After his marriage breaks up Shane's father buys an old bush school property next to Clarry Johnson's neglected orchard and Shane and his dad move there. It is an eerie, lonely, isolated place, far removed from Shane's earlier life. Living in a small caravan in the deserted school grounds adds to Shane's feeling of vulnerability.
There is something disturbing about the unneighbourly Clarry Johnson, and something even more disturbing about his strange teenage daughter, Ellie, who pushes a pram with a doll in it up and down the dirt road outside the abandoned school. What has prompted Ellie to persist in this macabre, daily routine?
After a number of unsettling incidents Shane's father gets Shane an ex-police dog, Caddy, for protection and companionship. The old school has an ominous, secret history which Caddy begins to unearth by finding some grisly remains, but in doing so increases the dangers to which Shane will be exposed. And the hopes of Shane's father for a new beginning are put under a very real threat.
Reviewers say:
Cadaver Dog is suspenseful, gripping and tense throughout and the writer's vivid descriptions transfer the reader to the scene of the crime.
Kellie Christiansen, Belgian State School
