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No Safe Place

Jenny Spence,

Jennifer Walsh

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Apr 11, 2013 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, suspense, aussie-authors, sent-by-publisher, 2013-release, arc

After another dreary, cold and wet day at work, Elly Cartwright arrived home to her apartment in a suburb of Melbourne, already thinking ahead to the warmth inside. When she spied Mabel, her elderly next door neighbour, rushing across to intercept her, she wished she could go inside without seeing her, but she turned to meet her. In the instant Mabel opened her mouth to speak to her, she seemed to trip, and hurtled into Elly’s arms, knocking her to the ground, while a searing pain ripped through After another dreary, cold and wet day at work, Elly Cartwright arrived home to her apartment in a suburb of Melbourne, already thinking ahead to the warmth inside. When she spied Mabel, her elderly next door neighbour, rushing across to intercept her, she wished she could go inside without seeing her, but she turned to meet her. In the instant Mabel opened her mouth to speak to her, she seemed to trip, and hurtled into Elly’s arms, knocking her to the ground, while a searing pain ripped through her arm. Unable to get Mabel off her, and feeling stickiness on her hands and arm, she realized with complete shock that something dreadful had just happened. When the yelling of other neighbours penetrated her subconscious, and sirens sounded, Elly realized her life had changed in that instant.

Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Lewis questioned Elly at the hospital. In her woozy state, she repeated what she had told the young police officers at the scene. He didn’t give her any information…he didn’t seem to know any more than she did. Her oldest friend, Carol, promised to return to the hospital in the morning, and take her back to her home after she was released. With Elly tucked up on Carol’s lounge, amid the promise she would rest, Carol headed to work, leaving Elly alone with pain and her thoughts.

Elly’s friend and work colleague, Carlos, whom she had visited the day before, was the only one who might be able to shed some light on the happenings of the night before. He seemed to have a finger in all the pies, and with his IT knowledge, and his ability to focus on events happening everywhere, she needed to see him straight away. But when she arrived at his highly secure work and home site, she sensed something was not right. With mounting terror, she pushed her way through the rear gate which was now ajar……

Suddenly Elly was on the run, and the frantic dash from Melbourne to Sydney, under the cover of a job her boss Derek had organised, had her feeling safer. She was worried about her daughter Miranda, but she was in a country town doing prac teaching for two weeks. Would Elly be safe in Sydney, or was there no safe place for her to hide?

I really enjoyed this debut novel by Aussie author Jenny Spence, with the twists and turns in the plot keeping the pages turning for me. The characters were extremely likeable, with the main heroine being smart and courageous, and the secondary players keeping the intrigue going. The locations of part of the story were also in my back yard, so to speak, so I could very easily visualise where Elly was travelling! I also loved the extreme pace of the novel, and there was plenty of action to keep things moving. I hope the author continues Elly Cartwright’s story in a future novel.

I highly recommend this action-packed thriller!

With thanks to Allen & Unwin and The Reading Room for my copy to read and review.
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May 19, 2013 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime, mystery, australian, arc, thriller, aww2013

Elly Cartwright is the daughter of hippy idealists who purchased a large parcel of land with friends, dreaming of one day being self-sufficient there. They died before ever realising their dream and now Elly holds their share. She lives and works in the inner-city of Melbourne and now it is she who dreams of selling up and retiring to the quiet and peaceful parcel of land.

Normally Elly’s life is boring – she writes information manuals for software development or programs and professionally forma Elly Cartwright is the daughter of hippy idealists who purchased a large parcel of land with friends, dreaming of one day being self-sufficient there. They died before ever realising their dream and now Elly holds their share. She lives and works in the inner-city of Melbourne and now it is she who dreams of selling up and retiring to the quiet and peaceful parcel of land.

Normally Elly’s life is boring – she writes information manuals for software development or programs and professionally formats documents and it tends to be a very low key job. But this week in her life will be unlike any other – after visiting a colleague who codes software, she sees someone hanging around his place. She thinks nothing of it until she arrives home and her neighbour, rushing out to see her about something, is shot dead. The police can’t discount that Elly was supposed to be the target. The next day she returns to her colleague’s place to ask him what he knows, only to find his murdered body.

Elly knows now she’s being targeted because she saw the killer. She flees to Sydney, hoping to blend in whilst doing another job for her employer but it seems as though she may have put herself right into the path of even more danger. Along with her hacker colleagues, she works to discover exactly why Carlos was murdered and what it has to do with something he mentioned to her in passing the day she saw him before she was killed. Even in Sydney the danger is closing in and soon Elly will have no safe place left to hide…even the one she thought was safest of all.

No Safe Place is a debut crime novel for Australian author Jenny Spence and here is a secret little confession – I’ve always wanted to be a computer hacker. I’m relatively useless with technology, I can use my laptop and phone but in terms of using it to get interesting information, or whatever, not a chance. However, it sounds so much fun! Seeing as how I’m not naturally inclined, I live vicariously through novels that involve clever IT geeks who hack into CCTV footage, bank accounts, government records and anything else that they think might be able to provide them with the information they require. Although our main character Elly isn’t a hacker at all, she works with some very talented computer programmers who certainly know what they’re doing. And Elly is about to find out just how much she’s going to need their help.

