The Grapevine by Kate Kemp review – slaughter in surburbia

In a quiet Australian backwater an unravelling cast of women make claustrophobic crime fiction out of a close-knit community

Although the Australian series Neighbours has been cancelled again (this time by Amazon), the soap’s 40-year run is some measure of its popularity. The storyline focused on several households in the same Melbourne suburb, depicting the residents’ friendships and rivalries. Kate Kemp’s debut novel takes place at a different time and place, but employs the same formula: ordinary folk and gossip.

Set in the sweltering summer of 1979 in a quiet cul-de-sac, in a Canberra suburb, The Grapevine opens with a woman scrubbing traces of blood from her bathroom floor. We learn that her husband has killed their neighbour, Antonio Marietti. The next day, as news of the gruesome murder spreads and Antonio’s body parts are discovered, the residents of Warrah Place start to point the finger at potential suspects.