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The Crossing
Perth, 1977. Mary Patterson stands at the side of the road with her thumb out and a suitcase at her feet. She's leaving everything behind. A kind stranger offers her a ride across the Nullarbor. Adelaide is two thousand kilometres away. Far enough to start over. Far enough to be free.
But freedom is a long, straight road with nowhere to hide.
As the empty highway stretches endlessly before them, Mary begins to see things. Or remember things. The line between past and present blurs. And the man driving starts to look like someone else.
Someone Mary has been running from her entire life.
But freedom is a long, straight road with nowhere to hide.
As the empty highway stretches endlessly before them, Mary begins to see things. Or remember things. The line between past and present blurs. And the man driving starts to look like someone else.
Someone Mary has been running from her entire life.
150 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 6, 2026
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March 5, 2026
The Crossing is a novella set along the Great Eastern Road that cuts across the Nullarbor Plain from Perth to Adelaide. It’s 1977, and Mary is travelling with David, who has just taken a new job with the Space Agency. But Mary is carrying the effects of a past trauma. Her memory comes and goes, and at times her perception of reality becomes distorted. She fears that the thing she is trying to escape from may somehow still be with her in the car. When David picks up a hitchhiker along the road, events begin to escalate.
I really enjoyed this book and the way the perspective alternates between Mary and David. Gradually, their backstory is revealed as the journey progresses. The writing is tight and controlled, and the narrative unfolds at a steady pace that keeps the reader engaged.
I do have two small criticisms. The first relates to a lost opportunity. The setting — the vast emptiness of the Nullarbor — is present in the story, but it sometimes feels more like an aside. The landscape’s remoteness and alienness might have been used more fully to heighten the tension and perhaps deepen the sense of uncertainty in Mary’s mind.
The second concerns a few plot details. At times the detective, Morrison, appears to know things about Mary and David’s journey that he could not reasonably know, and he seems remarkably quick to piece together events with relatively little information available to him.
That said, this is a very enjoyable and well-written novella.
I received this book as an Early Reviewers copy through LibraryThing in exchange for an independent review.
I really enjoyed this book and the way the perspective alternates between Mary and David. Gradually, their backstory is revealed as the journey progresses. The writing is tight and controlled, and the narrative unfolds at a steady pace that keeps the reader engaged.
I do have two small criticisms. The first relates to a lost opportunity. The setting — the vast emptiness of the Nullarbor — is present in the story, but it sometimes feels more like an aside. The landscape’s remoteness and alienness might have been used more fully to heighten the tension and perhaps deepen the sense of uncertainty in Mary’s mind.
The second concerns a few plot details. At times the detective, Morrison, appears to know things about Mary and David’s journey that he could not reasonably know, and he seems remarkably quick to piece together events with relatively little information available to him.
That said, this is a very enjoyable and well-written novella.
I received this book as an Early Reviewers copy through LibraryThing in exchange for an independent review.
Displaying 1 of 1 review