a very convincing part that will have you wondering if you can trust her or not. I did enjoy the other characters because they think they each brought something unique to the story even though the majority of them creeped me out.

There were so many twists revealed throughout this story to the point that the twists where twisted and then they got twisted again. I never saw the book ending the way that it did and it left me wondering what would happen next.

An ominous thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.

Thanks to @netgalley and @simonschusterau for providing me with an ARC copy of this book for review.

Catch Us The Foxes begins at the Sydney Opera House during an event to discuss the crime novel that rocketed Marlowe (Lo) into stardom. We then go back to learn about the case that launched her success via the very book she wrote.

This is where you get a book within a book.

In a real-life, small Australian coastal town, The Showgirl’s Secret has a gothic vibe that is engaging from the start. Lo is a young journalist at the local newspaper, assigned to photograph the agricultural show when she discovers the body of the best female friend she ever had.

Her father is the chief of police but asks her to omit certain details from her official statement that of course, launches Lo into her own full investigation, driving her to find out who killed Miss Showgirl 2008, and causes her to spiral into a paranoid, desperation that will propel her to uncover the truth and reveal her dark desire to advance her career no matter the cost.

True to the thriller genre, this book delivers some great writing and wonderfully dark and spine-tingling moments, particularly when Lo is delving into finding out all she can about the town’s secret cult while trying to decipher who to trust.

With an ending that will hit you like whiplash, you will feel satisfied but dizzy. The whole last act is crazy!

Featuring some disturbing and dark topics, Catch Us The Foxes is full of murky characters and a bone-chilling plot that will catch you off guard even if you are certain you can outrun a fox.

Catch Us The Foxes by @nicolawestbooks is out today!

Happy Publication Day!
Kelly 🧡

Kiama is an actual small Australian town, one hundred and twenty kilometres south of Sydney, in the Illawarra region. It’s the setting for this new captivating Aussie noir, that begins on a showground ride and leads to the discovery of a young woman’s body. This is journalist Nicola West’s first book; she is the daughter of a third-generation police officer. Both influences are featured in Catch Us the Foxes. Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson is the local police inspector’s daughter who is told not to tell anyone about the strange carved symbols on the mutilated body of her former best friend. Soon the national media take notice and a suspect is identified, setting off a series of unfortunate events. The small-town rallies together to protect its reputation and keep hidden a scandalous deadly secret. This brilliant debut crime novel heralds a new voice in the luminary of Aussie crime fiction. A thoroughly engrossing read, with a double twist ending, and a not-to-be missed five-star rating. With special thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia and the author for an uncorrected proof copy for review purposes. Interesting fact: The Blowhole is a real tourist attraction.

A number of reviewers have already commented on this but I want say my bit too. I really believe that if you are going to write a story about a small town gone bad with a corrupt police force and evil happenings going on (and there's nothing wrong with that) then you should make up the name of the town. Ascribing all this to poor Kiama, which is really a very nice place, spoiled the whole book for me. One whole star dropped for that.

The book itself was fine. The mystery was so convoluted it was impossible to know what was really real at any one time. This was aided by having the most unreliable narrator who turned out to be a really unlikeable character too. I spent most of the book second guessing myself as each red herring was revealed, just as one should in a good mystery. There is an unexpected twist at the end.

Overall an okay read but not one I will rush out to recommend to everyone.

Confused and conflicted.

Yes, I finished the book. Partly because I really wanted to see the end, the closure, the finale. However, it sourly disappointed.

Marlowe Robertson is young inspiring journalist and the protagonist of the story. She writes a book about her experiences, gets fame, fortune and awards and... tells the story how and why she's written the book...

The story set in small NSW town Kiama. I had to look up and find out that this is actual town in NSW. Thus, even more disappointment. If you want to set a thriller in a small suffocating, spooky place make it up...

Anyhow, the story started off very well: the murder of the showgirl on the showgrounds. Is it premeditated? Is it revenge? Is it to shut her up? Marlowe gets to find the girl, gets to tell her story.

Yes, Catch Us the Foxes was very twisted. But it turned out to be too twisted onto itself to make any sense. A bunch of stereotypical characters did not help. All the characters in the story were recognizable reference from many more stories that came before.

I was waiting for all the twists to unravel but what I got in the end was a change equal to waking up from a anesthesia. If story led nowhere, the ending branched even further into twilight zone.

