While on a night on the town journalist Kate chooses the wrong man to talk back to.
Lying in wait for her when she walks home, her abducts her, violates her and then transports her to an unknown location. It’s a race to find her alive.
Now when I say it’s a race to find her alive, I never really experienced that heart thump till very near the end. Maybe I’ve been spoilt by so many new ‘Aussie Noir’ books lately but this one fell a little flat for me.
But I feel this is more a character driven book that tells the back story of a number of people who are involved, from her boyfriend, to the police who are tasked with the job of finding her. An interesting concept but it stopped the flow of the story for me.
Although not one I was enamoured with, I’d be interested to see what the author writes next. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

The terrifying nature of the crime in this book. ‘Pheasants Nest’, brought attention to how crimes against women are perceived, the actions of police officers, and the way investigations are sometimes whiskers away from being solved or thwarted. The setting of this book is fraught with fear and spirits of the past, with the twin bridge deck of the Pheasants Next Bridge (which is not far from me) sitting 75 metres above a river the scene of many who have jumped to their death, and have died around the bridge pylons.
Kate Delaney, a renowned reporter, found herself abused and bound in the back of a car being driven by a man she doesn’t know to an unknown location. In that moment, Kate realised that she had become one of the statistics she had reported on for so many years. At the same time, her boyfriend, Liam and friend Sylvia deal with the shock of her disappearance, with accusations of potentially being a part of the crime, and the nail-biting wait for resolution or a scrap of a clue. The balance here was also the reflection of the police officers who were involved who were equally frustrated with the slowness of progress to track Kate down. And all through this, Kate’s mind sat within a hopeful state, replaying memories. There was also deliberate consideration in the author’s deep dive for each of the characters – there was an exploration of not only who they were, but their memories were also explored investigated to tease out the connections to Kate and ‘The Guy’ who was holding her hostage.
A sad reflection of this story mirrors where the public often misplace who is responsible for a crime. Kate’s humiliating ‘saggy arsed’ remark were perceived as the instigation of the actions of ‘The Guy’. She was the blame for his ultimate mistake; her humiliation of The Guy led to the attack. It was okay that she was approached in The book highlighted how the instigation of crimes against women are sadly seen as the responsibility on the victim, not the perpetrator.

Until the very last pages and paragraphs, you will not be sure about Kate’s survival. It is not often that I do not put a book down until I finish it, and Pheasants Nest by @louisemilligan was one of those books.

Wow, what a read and what a story. This is a riveting, engrossing and thrill ride of a read. Kate Delaney is a journalist who reports on crimes, many of them women who have gone missing. She knows the stories, knows how they end but now she is the victim of the crime and will have to cope with the things she has only ever written about.

So what will happen to her, will they find her in time or will she be another statistic? This is a crime thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat and at points and times may even make you laugh. This is a story that is well written and one that makes you feel as if you are right there with Kate. Scary, thrilling, engrossing, intriguing and entertaining. I loved it and look forward to seeing what comes next from this new author.

Thank you NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This could’ve been a really good read but was spoilt by every character (even minor ones) getting elaborate back stories and descriptions which totally distracted from the main storyline. Kate Delaney on her way home after a night out with the girls is raped and abducted by a guy she made fun of in one of the pubs they were in. You’d think there’d be plenty of suspense etc but it never really builds into anything decent. It was good that she made her characters human but too many digressions made it hard to care.

You’ll find this debut novel by award-winning investigative journalist Louise Milligan shelved under crime fiction at your local independent bookshop, but really, “Pheasants Nest” has more in common with Emily Maguire’s “An Isolated Incident” and Mark Brandi’s “The Rip” than your archetypal police procedural or psychological thriller.

“Pheasants Nest” anatomises the sexual assault and abduction of Melbourne-based, Irish-born journalist Kate Delaney. Milligan oscillates between characters and their private thoughts—from Kate’s friends and family, to the police and reporters covering the story, and the perpetrator himself—and at breakneck speed, she unspools the events of the following days.

