Asylum (Delaney and Murphy #1) by Jack Adams
Genre: Psychological thriller
Read: 2nd August 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 2nd August 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
Three things grabbed me about this book - one, the awesome cover and dark title; two, the thrilling rundown of its description; and three, it is Australian! Hailing from down under myself, finding authors from my part of the world with the ability to captivate and thrill readers with the ease of such seasoned writers as Mark Edwards and Val McDermid, is like striking gold. They truly are few and far between...or they simply disappear after a few books, never to be seen again. It is my fervent hope that Jack Adams remains firmly entrenched on the market for years to come.
The story begins with a haunting Prologue consisting of just five lines :
"Something happened here.
Behind these walls, in these rooms, on the grounds, at the river.
The inmate sketched it all - fine lines.
See there, in the negative space, the truth in the pencil strokes.
Then he was gone."
With these words, you just know you are in for one hell of an enthralling mystery. And I couldn't turn the pages or devour each chapter quick enough. It sounds almost spooky, and in a way, I guess it kind of is. But it's not a ghost story. It is about two boys and the friend they made through the boundary fence of an asylum. Then one day, he was gone.
Nate and Adam grew up together on the outskirts of Brisbane, although both were from very different backgrounds. Nate was from an anonymous working class family whereas Adam lived in the more affluent area, the son of a model once linked to a former Prime Minister and who drew the attention of the media at every turn. But as 10 year olds boys, they were best friends who loved exploring, imagining stories and enjoying the simplicity of their lives.
It was on one such exploration that they noticed a lone figure in white who always sat by the boundary fence within the confines of the River Park Lunatic Asylum. They watched him from their vantage point in a nearby tree as the man sketched relentlessly, and they imagined stories surrounding the man and other inmates of the asylum. It wasn't long before the boys struck up a conversation with the man, with incessant questions that the man happily answered in his own way. And soon, Nate and Adam found themselves looking for Joe each time they frequented the asylum boundary as the three of them became unlikely friends.
Nate and Adam spent as much time as they could there, as Joe regaled them with stories and insights - some of which befuddled them - and often sketched them. But he never told them why he was there. Still, Joe intrigued them.
Wondering what had led Joe to end up at River Park, regardless of whatever stories surrounded the asylum, Nate and Adam knew their friend wasn't insane. So why was he there?
But then one day, when they came to the boundary fence, Joe wasn't there. Each day they kept returning and looked for him but Joe was never there. He had gone.
Twenty years later, former police detective Nate Delaney was separated with a young daughter and was now setting up his own private investigation service. Adam Murphy was divorced and now a successful psychologist. Still best friends, the two men had just opened an office for their respective businesses with Jessica as their joint receptionist, whom Nate appropriated from his time in the police force.
Then one day, they receive a letter from a solicitor naming their childhood friend who had bequeathed them what Joe affectionately referred to as "expectations". The endowment was, in its essence, very Joe, as the men recall that he had once regaled them with the story of Pip from the Charles Dickens novel. Nate and Adam are speechless. They had not thought of Joe in long time. When had they stopped thinking about him, they wonder?
At the request of his wife, Joe has now been declared legally dead despite no body having ever been found and no sign of Joe since Nate and Adam last saw him 20 years ago. But the solicitor has a request of his own...and enlists Nate's professional services to find out what happened to Joe all those years ago - whether he escaped, or whether he was alive or dead. What ensues is an investigation that starts a chain of events discovering a mound of secrets that neither men knew existed as they both find themselves reminiscing about their childhoods...and their memories of their friend, Joe.
As their investigation deepened, the horrific atrocities uncovered were appalling. But someone doesn't want those shocking secrets revealed and will stop at nothing to keep them hidden.
But the secrets that the hollow walls of the abandoned asylum still held had been captured by Joe and a treasure map given to the then boys were to lead them to his sketches. If only they hadn't lost the map to a cycle in the washing machine all those years ago. Joe had trusted them with what they had seen as just a game and they owed it to him now to decipher the code he left them from memory and find out once and for all what really happened to their friend.
ASYLUM is a journey between these two men that we follow from childhood to adulthood and their search for the truth. It's like nothing else I've read and yet it is intriguing, compelling and completely gripping.
The characterisation of Nate and Adam was incredibly well-developed as they are not stereotypical in the way men are usually portrayed in fiction today. They are flawed and they know it. They are divorced - or in Nate's case, almost divorced - and yet they don't seek the next woman to warm their beds. Their relationships with their mothers are different and yet it doesn't define them. They are simply grown versions of the boys they were 20 years before when they befriended Joe. I enjoyed the quips between the two men, as well as those shared with Jess and Dan. They were fun and likable and I enjoyed being around them.
After the prologue, ASYLUM begins with the opening chapters weaving between "Then" and "Now". I love a good dual timeline narrative and the balance between each is perfectly executed as the story is fleshed out with impeccable timing at just the right juncture.
Aside from the ensuing mystery recounted in past and present and in Joe's diary, ASYLUM gives an insight into the difference in attitudes towards mental health and how they have changed. The appalling practices that would not be allowed today but were rife in days gone by and how patients were treated more like prisoners than people. Even to the extent where they are referred to as "inmates", a term usually reserved for those in prison rather than a hospital (of sorts).
When I requested this title, I wasn't aware that it was a series. Thankfully, it is just the beginning and after reading it I am now looking forward to more featuring this dynamic duo. We are given a taster of the second in the series STALKER in the notes at the end and I eagerly await this next installment of Delaney and Murphy.
An interesting and intriguing read, I thoroughly recommend ASYLUM - for its gripping story and the refreshing difference in setting, being in Australia - as Jack Adams skillfully weaves a tale of suspense and unravels it with the ease of more seasoned writers of our time.
I would like to thank #JackAdams, #NetGalley and #AtlasProduction for an ARC of #Asylum in exchange for an honest review.
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