The story is as follows: Simon and his parents have travelled to Reception, a small coastal town in Queensland. Early on, Simon’s parents disappear, and he is left to fend for himself among shady fishermen, inept policemen, and one or two kind-hearted locals.

From the outset, Simon’s journey seems strangely secondary to other events, with Currie choosing to concentrate on the eclectic back-stories of a variety of local citizens. For all the quirky characters (and there are many), Simon himself seems more cypher than main protagonist. Granted, Simon is only eleven years old, but there have been many well-rounded, conflicted child protagonists with distinctive voices in contemporary Australian literature, with Jon Bauer’s Rocks in the Belly (2010) offering one recent example.

Elsewhere, Currie creates a believable depiction of life in a coastal town, and the landscape is well described throughout. Small-town dynamics are also well observed, and the characters, for the most part, remain convincing and interesting. Unfortunately, the lack of similar depth in Simon distances the reader. What’s left is a cloudy memory, a recollection of a novel that starts with the disappearance of Simon’s parents and then spreads out into an ensemble piece, with each fragment taking us further from our initial interest in Simon.

Currie will write better novels than The Ottoman Motel: tighter, more engaging journeys, spurred on by well-drawn, intriguing protagonists. When this happens, one hopes his editorial team will better guide him in the creation of a fully immersive narrative.