It’s a compelling tragicomedy less interested in the mechanics of the investigation than it is examining the immediate psychological impact of Kate’s disappearance on everybody even remotely connected to the ongoing situation, and the specific trauma of Kate’s experience. Milligan punctures this darkness with spikes of gallows humour, at times almost satirising the conventions these types of stories usually adhere to.

The tone of “Pheasants Nest” reminded me a lot of Martin McDonagh’s 2017 film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — black humour, pain and poignancy mixed into a masterfully compelling novel of suspense.

Louise Milligan’s debut novel is engaging throughout. Pheasant’s Nest is the sort of book where you forgive the author for fairly extensive narrative and introspection because the plot is so full of hooks it drags you along anyway. There is a fair bit of head-hopping as well but it is always clear whose perspective is being highlighted so I forgave that too. The characterisation is excellent, as is the scene setting, and the attention to detail showcases this author's many years working as a journalist before writing this book. I empathised immediately with Kate Delaney when she was attacked. The randomness, the brutality and the appalling way she was treated by her captor was very realistic and bone-chilling. Her boyfriend Liam Carroll is another character it was easy to identify with. I could feel his frustration at the beginning of the police investigation into Kate’s disappearance as well as all the feelingsof loss and longing that accompanied him on his search for her. The ramping up of tension kept me reading and the plot twists kept me on the edge of my seat until the last page. This is a thoroughly entertaining story.

Kate Delaney is a highly regarded award winning journalist living in Melbourne she has a boyfriend Liam and a best friend Sylvia when on a night out with the girls and a guy makes a Pass at her she makes a comment to him that makes him very unhappy so unhappy that he kidnaps her on her way home, big mistake.

Liam is extremely worried when Kate does not arrive home and calls in the police, Sylvia arrives at the apartment and soon Liam is being questioned by the police, it was an extremely different type of questioning to me and Liam is annoyed at the slow start to the search for Kate.

Kate knows that she is in big trouble and worries that she will be found before it is too late, and there are different points of view throughout the book from all the people involved, and I found it very confusing at times and very hard to follow the story. I did have to get to the end to find out what happened to Kate, was she found or not before it was too late?

I think that the idea for the story is really good but there seemed to me to be way too much information that did not add to the story for me, some chapters were good but not all.

Sadly this was not a story for me but I am sure there will be lots of readers who will love this one.

My thanks to Netgalley and Allen & Unwin AU for my digital copy to read and review.

Pheasants Nest is the debut crime thriller by former ABC journalist Louise Milligan and it captures the despair and regret felt by a kidnapping hostage as the raw wave of emotions starts to roll. This character driven drama spans a matter of days and taps into the darker realms of sexual violence by men against women.

Kate Delaney was on a girls night out in Melbourne when she’s drugged, abducted and driven towards Sydney. It’s as she reaches the notorious Belanglo National Forest and then the Pheasants Nest bridge that she begins to ponder about just how serious her situation actually is. And it’s around this part of New South Wales where her life is put at risk.

Her boyfriend, Liam Carroll, is back in Melbourne wondering why Kate isn’t answering her phone or texting him as she normally would. In a panic he calls the police to report her absence, regressing into a blithering idiot as he finds himself blathering on, breathlessly trying to tell them everything he can think of about her all at once. The result: he immediately goes on to their radar as a ‘person of interest’.

Following the initial shock of the abduction, the story settles into a more subdued pace as the focus alternates between Kate and her abductor and Liam and Sylvia, with a great deal of introspection and past memories dominating. This gives us great insight into each of the three main characters, providing us with a rich background that ensures they become full, well developed people. Naturally, this ensured that I had a stake in the outcome of the plight that Kate was in.

The problem I had with the story was that after a promising beginning the early momentum was lost and the story just tended to drift. There was no real build up of tension with the abductor making one ridiculous decision after another, but never really striking me as directly threatening towards Kate. To make matters worse, it felt as though the local police were being portrayed in a humorous way, yet the humour just missed the mark.

