What a great read! I devoured this book, set in suburban Australia in the days leading up to 1990. It kept me engaged and on the edge of the seat as I tried to work out “who done it”. Exciting and engaging without being gory or violent the build up of characters is done well. Definitely recommend if you want to pick up a good read and take in a good story that will keep you guessing until the end.

Thanks to Net Galley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I was so happy for Netgalley to allow me to read Christian White's new book. If you are a fan of the authors earlier books "The Nowhere Child and "The Wife and the Widow", it won't take you long to sink your teeth into this one!


Wild Place is set in a typical Australian suburb called Camp Hill in 1989 *cue walkmans and VCRs* Life is peaceful until a teenage girl goes missing, assumed to have run away, with neighbours believing a local teenage boy is to blame. The local teacher starts seeing clues and investigates her disappearance with hopes of finding out what has happened to her. As the cover says "Why do good people do bad things?"


I did not want to put this book down. Christian's ability to weave the characters and their connections to the missing teenager in each chapter, made me want to keep reading this gripping psychological thriller! Loved it!

Well, I didn't see that coming. Which is of course a good thing for a suspense thriller. But I'm still wondering how to answer the question of why do good people do bad things. I think I'm a good person. Could I do that? Would I? As the layers and ordinariness of Connie and Tom's life in the suburbs are peeled back we start to understand them, and we sympathize with them as things are unravelling almost beyond their control. We almost absorb the justification. They don't mean to be bad, and we don't want bad things to happen to them. They're a nice family. At the back of my mind, as the last page appeared, there were more questions swirling. The type of questions which don't have answers. Setting, characters, action - all engaging and totally believable. Thank you NetGalley for the read.

An entertaining mystery of a missing girl in 1989 Australian suburbia. The plot twists kept me engaged all the way and the novel captures the tone and characters of suburban life.

I was having a conversation with a bookish friend about Christian White recently, and so when Wild Place popped up on @netgalley, I couldn’t resist requesting a copy! I’m delighted to say, I think it’s his best yet.👏🏻

Wild Place is deliciously set in suburban 1980s and I loved the cultural references and throwbacks (Walkman’s and VCRs anyone?!). The plot centres around a missing teenager near a neighbourhood bushland and the mystery of her disappearance unravels with satisfying pace, great tension and a fantastic cast of minor characters, not too mention a few twists and turns.
Ironically, given that the community centres around the local Christian school, there are some themes around satanic symbols and rituals, and it’s worth mentioning for those who (like me) are pretty sensitive to dark spirituality, that although it was definitely creepy, I didn’t feel triggered (no spoilers though!).

Wild Place is a brilliant example of the Aussie thriller: riveting, twisty, unputdownable but also authentic and self-effacing. If you love this genre, but it on your TBR ASAP! 😁
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Available 26th October. Thanks to @netgalley and @affirmpress for the opportunity to read an advanced review copy.

Every now and then a book comes along that makes you drop everything you had planned to read. When I got approved for an arc of Wild Place, I knew my current reading lineup was going to change. I love everything Christian White has written so I had high hopes for this book.

And.....OMG guys....you really have to read this one! I stayed up until 1:30pm last night finishing it off (I'm paying for it today) and then couldn't fall asleep straight after as I kept thinking about it. I won't give too much about the book away. Just know that there are plenty of twists and an unbelievable ending.

After a teenager goes missing on his street, school teacher Tom takes it into his own hands to assist in the investigation. With rumours of satanic rituals floating around, Tom finds that he doesn't actually know his neighbours as well as he thought he did.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In the Summer of 1989, local teen, Tracie Reed, goes missing from the idyllic suburb of Camp Hill in Australia. As rumours of Satanic rituals swirl, school teacher Tom Witter becomes convinced he holds the key to the disappearance. When police won’t listen, he takes matters into his own hands.

I fell in love with Christian White’s work when I read ‘The Nowhere Child’. The love affair continued with ‘The Wife and the Widow’ - and then I found ‘Clickbait’ so I was absolutely over the moon when I received an ARC of ‘Wild Places’. It did not disappoint. I devoured this book in a day. There were SO many things I loved about this thriller, which I have summaried into a few points.

Loved:
- The Satanic rituals trope
- The dark, gritty underground of Aussie suburbia
- This story just flowed
- The TWIST at the end - as someone who devours crime and thrillers I pride myself on my ability to pick the twist. On this occasion I did not.

Loved less:
- I wanted more of this story
- Some of the main characters I would have liked a liiiittle bit more development around
- The continuation of the Satanic rituals trope until later in the story. Really up the creep factor.