Very strange story and very strange read

Catch Us The Foxes centres on aspiring journalist Marlowe "Lo" Robertson. Dreaming of being a journalist, Marlowe is stuck in the suffocating surrounds of her small Australian town, living with her cop dad in a house attached to the town's police station. All of this changes when she finds the body of her best friend, Lily, murdered and mutilated at a town festival. As Lily's death captures national media attention, Lo decides to investigate the murder herself.

I was really pleased to be given the chance to read this book through Netgalley. It is so refreshing to read a book set in a small Australian town where the hero isn't a taciturn detective or a young man coming of age. Lo's small-town claustrophobia is well presented and her ambivalence towards Lily, who was both her best friend and her biggest competitor, is a good representation of the tensions of teenage friendships shifting towards adulthood.

It is hard to write this review without spoilers because at a certain point, this book takes a dramatic turn as Lo uncovers the hidden underbelly of town. I think how much a reader will enjoy will this book depends on whether they are prepared to suspend their disbelief and go along for the (very wild) ride. I read this during lockdown and I was completely up for it! But, there were definitely a few plots points that I deliberately did not think too deeply about.

This is a good debut and I am interested to see what this author does next.

It’s been a number of days since I finished this book and I still can’t process it completely. I don’t know if it’s the fact that it was based in a small Australian town quite like the one i grew up in or the fact that there is a likely chance that the events in this book could happen. Catch us the Foxes was not at all what I expected in he best most possible way. A psychological thriller at its finest. And that ending 🤯 I definitely did not see that comming. I can’t say much without giving it away but if you love small town thrillers with plenty of twists and turns, Catch Us The Foxes is for you!

I don't often get NetGalley's pre-approval emails and when I do, I don't usually find those books that interesting and so was my first thought about this novel. I'm very much a cover girl so I have to say that cover really didn't interest me and I can't really remember why I decided to take up this offer anyway. In any case, good job, past me, because I would've really missed out! I thoroughly enjoyed Catch Us The Foxes.

The novel opens with a prologue where protagonist, Marlowe 'Lo' Robertson, is about to speak about a book she wrote. A book about what happened in the past. A book that we all gets to read because this is the main meat of Catch Us The Foxes. It is a book within a book. The Showgirl's Secret is the title of Lo's book where she told the story of her friend's suspicious death and the ordeal she went through as she determinedly tried her best to discover the truth.

But what is the truth? Does she even truly know her friend? or her town? What secrets are such small sunny beach tourist town like Kiama could keep in their hearts? A town where she has lived her whole life. Lo must uncover layers of lies and decide who she can trust.

Within the first few minutes, I knew that this was a novel I would really liked. I found Lo easily likeable even if her character sounds a little unstable at times but then again, that is the way Lo portrayed herself in her book so, without too much spoiler, you do have to wonder what her character truly is like.

The setting, Kiama, being only a couple of hours' drive away, really made me want to just nip down there for a day but... lockdown :( However, if you visit author's insta, you can see some of the views there. I have been previously so it was a tad difficult to imagine such a dark foreboding secret at such a beautiful spot.

Catch Us The Foxes is a thrilling suspense where tension is taut from the very beginning right to the very last word. It was creepy. It was tense. It was one hell of a ride. I was caught by twist upon twist right up to the end of the epilogue where only the readers, us, know what is 'true'. I'd highly recommend this to all thriller fans.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia for ecopy of book via NetGalley in exchange of my honest thoughts

Catch Us the Foxes is a contemporary Australian murder mystery set in a small town called Kiama in coastal New South Wales, by a debut author. This happens to be my 300th review for NetGalley - I was invited to read it by the publisher, and was intrigued by the tag line: “The Dry meets Twin Peaks meets a feral Nancy Drew” and was flattered to be pre-approved, so didn’t read any reviews before downloading it, else I might’ve hesitated. I’m therefore sorry to report that I didn’t enjoy it, and found several areas to be highly problematic.

Marlowe “Lo” Robertson is a young photo-journalist who longs to escape the suffocation of small-town life as the daughter of the chief police officer. When her childhood best friend Lily is found murdered at the Annual Show, and Lo sees arcane symbols carved onto her back, which her father insists she stay silent about, she thinks writing about the death will be her ticket out, but her editor promptly sacks her. Then an old friend returns with Lily’s journals, describing the town’s horrific secrets, and Lo realises only she can expose the truth - but who can she trust?