Strangely, the times we were focusing on the abductor were the most surreal parts of the story. For someone who should have been such a large part of the story, he’s still a virtual unknown so it’s difficult to perceive him as a real threat. He remained unnamed throughout the book, referred to simply as “the Guy”, which took a great deal of the sting out of him.

This is a book that could very well have been a tense thriller, but for much of it the mood was remarkably light and too much of the focus was on the good times of the past rather than the plight of the present. Sure, things pick up right towards the end as the denouement takes place, aided in large part by a remarkable coincidence, but it all felt too little, too late.

My thanks to Allen & Unwin via NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book.

What a fantastic debut! The writing was superb, chilling and realistic; perhaps so realistic because of the author's non-fiction background. I found the story to be told in a unique manner and I really like that. It was full of suspense and it honestly could have gone either way, right up until the very end. I was enthralled!

I'm very interested to see what Louise Milligan comes up with next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for an eARC. Expected publication date of Pheasants Nest is 26/3.

Journalist Kate Delaney had enjoyed a night out with her girlfriends and when Sylvie last saw her, she was walking to her boyfriend, Liam's place. But Liam was frantic as Kate hadn't arrived there - 3am; 4am; 5am - still no sign of her. Liam rang Sylvie who hadn't seen or heard from Kate since they'd separated. He raced to Kate's house, hoping she'd gone there, but when the house was deserted, he dialed 000.

It wasn't long before an investigation was launched. But was Kate abducted? And was it a random attack or did they have a serial on their hands? Meanwhile Kate was frantic. She knew she'd shot her mouth off at the wrong guy, and now she was in trouble. What was he going to do with her? Could she escape?

Pheasants Nest is Aussie author Louise Milligan's debut novel and I was keen to read it, as Pheasants Nest in NSW's Southern Highlands, is an area I've been to often. We'd always stop there for fuel, about 40kms south of Sydney, relax with a cuppa, stretch our legs. So it was fully visual in my mind. Unfortunately, although the mystery surrounding Kate was a great plot, there was too much dialogue; not enough action and I found myself skimming.

With thanks to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin AU for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Louise Milligan is far from the first Australian journalist to try their hand at crime fiction. But like a number of her ABC colleagues (Michael Brissinden and Tony Jones to name a couple), Milligan’s debut is not rual noir. Rather, Pheasants Nest it is a propulsive thriller in which most of the characters live in and come from one of Australia’s two major cities.
When Pheasants Nest opens, journalist Kate Delaney is in the back of a car. She has been abused and kidnapped off the streets of Melbourne by a man who is only ever known as “the Guy” and is now being driven north, into New South Wales. When she does not return home, boyfriend Liam contacts the police. But the investigation is way hampered by their belief that as the boyfriend is almost always the perpetrator, Liam is in the frame. The mainstream and social media are not far behind with this assumption. Luckily for Liam, Kate’s abductor is not the sharpest tool in the shed and makes some mistakes that put the police on his tail. But he is desperate and cunning and as the clock ticks down, it may be that this will not be enough.
Pheasants Nest is one sense a pure thriller, the clock is ticking from page one and Milligan puts the pieces in place for a tense finale early on. But being written but a journalist, the thriller almost feels like a scaffold on which to hang a series of character and personality sketches. Milligan explores the lives of Kate and Liam deeply but she also dives into a range of other characters. From the policeman with PTSD, to the woman who runs a megachurch with ATM machines at the door, to perpetrator himself.
While Pheasants Nest has a ticking clock, it is sometimes hard to work out exactly the timing of some of the action. Time seems to move differently for different point of view characters and at some points days seem to pass but it hard to tall how many or what that means for Kate. And while the finale is well set up it also depends on a massive coincidence, that works in the context of the story but is not worth thinking too deeply about (which is fine, this is a thriller after all).

