This sort of unease bubbles beneath the surface of all the stories. In ‘Traitors Bay’, Michelle is spooked by a group of Aboriginal boys when she’s left with her young son at a holiday house. Multiple sightings of the same panel van add to her growing dread, as does the isolated bushland setting. Just when the repeated allusions to ominous sights and sounds threaten to grow dull, the motif pulls the story to its thrilling climax.

The cunning trickster behind these deftly crafted pieces is something of puzzle himself, an actor-slashcomedian-slash-writer who can actually write. Although Franklin is better known as an actor – having appeared in Thank God You’re Here, The Librarians, BoyTown and Macbeth – he has also written for television shows Full Frontal and Jimeoin, as well as penning his own stand-up material for many years. Franklin’s experience as an actor no doubt informs the breadth and scope of these stories and their compelling characters; but it is his natural writer’s eye that captures the oblique and blurred boundaries of existence in this impressive début.