Paddy Richardson has written a compelling page turner that left me with a very sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. From the very first chapter I had a feeling that I knew where this was heading, and I wasn’t wrong but I only scraped the surface of what was coming.

Serena Freeman is the youngest child in a troubled family. It’s easy to make assumptions but I will stick to what I know. Mum has had a string of partners, some of them not very nice, and has quite a reputation for sharing her bed rather indiscriminately which doesn’t go down very well with the married women in town. Serena’s eldest sister Lynnie escaped town as early as she could, running away in the early hours of the morning when she was only 15. The boys have been in and out of trouble and it put Serena at a disadvantage from the time she started school – everyone knew the Freemans. Serena is very different from her family, she’s a quiet and studious girl who does well at school and keeps out of trouble. Until the year she starts distancing herself from everyone, and everything.

An atmospheric psychological drama, Swimming in the Dark, the fourth novel by award-winning New Zealand writer Paddy Richardson, explores the themes of family, oppression, fear and the strength it takes to rise above them.

Set in New Zealand, this contemporary, haunting tale unites four women, Serena and her sister Lynette, and school teacher Ilse Klein and her mother, Gerda, struggling against a legacy of fear, shame and guilt.

Fifteen year old Serena Freeman is the youngest child of a family with a reputation for wildness and petty criminal behaviour in the suburbs of Otago. Studious and quiet, she has tried hard to avoid being tarred with the same brush, hoping to one day escape and create a new life, as her eldest sister, Lynnie, did seven years before. When Serena disappears no one seems to care but Lynette returns to Alexandra to search for her, determined to uncover the secrets her younger sister has been hiding.

Their worlds collide when Ilsa inadvertently learns Serena's secret, a secret that revives terrible memories for Gerda of her time in Stasi Germany.

Beautifully written, this is a complex and gripping novel which I couldn't put down. I'm loathe to reveal this story's secrets, and at a loss to articulate its power other than to say I was held captive by the undercurrent of suspense, moved by the character's struggles, and stunned by the novel's conclusion.