Needless to say this is a 5 star read for me. If you love crime and thrillers, do yourself a favour and pick this one up on release.

As always a massive thank you to NetGalley and the publisher #affirmpress for providing me with a copy of this ARC. An absolute privilege I am always grateful for.

Review posted on Goodreads, Amazon and Instagram.

Christian White’s books always have a twist that you just don’t see coming, and this one is no different. A fast-paced and compulsive read that had me furiously flicking pages, curious to see where it would end. A great bit of escapism for a lazy weekend! Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Again I find I loved this authors writing style, and found myself invested in the story from the beginning.
This story took a real twist away from where I thought it was going at the halfway mark and then continued to keep me rethinking everything until the end.
The reader follows a range of characters that were all well written and had you constantly thinking about their lives and wondering if they will be ok.
A fascinating mystery that will keep the reader captivated throughout the whole book.
4 1/2 ⭐

Thank you to Affirm Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this and give my honest views and opinions about it.

This book was a solid, interesting, suburban thriller/drama. I enjoyed the character development and the inclusion of a “satanic panic” storyline. The author has done well to illustrate the settings and make the reader feel like they are in a 80’s Australian family. The story really delves into ideas around loyalty and family bonds, as well as demonstrating the power of group think and othering of people.
My only criticism is that some of the “answers” to mysteries come out of no where, without any real clues for the reader to pick up on and be given opportunity to solve. Otherwise though I enjoyed the read. Wife and the Widow is still my preferred book from this author.
Unfortunately the ARC on my kindle was poorly formatted and made the reading experience a bit jarring. 3.75.

This reads like a twisty Harlan Coben-esque TV series. It's centered on a small community in Victoria in the closing weeks of 1989. A teenage girl has gone missing and while it's initially assumed that she's run away, the neighbours begin to suspect that a local boy might have been involved.

I pelted through this in a single afternoon, completely engrossed and wanting to know what was going to happen. As with The Wife and the Widow, White is brilliant at misdirection. There are a number of pleasing reveals along the way and then suddenly - bam! - a couple of whopper "I did not see THAT coming" twists. While ultimately I am not sure that there's much here that's memorable, it was a gripping read that I did not want to put down.

A fast paced crime thriller set in the suburbs of Melbourne during the Satanic Panic of the 80’s.

A really strong sense of time is captured in this book which makes you feel like you’ve been transported back to a time where kids just went out with friends and neighbourhood watches were a thing.

White is brilliant at executing the writing equivalent of a rope a dope in this story. He makes you think and feel one thing then takes a massive swing that almost knocks you out of the fight. I enjoyed the twisty ride that was laid out for me in this book.

I loved this was based in late 80s and set in Melbourne Australia with reference to suburbs I am familar with. I loved the characters and really didn't see the plot twist at all.

There was everything in this novel that is probably happening in everyone's neighbourhood so very relatable.

If you are looking for a great plot twist and storyline this is for you.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I'm so conflicted about this review! I'm a huge fan of Christian White and I have truly enjoyed his previous books however something felt different with this one. Don't get me wrong, it is a page-turner and I couldn't put it down until reaching the last page.. however it didn't have the Christian-White-factor! I guess it is very hard to execute a twist as brilliant as the one in "The Wife and The Widow"... so the twist in this one wasn't as shocking as that one.

It is an entertaining book and if you want a quick read, then this is the one for you.

Thank you to Affirm Press and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

“When you tip over the first domino,” she said. “You can’t always control how the rest fall.”

Wild Place - Christian White

After reading The Nowhere Child and absolutely loving it I was so excited to see Wild Place on Netgalley! I was lucky enough to be approved so I could read and review it!

I received an e-arc and my review is honest.

Wild Place is set in an idyllic Australian suburb called Camp Hill in the summer of 1989. Only it’s not as idyllic as it appears. When a teenage girl goes missing and her English teacher Tom Witter takes the investigation into his own hands the secrets of suburbia begin to unravel…

White is an excellent storyteller and Wild Place is no exception! The writing is brilliant and the twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat and I’m not kidding when I say my jaw literally fell open at one point!

The action slowly builds but with enough punch from the get go to keep you engaged. This story will make you think twice about the unassuming neighbour and reconsider living in a house that backs onto a nature reserve 😉

I really enjoy Christian White’s writing, I laid down on my couch and read this in one sitting (there were awkward moments as I tried to make and eat lunch at some point in all the drama….) but I made it through!

Christian White once again proves that he is an excellent author with this brilliant novel. A story of families, friends and neighbours that builds and builds until it explodes into the surprise ending. A well layered novel that touches on apprehension, guilt, fear, infidelity and violence. The family unit feeds of each other with suspicion and distrust but love overpowers their all consuming problems until a thought provoking and electric final chapter . Highly recommended novel to all readers. A well deserved five star read.

