Sandspit Crossing

This new novel by Noel Virtue is set in an isolated township of jerry-built houses in North Island, New Zealand - ‘only a smudge of fly dirt on the map’. In true black-comedy fashion, it seethes with mayhem and skulduggery. When Norrie and Kezia leave Sandspit Crossing to seek their fortune, young Athol Buck moves in with Magdalen Maidstone, a spinster librarian who rides a motor cycle, wears her hair in a bun and sports a moustache. Her rejection of the amorous advances made by Mr. Ritter the butcher has dramatic consequences, thwarting her mission to ‘Save Sandspit’. It is the evangelist Reverend Enoch Fulk, whose fervour dripped from his tongue ‘like melted lard’, who tries ultimately to build, literally, on the township’s demise. But he is not to outwit the resourceful Miss Maidstone and her plucky protege, Athol. Once again Noel Virtue has created a unique ambience in which to portray his wonderfully bizarre characters. He does so with gusto, humour and a captivating mesh of his native vernacular.