Newly returned to Western Australia, journalist Amy Rhinehart pitches a crime podcast to increase her radio station’s ratings. Her idea: to use the listeners of the show as its co-creators, with live-time calls and suggestion boards. The case: Jonah Scott, charged and imprisoned for life for the murder of his girlfriend, transgender woman Casey Williams. Jonah went to great lengths to hide the body, but when arrested, confessed immediately and pleaded guilty, negating the need for a trial. Amy believes there is something darker at the heart of this case and sets about finding the truth, investigating a world of drugs, sex, gender identity and religious cults.
Threaded throughout the main narrative, the podcast transcripts represent a story-within-a-story, exploring the characters of Jonah and Casey and their relationship, as well as Amy’s investigation into the cult run by Jonah’s family, and its potential involvement in Casey’s murder.
Kate McCaffrey is a WA-based author whose YA novels Destroying Avalon, Saving Jazz and In Ecstasy were critically acclaimed. Alongside writing, she teaches creative writing workshops to high school students. Double Lives is her first adult novel, and it has all of the grit and tension that made her YA novels such a success.
This novel is timely, contemporary and local, set in Perth. Anyone familiar with the setting will be easily drawn into the story, but you can also imagine it taking place in any number of locations. McCaffrey said that the hugely popular podcasts The Teacher’s Pet and Serial: This American Life inspired Double Lives. The Teacher’s Pet podcast famously led to the murder investigation and conviction of Chris Dawson which has been front-page news recently. Just like those podcasts, Amy’s investigations play out in real time as a huge audience begins to follow the case, raising questions of ethics and the nature of justice. Following a trail into a disturbing religious cult in Perth also adds another fascinating element about the secretive world of cults.. Double Lives rapidly develops into a complex web of unanswered questions that propels the story towards a climactic ending.
The murder case might be fictional but it is a heart-wrenchingly sad story that reflects societal issues of homophobia and transphobia. McCaffrey tackles themes of gender identity, religious cults and bigotry with great sensitivity. Double Lives is an impressive foray into adult fiction from McCaffrey, an accomplished writer delving into timely and important themes with nuance.
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