The Maskeys by Stuart Everly-Wilson

In the small town of Naples, “the air perfumed with incense and weed”, there is a pattern to life as the girls in the park watch their children and distribute drugs from their prams. Outside the Potters Gallery, where Hilda Maskey sells her mosaic creations, dealers sit on the bench in the sunshine where information is exchanged and fortunes can be told by Serenade Theodora, the town’s glamorous mystic. Then of course there is the pub and club for more alcohol, drugs and information exchange for “in small towns words take hold faster than flames” p5. Flames there have been, as Eric Lunarzewski’s newly built house on Gayle Reynolds’ land near the Maskey family property has recently burned down for a second time. It is widely believed that drug lord, George Maskey is responsible, and the assumption does nothing to harm his reputation as a hard man even though he is crippled, the result of a motor bike accident. Service station proprietor Gayle Reynolds, Eric’s lover, is searching for news of her son Duncan who stole drug money from the Maskeys and she is sure they are responsible for his disappearance. At the centre of it all is Rodney; weasel, runt, neglected child of a dead addict mother, working for the Maskeys, growing their dope and living in the forest. Self-sufficient Rodney, reader of library books, friend of Duncan, is so much part of the town’s fabric that he is overlooked and underestimated.

Naples is a microcosm of grief, love, loyalty, power, influence and salvation. The townspeople get on with life, trusting no one. The complex characters are flawed, George, “not much of a farmer, fell into dealing”. Hilda, “everyone expected a lot of me, but I never let myself become a junkie”, people who have lost their way, acting to survive, facing the consequences of the lives they have carved out for themselves.

The shifting timeline and perspectives are masterfully managed with humour and compassion as the author cleverly withholds details, trickle-feeding morsels that make sense of characters’ decisions and relationships. I thought the ending was rather too neatly wrapped up, maybe because I was more interested in the excellent storytelling and not ready to give it up.

Themes: Family, Drug use, Small town life.

Sue Speck