The eternally wise and classy English playwright and poet, William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), had vehemently deep insight into the human psyche and condition. Of the immoral, yet cunning, use of money and power held by some of those in the upper echelons of society, to usurp control over those ‘beneath’ them. Shakespeare incisively wrote, “Uneasy is the head that wears the crown” (a line from Shakespeare’s play Henry IV, Part 2) and that “Fishes live in the sea, and men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones” (a quote from Shakespeare’s play Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act 2, Scene 1).

Such truisms are superbly looked at and examined in stellar New Zealand author, Rachel Paris’s, phenomenal debut psychological thriller and crime novel, See How They Fall.

The Turner family inhabit a world which is the great envy of those outside the Turner’s (heading a luxury goods empire) shimmering (or so it appears) orbit. Living in Sydney, the Turner dynasty (whose patriarch and chief overseer, Sir Campbell Turner, has recently passed away) have the wealth to facilitate a lifestyle of eye-watering luxury and flamboyance.

Gathering at the family weekend property north of Sydney, Yallambee, for the Easter break, the Turner brothers (Jamie, Duncan and Hugo) and their wives/friend and children are unknowingly heading into the weekend from hell.

It all begins so blissfully. As Skye (Duncan’s artist wife and mother to their six year old daughter, Tilly) reflects to herself, “We usually only visited Yallambee in midsummer, when the light was golden and guests arrived by superyacht and helicopter to join Campbell’s glittering beach parties, so the estate looked strange under a charred autumn sky…..It would be the first gathering of the Turner family since Campbell’s funeral. No security, no chefs, no nannies, just family”.

Despite the lack of ‘hired help’ that the Turners are so used to, and heavily dependent upon, this family weekend still looks to be (as Turner festivities always are it seems) amazing.

The only fly in the ointment (depending on who you talk to) is the inclusion of Duncan’s only recently located son, Cody. Will Cody (a bartender, from a working-class life that is light-years away from the Turner’s extravagances) fit in with the Turner’s opulent, yet highly rigid, lifestyle? Will he ever be ‘one of them’? Can he be trusted enough to be brought unreservedly into the fold?

This ‘dilemma’ turns out to be the least of everyone’s worries however, as a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions takes hold of the weekend plans. Nina (Jamie’s wife, and mother of their three children) becomes ill and passes away, while Tilly also becomes ill, but hangs on by a thread.

A police investigation, headed by Detective Senior Sergeant Mei O’Connor and Detective Sergeant Stuart McKenzie, finds that “arsenic poisoning” has affected both Nina and Tilly. And so, a nightmare for the Turners, especially Jamie and his children, and Duncan and Skye, engulfs the family. It becomes an awful dream-like scenario in which Duncan and Skye’s torment is further exacerbated when they are prohibited from seeing Tilly, as they are both suspects. In fact everyone present that weekend are suspects.

Desperate Skye has a history of mental health issues. Has she become unstable enough to poison her own daughter? Have Nina or Tilly seen or heard something they shouldn’t and become someone’s deliberate targets?

Skye is convinced that someone is following her and that she is being monitored around the clock in the wake of the poisonings. Is that true or a figment of Skye’s now icily fragile mental state, given Tilly’s precarious condition, and Skye being forbidden to be by Tilly’s side? 

What will Mei (who lives a life that is metaphorical miles removed from the Turner’s seemingly untouchable and opulent lives’), living with her mother, who is dying of cancer, in a modest dwelling and recently dumped by her boyfriend, uncover of the Turner’s lives?

Is the seemingly unstoppable Turner family not as squeaky-clean as the world once thought? What skeletons could they be hiding in their cupboards? Who can be trusted and who should the police have in their sights? If there is any hint of corruption, how deep does it go?

Who is Cody’s mother, and does she hold a piece of the puzzle?

What is going on in Skye’s life that has her so spooked? Why is Thornfield (her and Duncan’s Sydney mansion, in Bellevue Hill, that “had once been the Swiss consular residence”), feeling like a prison to Skye?

Cody stormed out of dinner on the Easter weekend. Could he have tried to implement ‘payback’ to the Turners for the lost years of his life?

Could Jamie have had reason to murder his wife and for some reason, Tilly?

What Turner family secrets are going to be held up to the light as a result of Mei’s investigation? Will Mei get in over her head?

People like the Turners have always been untouchable as regarding ‘lessor mortals”. Will that forever be the case?

Rachel has knocked it out of the ballpark with this breathtakingly good novel. The writing in See How They Fall exudes intelligence, wisdom and fantastic insight into the human psyche and condition. The good and bad. The noble and depraved.

This one will have you turning the pages faster and faster, late into the night. With the summer holidays approaching (in Australia and the southern hemisphere), this is the perfect beach holiday read. For those in the northern hemisphere, I recommend it as a great Christmas holiday read. Who doesn’t want to escape into a shiny world of opulence and intrigue? And if shady characters and crime are added to the mix, then things get even more interesting and convoluted.

This book is a five star read from me. It transported me into a world I am most definitely not a part of. And don’t want to be (you will see what I mean after reading this book).

I loved every minute of reading See How They Fall. Bravo Rachel! You have achieved greatly in writing this one and I hope it has a wide readership.

Shakespeare’s powers of observation are still ringing true, as evidenced by the exploration of human nature by Rachel in See How They Fall. And that is a major complement.

I see a spinetingling Netflix series being made about this eerily timeless story and the Turner clan. It will most definitely be a success.