Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina

Book of the Week: 22 September 2019

Photography by Shutterstock

A short and powerful read by brother and sister writers, Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina, set in a small Australian town. Grieving detective Michael Teller is attempting to get to the bottom of a series of murders and a fire in a children’s home that may have been started deliberately. He is being watched over by the ghost of his dead daughter, Beth, who was killed in a road accident. Only he can see and communicate with her. When they visit a hospital to interview a potential witness, a girl called Isobel Catching, they hear a strange and confusing story that may be a fantasy or may tell them something important about the dreadful events that have taken place.

Beth narrates most of the story in prose, whilst Isobel’s experiences are in free verse. This mix of styles and interweaving of  a tense, real-life crime mystery with dream-like sequences, makes for a compelling and unusual book.