Debra Oswald

Celia lost her husband in a drive by shooting while pregnant with their first child. In order to create a new life for her and her daughter, Zoe, Celia purchases a stone fruit orchard in a rural area away from the threat of the city. Now Zoe is sixteen. Celia and Zoe lead a quiet hard-working life. Zoe is on holiday from school helping in the orchard. There is a labour shortage and when close friend Joe arrives with two potential workers, Celia agrees to take them on for the picking season. However, she is unsure about who these people are and when Zoe embarks on a relationship with eighteen year old Kieran, Celia's anxiety levels are elevated.
This story makes the reader consider how close do you keep your children to keep them safe? How much freedom do you give them?
The story moves at a pace and kept me engaged. a satisfying undemanding read.… (more)

The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald is a domestic noir novel centred around Paula, a GP in suburban Sydney. She has been friends with Anita and Stacey since high school, but Paula's life is turned upside down when one of these women is the victim of domestic violence early on in the book. This is all in the blurb (so not a spoiler) and The Family Doctor focusses on what happens to Paula in the aftermath of that tragedy.

Domestic violence is a serious problem in Australia, with one woman losing her life to domestic violence each week in our country.

Through Anita's role as a crime reporter and Paula's as a Doctor, Debra Oswald is able to shed light on this issue in a sensitive and caring way, whilst also forcing us to consider what we might do in their individual circumstances.

We've all visited a GP at some point (some of us more frequently than others) and I'm sure many of us have wondered about our Doctor's other patients and what our GP must have to deal with in a day. Here, Oswald gives us a peek behind the privacy curtain and Paula's unique character perspective was refreshing.

The Australian setting was instantly relatable to me and the plot development felt realistic and insightful. The Family Doctor reads like a thriller, but also contains lighter moments, focussing on the depths of love and friendship as well as grief.

The Family Doctor by Australian author Debra Oswald is recommended for crime and thriller readers and those who enjoy domestic noir. If domestic violence is a trigger for you then choose wisely, as The Family Doctor shines a light on this issue without apology.

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *… (more)

A very topical read given what is being discussed both in the Australian Parliament and elsewhere at present. Domestic violence is a community concern because it has such widespread social and economic consequences.

Finding her friend Stacey and her two lovely children already dead in her house and then watching Stacey's husband take his own life, has the effect of tipping the balance for Paula. She becomes much more aware of the signs of domestic violence which she sees in her work as a GP in a Sydney suburb. To be honest, Paula has not really recovered from the death of her own husband from cancer in the previous year.

In the months that follow Stacey's death Paula and her good friend Anita can't steer away from the issue of domestic violence, but Anita does not realise how it has affected Paula's thinking. They talk about how good it would be to rid the world of monsters, but neither imagine that they would take action themselves.

When the opportunity presents itself to actually rid the world of one monster Paula takes it, and everything else stems from there. In fact it all starts much earlier - in Paula's failure to protect Stacey and her children, in the failure of the legal/police system to protect them, or even to keep them informed.

An impressive novel.… (more)