At first Elly doesn’t believe she could be the target of a random shooting in her neighbourhood that kills her next door neighbour, an elderly lady. The next day, when she discovers her brilliant but paranoid colleague’s dead body, she realised that not only has someone breached Carlos’s security but that she inadvertently happened to see him when she left the previous day. Elly immediately goes into survival mode, leaving behind her Brunswick house and heading out towards Footscray to disappear into an unlikely neighbourhood. She’s got some strong survival instincts and she’s very proactive in the way in which she goes about going into hiding. Although she has people she could’ve gone to, she avoids friends and work colleagues for the time being, choosing to fade into obscurity in a Vietnamese community. When she gets an opportunity to go to Sydney she takes it, thinking that it will distance her from the danger that is currently stalking her in Melbourne.

I love that this book is set in 2 places that are so familiar to me – I adore Sydney and have spent a lot of time there. And now I live outside of Melbourne and really enjoy finding the familiar things about it in books. It makes it so easy to picture things in my mind and track Elly’s movements as she seeks to hide herself in Melbourne and then escapes to Sydney. Her tightknit group of colleagues are a great addition as minor characters who step up to assist her in so many ways. I don’t know if this book is the first in a series or will stand alone but I would love to see more novels from the author featuring Elly and her colleagues. They work so well together in obtaining information and getting it to where it needs to be but they’re not exactly what you’d call friends. They don’t really socialise much and their conversations and interactions revolve around attempting to solve the mess that Elly has inadvertently found herself in. This is evidenced when she asks her colleague Steve what year his girlfriend is in of her engineering degree only to have the babyfaced programmer respond that his girlfriend is actually on the faculty.

This is definitely the type of book you can sit down and read in a single sitting. It’s a great story to sink into as Elly tries to figure out exactly what Carlos was poking around in that might’ve gotten him killed. Elly is easy to like – she’s strong and self-sufficient but she’s not willfully stupid. She accepts help, sometimes eagerly, sometimes reluctantly, but she accepts it all the same and knows that there is strength in knowledge and numbers. Another high part of this novel for me was the way in which the (professional) relationship between Elly and the Detective assigned to the shooting progressed. It’s another reason why I’d love to see more books with these characters, because I definitely feel that there is more left between Elly and Mike Lewis. I liked the way in which he listened to her and wasn’t afraid to put some faith in her theories, which did seem pretty out there. Without that faith, Elly might’ve been hiding forever. ...more

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May 12, 2013 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it liked it

Shelves: provided-by-publisher, aussie-author, arc-are

Elly Cartwright, a technical writer for a software company, is looking forward to a relaxing evening at home after a long day at work but just a few steps from her front door, her neighbour, Mabel, tumbles into her arms and Elly is horrified to discover she has been shot. When the police question her, Elly remembers vaguely registering the sound of a car accelerating away after Mabel fell but not much more and despite idle speculation, Elly is certain the attack was random. So when she discovers
Elly Cartwright, a technical writer for a software company, is looking forward to a relaxing evening at home after a long day at work but just a few steps from her front door, her neighbour, Mabel, tumbles into her arms and Elly is horrified to discover she has been shot. When the police question her, Elly remembers vaguely registering the sound of a car accelerating away after Mabel fell but not much more and despite idle speculation, Elly is certain the attack was random. So when she discovers a colleague murdered in his heavily fortified home and another attempt is made on her life, Elly is at a loss to explain why she is being targeted by a ruthless killer, but she had better figure it out, fast, before he finds her again.

No Safe Place is a fast paced, enjoyable suspense novel from debut author Jenny Spence. The story takes us from the cold and blustery streets of Melbourne to the sunny city of Sydney as the attempts on Elly's life plunge her into a deadly game of hide and seek. With the police proving to be largely unhelpful, Elly turns to her colleagues at Soft Serve Solutions for their assistance which eventually leads her to uncover a conspiracy of murder and fraud. Though there are no real surprises, No Safe Place is well plotted, building the tension as Elly gets closer to identifying her mystery assailant and those that hired him.

As a middle aged, single mother, Elly is an atypical heroine for a thriller, she is a rather ordinary woman caught up in something she doesn't really understand but nevertheless goes on the offensive in order to protect herself and those she loves. While it's a bit of a stretch to think anyone would be able to adapt to the cloak and dagger routine quite as quickly as Elly does (no matter how many crime shows they may watch), I did enjoy the fact that she made thoughtful decisions and didn't deliberately place herself at risk.

I love that Elly is ably assisted by the IT wizards she works with who take it upon themselves to dig for information which would explain why Elly is a target. Though the 'boys' tend to regard her situation as an extension of an online game, they are eager to help and even set up a protection detail for her.

No Safe Place is an entertaining low key thriller. Though this novel ties up all the loose ends, I think there is the possibility that we will we see more of Elly Cartwright in the future and I look forward to it.
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May 21, 2013 Brooner rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian

May 30, 2013 Vicki Tyley marked it as to-read

Shelves: aww-2013

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