Wow!! 5 ⭐️ the twists were amazing and unexpected. Will be thinking about this for awhile. The characters were so well written especially Debbie and Sean.
Heartbreaking.
I devoured this in 24 hours, Christian White is the master of twists I thought The wife and the widow was fantastic this is even better!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ripper I am off to recommend to everyone who will listen..

Christian White, author of The Nowhere Child, The Wife and the Widow, and co-creator of the Netflix series, Clickbait, has done it again. Wild Place – my third five-star read by him – was another twisty, twisted, domestic noir extravaganza, which I read in one day.

The year is 1989, and Tom Witter is living the perfect suburban life in Camp Hill with his wife, Connie, and two teenage boys – Marty and Keiran. On summer break from his high school teaching job, Tom is kept busy doing odd jobs around the house, attending neighborhood watch meetings, and, most importantly, looking out for his sons. But everything changes when local teenager, Tracie Reed, goes missing. The only thing separating Tom's street from Tracie's is Wild Place – a dense community forest – once welcoming and safe now feels threatening and sinister. Tom is convinced that whatever happened to Tracie is connected to Wild Place, and determined to protect his sons from a similar fate, Tom starts his own investigation, an investigation that will lead him to some very dark places.

Wild Place most definitely kept me immersed and guessing, as well as turning the pages at a frantic pace. In the 80's and 90's with the rise of heavy metal music, dark and explicit lyrics, and the Gothic lifestyle, parents – heavily influenced by the media – stupidly feared their kids were being controlled and seduced by the occult, and Satanic Rituals, and, as you will see, Christian White used these themes to create paranoia, hysteria, suspicion and judgement in his characters in a shocking and nail-biting way.

In terms of setting and atmosphere, Wild Place was reminiscent of a favourite read of mine from 2019, The Neighbour – Fiona Cummins. Both were psychological thrillers where the mystery centred on a Suburban Street which backed onto a forest, and of course the neighbourhood held many secrets.

The publication date is 26th October, 2021, and Wild Place would be the perfect spooky, ominous choice for Halloween.

I’d like to thank, Netgalley, Affirm Press, and Christian White for the e-ARC.

I received this book from NetGalley on exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. I loved The Wife and the Widow by Christian White but this book surpassed the sheer creative power that White showed in The Wife and the Widow.

This book centres around the disappearance of a teenage girl from a seemingly perfect Australian suburb in 1989. It begins deceptively simply, but soon draws in so many different characters, all connected in one way: they lived in the suburb and they had varying connections to the missing girl.

I read this as an E-ARC, and I highlighted so many sections that at one point my kindle rebooted itself. There are so many quirky 80s references, funny one liners and witticisms it was easy to forget the crux of this was the disappearance of a teenage girl, and then White would ratchet the tension up and you’d be thrown back into the high stakes mystery with your head reeling.

With the addition of a callback to the Satanic Panic of the 80s and too many twists and turns to count, I read this entire book in one 6 hour sitting and then immediately picked up my iPad to write this review.

Every single character served an intricate purpose in the plot, nothing is wasted, every single word counts.

If I had one criticism I would say that at the halfway point 2 characters make a decision that derails things and I did wonder if the plot would get back on track, but it did and that plot choice led to several “what the f*ck?!” Plot twists that made me love this book. Christian White is the new master of books that make you gasp right until the very last line. I can’t recommend this book enough.

In the summer of 1989, seventeen year old Tracie Reed goes missing from Camp Hill, a small Australian town. Having just finished high school, the police think she could have run away in search of brighter lights and a more exciting life, but her single mother who knows her daughter well, is adamant that she wouldn’t have done that and something more sinister has happened to her. Tom Witter, a high school teacher who taught Tracie in his English class, also has his doubts that Tracie has run away and starts to search for clues to her disappearance.

This terrific suspense novel peels back the layers of Camp Hill one by one, to expose the ugly secrets hiding below the surface. The characters are all believable, ordinary people, not inherently evil, but capable of lies and deception. Their suspicions and fear of the unknown will lead some of them down a dark path where deterioration of their normally mild-mannered behaviour into brutality feels justified.

I enjoyed all the popular culture references and news items that White has woven into his novel to enrich the 1980s vibe of the novel and give a strong sense of place for this small town in Victoria. The pace of the novel is perfect and makes for a totally compelling read and the end of the last chapter is a heart-stopper.

<i>With thanks to Affirm Press and Netgalley for a copy to read</i>