Review of The Red Shoe

The whiff of intrigue and mystery will keep you turning the pages of this story of a family living in Australia in the 1950's. Told from the viewpoints of the three daughters aged 6, 11 and 15, the story follows their life with their mother, their war sore father, who is often absent on his ship (or is he?), and footloose and fancy free Uncle Paul, who might be making things better and then, maybe he's making things worse. And just who are the mysterious new neighbours with the long black cars? The way the outside world intrudes on the family is creatively captured in the newspaper clippings that divide the chapters and they report of Russian spies, children dying of polio, the excitement of the Royal Easter show.