Title: Lake Friction
Author: Ron McCarthy
Publisher: XlibrisAU
ISBN: 9781664101654
Pages: 234
Genre: Fiction / Action Adventure / Crime
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop

Read Book Review

Australia is the locale for this novel which highlights how good intentions can lead to bad decisions, and how the right man in the right place at the right time can have a positive effect not only on his own small circle of friends, but on the community as a whole.

Len is an ex-World Cup football star who finds himself in an Aussie lakeside community where he’s agreed to help out with an interim coaching assignment. As he begins to get involved with the players on his team, he also becomes embroiled in some shady shenanigans being perpetrated by a group of activists unwilling to wait for politicians to do what’s necessary to deal with climate change. The group plans to create an event that will force the hand of community leaders, but whose side-effects could also lead to devastation, injury, and death.

As the activists’ plan begins to unspool, it actually causes the death of a beloved supporter of the team Len is coaching. Later, an attempt is made on the life of one of the parents of Len’s team—which is followed by the murder of a young woman. Are the attempted murder and the killing connected to the climate plot? Will the killings stop, or will there be more to come? An experienced police inspector (who has been helped by Len in the past) is contacted and comes down to help unravel the mysterious crimes.

While all of the aforementioned is taking place, a terrible storm ensues that causes flooding, and additional lives are put at risk as Len, his team and his mates volunteer to put themselves in jeopardy by helping the authorities rescue townspeople in danger not only from rising waters, but from looters and scavengers as well.

Author McCarthy tells his story mostly in present tense. This technique helps increase the tension factor, but occasionally makes transitions from one scene to another unnecessarily jolting. However, he does a good job of capturing the local color of the setting and the characters who inhabit his yarn. His detailed expositions regarding things from mining, to hiking, to water skiing and more, increase the authenticity quotient of his tale. And while there are occasional scenes of violence and a few of sex, McCarthy doesn’t go overboard in mining the more prurient aspects of either.

The author’s protagonist, Len, is an interesting character who involves himself quickly with both events and people, yet keeps a degree of emotional distance, even with those in which he is intimate. This enables him to maintain his options in regard to becoming emersed in the lakeside community or moving on. Author McCarthy is likely keeping his powder dry for whatever the future holds for his exceedingly capable but highly modest hero. Chances are we may well see Len again.