"If you lived near the coast in Sydney, you threw yourself from The Gap at Watson's Bay. But if you were a westie, particularly an outer-westie, your jump of choice was Pheasants Nest." Being a fan of her investigative journalism, I had high hopes for Louise Milligan's first novel, Pheasants Nest. Instead I found it twee and annoying. I didn't relate to the lead characters or the annoying way that they processed the events that occurred. Pheasants Nest reeks of snobbery, from mocking the lack of apostrophe in the suburb name, to food snobbery in lines like: "And as soon as you see Comic Sans font on a menu (or, indeed, a spelling mistake), you just know that you are going to get terrible food." I find it really hard to believe that a rape victim would resent a packet of Burger Rings when they might keep her alive.

Both Kate and her partner Liam distance themselves from the normal people crimes happen to, as if their class or careers make them exempt from that group: "He tried to maintain the sad-neutral victim's loved one face he's always instructed clients to adopt when they are going into court." This makes it hard at times for the reader not to be glad this legal representative and journalist are having a learning experience that will make them give less trite advice in the future. Of course nobody deserves something terrible to happen to them, but a little bit of genuine empathy and connection with victims of crime and their families wouldn't hurt either of the protagonists.

I was most resentful of the book putting forward the idea that Kate Delaney is the type of woman that sexual violence shouldn't happen to: "Kate is the 'right' sort of victim. Middle-class, pretty, educated. Women like her just don't go missing in Northcote at night." This implies indirectly that other groups of women deserve sexual violence, or invite it to happen to them through their actions, or some other set of shared characteristics. I feel like there are direct references to the Jill Meagher case: "She's a journo. A pretty one. Not that it should matter, but you know, and I know, it matters." No women deserve sexual violence.

The book is written more in the style of true crime than an Australian crime novel: "Liam Carrol had been a late bloomer. Studious and shy in his teens, he only really came into his own in his mid-to-late twenties." I found this third person style observational viewpoint worked against the novel building tension: "She has joined the inauspicious club known a rape victims. She's bleeding." Despite there being a kidnapping situation underway for most of the book, I felt there was only tension in the last portion of the book: "daylight was not the friend of a rapist kidnapper with priors who had a redhead bound with cable ties on his back seat." The book then ended abruptly making it feel unsatisfying.

I also was annoyed by the perpetration of rumours about sex trafficking when the evidence here shows most women who come to Australia to do sex work are sex workers in their country of origin. Repeating tropes about trafficking just inspires a moral panic rather than destigmatising sex work, so that workers can reply upon the same workplace protections as other Australian workers. So can we just stop saying stuff like: "Gloria volunteers for the nuns, no-nonsense feminist warriors who help rescue sex trafficking victims, many of whom are Filipinas lured to Australia on false promises of jobs as domestic helpers." I wasn't a deep fan either of hearing one sex offender "the guy who was in hospital was far more partial to trans sex workers." Why do you think that is, Louise? I think it is because we continue to create barriers to sex workers enjoying the same human rights and workplace protections as other Australian workers. I think it is because we continue to make special categories of victims who don't deserve what happens to them. This book rolls out more of the same. No women are safe until all women are undeserving of sexual violence.

Review: I was so excited to read this as it's set in Australia and written by the very accomplished Louise Milligan. It did not disappoint. The story is so realistic, terrifying and addictive. It's also witty at times. I found a big focus on the other characters (the cops, partner, best friend, ex sister in law), their feelings and history. Therefore this might not be everyones cup of tea as there is probably less description of the events. I really loved all the Australian references and depth to the characters, I felt like I really knew them all.

Summary: Kate Delaney is on a night out with the girls when she humiliates a guy who hit on her. Said guy later assaults and abducts Kate on her walk home. Kate's a journalist and she is replaying the crimes she has reported over her career in her head whilst she is bound in the back seat of the guys car. She knows all the statistics and what might happen to her, she is absolutely terrified. Whilst she hopes police find her in time she tries to keeps her sanity by thinking about happy memories with her boyfriend and friends. Whilst Kate is missing we learn how her boyfriend, Liam, and best friend, Sylvia, are dealing with the situation. We are also given insight into the lives of the detectives trying to beat the clock and find Kate before it's too late.

