The Resolution by Lachlan Pirie

​The ending leaves me torn.

Leading up to the climax it was a slow burn, but in an enjoyable way, the tension building. not a page turner, because you do have to dedicate yourself to keep going. Same experience you'll have when reading classics, and that's what Pirie's writing reminds me of, classics. 

Spoilers going forward.

The ending. Oh, the ending. Johnathan getting with Janet was satisfying but simultaneously enraging. He set up his ex-wife's death, and Daniel succeeds in killing her, so Jonathan is guilty of hiring a hit, essentially. Then he attempts to kill Janet. She knows he had a gun, she called the police, and she woke up in the trunk (boot) of the Jonathan's Mercedes in the middle of the outback, after being hit by that very car. She clearly doesn't believe his story that the damage to the car is from a kangaroo. 

But. Pirie wrote Johnathan in such a way, that as a reader I was cheering for him, and empathizing with him, despite his crimes. The best outcome for Janet would have been to get away from both Daniel and Johnathan, and if Johnathan were a mature man (the premise of him asking Daniel to off his wife wouldn't have happened) he would have warned her immediately of Daniel's hit on her, and warned Daniel's parole officer.  But Johnathan is not mature, and he holds true to that character throughout the book. 

I love the ending because there is hope for Johnathan to be redeemed, considering Janet forgave what he did to her. And she may find the future of happiness she wanted. 

But, Pirie purposefully cut the story short, with no intent on a sequel. We are left to under if Johnathan and Janet stay together, he finds maturity and sanity, Janet finds peace and a life with the cell mate of her ex. And what about Daniel, he's in deep, considering he's bail jumping, and the death of Johnathan's wife is still being investigated. 

And Daniel, considering Tinkler's diary entries are written from the perspective of being police evidence, it is clear that at some point Daniel, with written evidence of Johnathan's crimes, and Johnathan's correlation to his ex's death,  means the book likely had a much darker ending, resulting in both men returning to prison (most likely life sentences), and Janet ending up stranded once more. Hence why Pirie may have cut the book a few chapters short to heave us with a sense of a happy ending.

It is definitely a book worth rereading, and studying. A master work in my opinion, even as this author's debut.

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