Everyone loved Jimmy Leathem but when he doesn’t return from the Tagary Surf Club reunion his wife Bette is forced to confront some ugly truths.

If he’s dead, where is his body? How is it that every old mate tells the same story, the one about the empty ski and the shark-infested ocean? Why won’t Heaney, his closest friend, answer her phone calls? And who is the strange, drunken woman who calls asking for “Rupe”?

Driven to distraction by doubt and mistrust, she begins to question her own sanity along with the myths of her marriage. Bette visits Vita Skopoulos, clinical psychologist and tactless sleuth. “Sit your sorry arse down and we’ll get started,” says Vita. Bette recognises a kindred soul and together they begin to shake down some shibboleths of the surf club culture which Jimmy cherished.

Set in the wild beaches of Sydney’s south coast, Reunion is both a sombre mystery and an uplifting love story from a writer with an easy style and a gift for dialogue and fast-paced action.

‘Russell has produced an engrossing tale of love in jeopardy, mateship in disarray, betrayal, revenge and redemption. A real page-turner from a gifted storyteller.’ - Chris McLeod

'An engrossing and well-crafted tale of mystery and suspense, set in contemporary Sydney. Bette, one of award-winning novelist Bruce Russell’s trademark strong and engaging female protagonists, sets out to discover what really happened when her husband is reported missing, presumed dead. All leads seems to point to kidnapping, murder and the Tagary Surf Club. The real puzzle at the heart of this story is the strange male world of mateship: as much a world of jealousy and betrayal as it is friendship, great laughs and heavy drinking. But in the end, Reunion is also a story of marriage, love and belonging.' The West (Writing WA, May 28):

Interview with Nightlife’s Tony Delroy (ABC Local Radio, 720 in Perth) - click here to listen.

About the Author

Bruce Russell was born in Sydney, Australia and educated at Sydney Boys High School and Sydney University. He is the award-winning author of five novels: Jacob’s Air, The Chelsea Manifesto, Channelling Henry, The Museum of the Self and Reunion. He currently lives in Fremantle, Western Australia, where he works from a back-yard studio.

His first short story, ‘The Fall of Icarus’, was runner-up in the Canberra Times National Short Story Competition. His stories have since appeared in Westerly, The Western Review and Indigo and been anthologised in Fictions 88, Friday’s Page, Lines in the Sand and The Kid on the Karaoke Stage.

He has won residencies at Varuna, Capricorn Hill and the Norman Mailer’s Writer’s Centre in Provincetown, Mass. In 1995 he won the TAG Hungerford award for a first full-length work of fiction. Both Jacob’s Air and Channelling Henry were short-listed for the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards. He wrote Channelling Henry with the assistance of a Literature Board Developing Writer’s Grant. All of his other major publications have been supported with writing grants and travel assistance from Arts WA, with the exception of The Museum of the Self, which was backed by a University of Queensland post-graduate award.

Bruce has also appeared as an invited guest at writers’ festivals in New York, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. His major genre interests are autobiographical fiction, crime fiction, historical fiction and adult literary fiction. He is currently working on a fictional life of his uncle Bevan Llewellyn, one of the thousands of “Lancaster men” who lost their lives in World War II.

To discover more Bruce Russell books, or to contact the author, please visit: www.brucerussell.com.au