Journalist and author Louise Milligan has penned a crime fiction novel titled Pheasant Nest (2024). Kate Delaney is a reporter, newly partnered and out in Melbourne one evening with her friends. She decides to walk the short distance home from the pub they had been drinking at, when she is abducted and taken on a road trip. The next morning, the police are notified and her partner Liam is initially suspected of being involved. As the investigation proceeds, Liam gets more anxious and Kate struggles to survive. As the tension builds to a chilling climax at Pheasant Nest Bridge, there are many anecdotal moments in the narrative giving it a whimsical flavour. Overall, it’s a nuanced crime mystery thriller that has a charming four stars read rating. With thanks to Allen & Unwin and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

Louise Milligan, Pheasants Nest, Allen & Unwin, March 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Louise Milligan’s thriller is set in familiar Australian territory, drawing on well-known murders in the Belanglo State Forest to establish a context and then moving beyond those fearful memories to provide her mystery with new locales. One of these is Pheasant’s Nest Bridge where strong winds often shake a car venturing across, sheer sides lead to ominous water, less well-known deaths of a sad and gruesome nature are referred to, and a metal cage has been built to discourage suicides. But, before the reader gets to these ominous events and descriptions the exuberant and attractive main character is introduced.

Kate Delany awakens, cold and frightened in the back of her abductor’s car. But under Milligan’s hand she is so much more than the woman who is in the car, subdued by her captor, eventually caged and hungry, dirty, desperate and dying. She hates his music; she muses on the big Merino and a driverless car, a past lover. Kate in a bar in Melbourne is a very different character. A woman with friends, tall with red hair, a woman who will be noticed, although not necessarily to everyone’s taste. It is doubtful that the latter concerns her much. What does, is her independence, her right to refuse to be intimidated, her right to make a smart, putting down rejoinder to a predatory male.

Kate’s abductor is also drawn well, a pathetic man with an insalubrious past. This includes another lively character who helps weave the intelligent plot to a coherent conclusion. It is this last observation of this very clever book that impressed me most. The disparate characters are drawn together because of the abduction in such a plausible way, with humour, horror and elegant characterisation all featuring, despite the increasingly ominous feeling that pervades Kate and her friends. Drawn into Kate’s world are her reader supporters, engaged fully with a character who resonates in a cleverly plotted book which is a wonderful debut.

Im always intrigued to see how investigative reporters (at the top of their journalism game no less) fare when attempting to write fiction. I’m so pleased to say Louise Milligan’s debut novel did not disappoint!

PHEASANTS NEST is a kind of crime fiction that I think only someone with Milligan’s professional and journalistic background could pull off well.

It offers a careful examination and dissection of a sexual assault and abduction of a Melbourne-based journalist, Kate Delaney, that takes place over a matter of days. It’s less a ‘whodunnit’ and more a multi-perspective revelation of various characters’ reactions, thoughts and feelings in the lead up to and the aftermath of the crimes - including Kate herself, her partner, her best friend, various police offficers involved and the perpetrator known only as The Guy.

In the absence of a heavy focus on the mechanics of the police investigation, it is the clever character development instead that propels the story along and had me voraciously turning page after page.

It’s an undeniably dark novel dealing with heavy subject matter but it offers moments of reprieve with gallows humour and almost seemed to poke fun sometimes at some of the usual tropes and conventions typically used in crime fiction.

A really excellent and clever debut that is certainly worth your time!

Thanks to Allen & Unwin via NetGalley for sharing a copy with me.

Please note this review will be posted on my Instagram account (@bookworm_with_a_brew) closer to the publication date.

Chilling. Terrifying. Says me, the woman who reads endless crime fiction and serial killer novels. I think it's because this was so darn realistic.

