Norfolk: Island of Secrets.

• Author: Hutching, Megan

NORFOLK: Island of Secrets

Author: Tim Latham Published by: Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2005, 228pp, $35.

This is true-crime reportage by an Australian journalist who has become an expert on the Janelle Patton murder case. The book is a personal account of Latham's attempts to get information from the secretive and protective Norfolk Island community about the case. Latham's easy writing style conveys the tone of the place well: 'Norfolk Island is a community of sanction and payback. All societies have social mores and the smaller the community, the more significant and implicit they become. I was told repeatedly of an underground on Norfolk which uses social pressure to force people to leave if they're creating problems. It involves...