When a childhood friend is murdered, a sense of guilt and a determination to prove his own innocence sends Caleb on a hunt for the killer. Unlike Jessica, though, Caleb did learn to sign.

He is a private investigator who has been profoundly deaf since early childhood – from meningitis (which was also behind author Jessica White’s deafness). Resurrection Bay is the first in Viskic’s Caleb Zelic series. Because I experienced it in audio form, my comments will be general and briefer than usual. It would not be a problem, I expect, if you were listening to it through ear-pods while walking.Īnd now, I really should get to the book – but one more proviso. This made hearing in the car very difficult at times. The reader for this audiobook, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, was a great reader – and I am fussy about audiobook readers – but he used a wide dynamic range to convey emotion and meaning through his voice. However, another is that the sound needs to be good, and easy to hear above road and car noise. Viskic’s novel worked well in this regard. Drivers do not need to be trying to follow multiple strands or unpicking abstract language, for example. After all, one of the listeners is a driver who should be focusing mostly on the road. One is that straightforward narratives work best.

There are certain things you need in a car audiobook, we’ve found. Consequently, Resurrection Bay was the novel of choice for our last road trip. The problem was that every time I checked my library audiobook catalogue there was no Emma Viskic, until a couple of months ago. I wanted to read it, but I thought my best bet would be in audiobook form, because crime is the sort of writing that can work well in the car.

Emma Viskic’s 2015-published debut crime novel featuring a deaf investigator captured my interest at a time when we were looking for more fiction featuring differently abled protagonists. While I don’t, as a rule, read crime, I do like to keep up with new Australian works. That might sound strange for someone who claims to not read crime, but here’s the thing … In fact, it makes a particularly special contribution, because it is the first book I wanted to hear when we bought our new car with Apple CarPlay functionality back in 2019. Back in February, I said I planned to “read” more audiobooks this year, and slowly I’m achieving that goal with Emma Viskic’s Resurrection Bay being my third for the year.

Emma viskic caleb zelic