Under the Frangipani

The protagonist, PETER RANDALL, a former clergyman, now board member to one of Australia’s largest companies and prominent Australian, travels to the Western Australian coastal resort of Paradise Gardens following a desperate plea from his childhood friend, TREVOR BOURKE, who has threatened to murder the local clergyman, DONALD WHITEMAN, who sexually abused them when children. Rather than preventing a murder, Peter finds Trevor’s body in the resort’s lake, under the frangipani, together with damning evidence linking Whiteman to the death.

WALLACE, the detective assigned to the case, and JUNIOR, his assistant, suspect Peter of the crime. Peter refuses to co-operate and plots his own revenge on behalf of Whiteman’s victims. To throw his plans into disarray, the first cyclone of the season approaches.

In a freakish road accident, Peter saves Whiteman’s life and then visits him in hospital down in Pearl Town where he tells him that he is forgiven for what he did to him as a child. This throws Peter into conflict with the spirit of his dead friend who he knows was only ever interested in retribution.

The cyclone is now at its worst. While sheltering together in Pearl Town, Peter and Wallace forge an unlikely friendship: the one whom the Law failed to protect as a child, the other who is sworn to its enforcement. But unknown to Peter, Wallace has been suspicious of Whiteman since the latter’s son committed suicide. And his own son is another of Whiteman’s victims. Now he seeks Peter’s help in bringing Whiteman to justice. This produces another crisis for Peter who has never admitted to his own abuse, especially since he is a public figure.

After his return to Melbourne, Peter is called back to The Kimberley when he hears that Wallace has been taken off the case. At first he is annoyed that Wallace didn’t follow through with his promise to prosecute Whiteman. He reunites with Junior, who tells him that Wallace died while fishing. But Junior believes it wasn’t an accident. Wallace had unearthed a child sex ring involving Donald Whiteman and certain prominent citizens. He kept his findings in a secret diary which he gave to Junior in the event of “foul play”. But Junior is not up to the danger this has placed him in. He is also one of Whiteman’s victims. Since last Peter saw him, he has resigned from The Force to protect his young family from recrimination.

It is a story of how people choose different pathways to deal with their sexual abuse and the process by which those rawest of memories, when re-awakened, can be laid to rest. More than a crisis of “Faith”, it is a crisis of wanting to “Live”. It is a story of trust when there is no-one to trust; a story of forgiveness when there is only hate in your heart. It is a story that will shock, set in an epic landscape where Nature can be as cruel as men. And as redeeming! It is a story of what can be resurrected when innocence is lost.