STUART EVERLY-WILSON The Maskeys. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey

Set in a small Australian town dominated by a family of drug dealers, Stuart Everly-Wilson’s new novel is full of memorable characters.

Possibly you’ve always been intrigued by the kind of people who feature prominently in Stuart Everly-Wilson’s The Maskeys, but never really wanted to spend too much time with them. You’ve wanted to be a fly on the wall in their dysfunctional, criminally funded house but never wanted to be invited for dinner. Well, no need to pine for what may not be because Stuart Everly-Wilson takes you right inside the Maskeys fictional world and keeps you there, entertainingly, for three hundred or so pages.

Everly-Wilson clearly knows his setting well. One of his most likeable characters, Leanne, finds herself increasingly drawn to the ambience of the Australian town of Naples:

It was something about the town’s energy. The sunshine, the music, the air perfumed with incense and weed. Smiling barefoot hippies, kids in tow … Friendly farmers with all the time in the world to introduce themselves to her; stoned backpackers, music blaring from their cars. A town full of cops – and everyone chilled.

Naples is so well depicted the reader is left with images of places, and the more astute reader could most probably plot out the town and the location of each house. While the underbelly of Naples is hidden, even the least inquisitive observer could tell a town like Naples might not be a town you would want to stay in too long. And if you did stay, the chances are you could have bought a one-way ticket to trouble. Almost all of Everly-Wilson’s characters look to have bought that one-way ticket, but it’s the ones who are trying to get away from Naples that the reader has the most interest in.

In The Maskeys there is an impressively large cast of characters who all appear convincingly on the page, some in quick effective brushstrokes, others more carefully drawn. From the moment Rodney is introduced, he is a character to watch:

Then the little figure in big clothes returned his sunglasses to his face and his heavy army backpack onto his narrow shoulders, and … lumbered head-down through the public bar and out onto the street, seemingly oblivious … But oblivious Rodney was not. Ever. He saw all.

The two standout characters, however, are service station owner Gayle Reynolds, and Hilda Maskey, the hard-drinking, dinner-table-setting matriarch of the Maskey family. Clearly both women are ruthless, but their actions also show them to be courageous with a strong sense of humanity. Gayle, motivated by her love for her wayward son, refuses to give up on him, and Hilda, who has borne enough tragedy to break lesser people, still has a sense of worth and a plausible belief that she deserves the chance of a better life.

Everly-Wilson successfully avoids stereotyping even the worst of his characters by knowing them well and giving almost all of them just enough humanity to evoke the reader’s sympathy. No matter how awful the crime, most of the characters have understandable and relatable motivations. Even George Maskey, the Don Corleone of the family, is relatable at times – especially so when Everly-Wilson describes his falling in love with a young Hilda. As a sign of his love, George, the major drug-dealer of Naples, ensures no one sells heroin to Hilda – perhaps not all that admirable, given he continues to sell heroin to everyone else, but kind of endearing, nonetheless.

The novel moves had a fast clip; someone will have an idea and it will be  acted upon within hours. Given the crude motivations of some of the characters, mostly mercenary or revenge, this is no surprise. In a small town like the fictional Naples, it’s probably wise to act fast before someone beats you to the punch. Ironically, the only leisurely action is the work of the mysterious murderess Sandra, who moves frighteningly slowly with her victims, sometimes biting off more than she can chew but mostly getting the job done.

There are some entertaining minor characters, which give the impression Everly-Wilson promised a few people he’d pop them in the novel, such as the livestock expert, and Ratshit, an author who’d prefer to be known as Dimity. Then there’s Serenade, who sees everything. Everly-Wilson gives you the greatest confidence that this is indeed true and Serenade does see everything, but at the end of the novel you can’t help hoping she’s not right all the time. That you do feel that way is the novel’s triumph.

Stuart Everly-Wilson The Maskeys Transit Lounge Publishing 2025 PB 320pp $34.99

Catherine Pardey has reviewed for Rochford Street Review and The Beast.

You can buy The Maskeys from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW.

You can also check if it is available from Newtown Library

Tags: Australian fiction, Australian writers, crime fiction, drug-dealing, small towns, Stuart | Everly-Wilson