Kate Delaney has made a fatal mistake and one that may haunt her for the rest of her life. She picked the wrong man to humiliate on a girls night out and now he has her bound and gagged in the back of his car, driving, far from home. As a journalist, she knows how these stories usually end. Kate wonders if her boyfriend, Liam, is looking for her. Has he alerted the police? As the story goes on, we see the aftermath and desperation play out in the narratives.

What a fabulous debut. As I said, parts were so realistic and terrifying. No doubt the authors background added to this and the writing was brilliant. I look forward to more by this author. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Allen and Unwin for this gifted review copy.

My Rating: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ good but not great… also had to know how it ended!!!

She wonders if the have discovered her missing yet.
Has it broken in the news?
Who has been assigned to cover her story?
Have they started spooling through her social media and pulling out photographs? Constructing a narrative about who she is and what possible reason any person has to kidnap or (lets be frank) kill her?

Kate Delaney has made a huge mistake… one that may just cost her, her life.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin AU, NetGalley and Louise Milligan for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I requested this one ages ago and was shocked when I got approved so I started it straight away. I really liked the synopsis and couldn’t wait to dive in…. I did not realise this was set in Australia. Don’t ask me why but as an Australian you would think I would like to support Australian authors but usually no… I do not… not that I don’t like to I just usually dont vibe with their thrillers.

So I was a little dubious going in considering some of the places and are familiar to me … but I liked the way the chapters were set up each one had a title and it was relevant to the storyline and some of the references were so Aussie or super familiar to me and things that I enjoyed as a kid… made it more enjoyable.

The thought of the Famous Five makes her start thinking about Enid Blyton foods and how it was another thing she and Liam had bonded over, as they had both devoured the now comically politically incorrect books as children.

They both agreed that no one described food like Enid Blyton, from mouth-watering to the comically retro. Baked potatoes simply dripping with butter. Cold tongue and tomato sandwiches. Potted meats. Blancmange. New scones. Strawberries and cream. Treacle.

Her stomach starts rumbling again. She could murder a baked potato simply dripping in butter right now.

FAMOUS FIVE WAS MY FAVOURITE as a kid…. Also honourable mention to the Faraway Tree what a trip.

Having said that… I still landed on a 3. I will say that I think a lot of people will love this… perhaps some of the overseas audience will struggle with some of the Australian references but I think you will cope - google will help you.

Honestly this was mostly enjoyable but I found it lacked some depth… there was a lot of story but it wasn’t thrilling I didn’t feel like I was stressed and this actually should have been a stressful tale. A woman is assaulted, kidnapped and kept… but… it was too flippant. It was supposed to be at times but I think it managed to be so flippant that it was too much so… there wasn’t enough tension and to be quite frank there was just too much storyline about Liam.

Kate’s boyfriend who to me was sweet and all but such a massive pussy. I just couldn’t deal with the amount this guy cried… sure… call me a bitch and thats ok.. and I know i know his gf is missing but I needed more action. For the amount of dialogue this guy took up I wanted an action man not a cry baby who couldn’t handle being called chicken by Kate’s best friend… come on pal you have bigger things to worry about other than some endearing nickname cause she is stressed. Liam bugged me… I wanted them to break up at the end… I wanted him to bugger off or also get kidnapped and not brought back. Kate’s character was so strong and independent and this guy was the super nice guy that cried and loved hipster things… ugh it just icked me out.

Also for a story about Kate we didn’t get to know her that well… we didn’t really get much dialogue from when she was kidnapped and how she was feeling… I dunno I just felt like there were a lot of useless backstories when the stuff happening was rather supposed to be more stressful.

I only felt really stressed right at the very very end… and then it abruptly ended… it was a let down. Did I hate it absolutely not… I liked it.. but I didn’t love it.

Overall - if you like the sound of it give it a go but if you are expecting a wild ride… then you might only get halfway there… there are some really harrowing things that happen in this one but are kind of glossed over… I get that we are Australian but even some of the stuff that happened in this book Aussies aren’t going to gloss over…