The blurb for this describes it as “deliciously dark and twisted” which unfortunately I am really not in the mood for lately, but I am doing my best to meet publication deadlines so didn’t want to postpone reading it. It could be that I would’ve enjoyed this more at another time, but the contrived “book within a book” set-up, homophobia, victim-blaming and stigmatisation of mental illness would’ve turned me off anyway. This has taken me six days to finish, which is unusual for me - I wanted to know what was going on, so knew I would finish it, but found myself very easily distracted. The main character is deeply unpleasant and it is just not credible that her first-person-narrated True Crime book would’ve made her famous and won her the Young Australian of the Year award. I’m loathe to say much more for fear of spoilers, but really didn’t like the ending.

The writing is not bad, and there are plenty of twists and shock reveals, so if the summary appeals, and you’re not bothered by the issues raised in my and other reviews, by all means give it a go, but I can only rate this 2.5 rounded down. I also really don’t like the cover image - this doesn’t influence my rating but I would never pick this up in a book shop!
I received a free ARC and am posting this review voluntarily. Catch Us the Foxes is published on July 7th.

Nicole West’s debut novel Catch Us The Foxes is an extraordinary story. Drama and mystery combined to create a thriller that was compelling reading.

Located in a coastal town called Kiama in southern New South Wales, Australia, we find Marlowe (Lo) Robertson, a young journalist, who would love nothing better than to escape her home town. Unexpectedly she becomes more widely known when she discovers the murdered body of her best friend Lily Williams. Her suspicions about Lily’s death are multiplied when her father, the town’s local police inspector, asks her not to disclose a series of marks on Lily’s back and an old friend Jarrah Watson, turns up mysteriously to give her Lily’s diaries and a message that Lily trusted her to follow up if anything happened to her.

Lo is indeed ‘tenacious’ and pursues every possible angle that has lots of twists and turns. Fast paced and at times breath taking, the story becomes quite entangled. Is there a cult in the town? Who is involved? Who really killed Lily? So many unanswered questions.

The ending was so unexpected that I had to go back and reread it. At one stage I felt that the author had blatantly withheld vital information; but on reflection, the flaws, of course lay with the characters who were not always honest with themselves and certainly not with each other!

A complex story with complex characters!

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for a copy to read and review.

3.5★s
Catch Us The Foxes is the first novel by Australian author, Nicola West. When intern journalist Marlowe Robertson stumbles on the body of the 2008 Kiama Showgirl, she’s understandably shocked. But it’s the mutilations on Lo’s best friend’s back that truly shake her up. There are strange symbols cut into Lily Williams’s back. Even stranger, when she alerts her father, Kiama’s Police Chief, he makes her promise not to reveal this detail.

Lo begins to wonder if the murder is related to the incident in the ghost train ride from which Lily fled in terror shortly before her death. Lily’s favourite crystal seller indicates she had fears for her own safety and that there would be a truth for Lo to uncover.

Lily’s secret diaries, when Lo gains access to them, are disturbing, revealing the existence of a local cult involving the town’s movers and shakers, something awful that Lo is reluctant to believe. They also reinforce a recent warning that no-one in Kiama can be trusted.

The police immediately target a carny from the Show, an outsider, as the murder suspect, but Lo learns that they have withheld certain evidence apart from the mutilations, and isn’t convinced by their case. Does her investigation make her a target for a murderer?

In the days following the murder, Lo is told she is suffering from PTSD, and certainly her paranoia will lead the reader to question her reliability as a narrator. Apart from the prologue and epilogue, set seven years later, the story plays out over just the five days following the murder, but manages to include a lynch mob, a fire, a mountain hike, a funeral and a suicide.

West’s portrayal of Kiama as a town plagued by small-minded provincial xenophobes/homophobes might not meet the approval of current locals, but she does capture the setting fairly well. The plot is imaginative, with several twists and red herrings to keep the reader interested, but West’s page-turner gimmick of cliff-hanger chapter last lines does become a tiny bit irritating. Despite some plot holes and a not-quite-convincing ending, this is an impressive debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia.

When invited by the publisher to read an advance copy of this debut thriller, my instinct was to decline. But I got caught up in the hype, and that's why I find myself under the obligation to finish, rate and review this book when it would have been much kinder to simply slip it quietly onto my DNF shelf. Put simply, I prefer my thrillers to be more realistic and mature.