"Impressive debut full of secrets" - review of SEE HOW THEY FALL

SEE HOW THEY FALL by Rachel Paris (Moa Press, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

When Skye married into the wealthy Campbell family, she thought she was entering paradise. But lately, she’s been unhappy in her marriage to Duncan and hiding a few secrets of her own as she tries to maintain a normal, happy life for their six-year-old daughter, Tilly.

Now the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, has died and his three sons are set to inherit the luxury goods empire upon which he built their fortune. But plans for a seamless handover are complicated when a fourth, hitherto unknown, heir named Cody comes forward. The Turners gather for an intimate weekend retreat at an opulent seaside estate in order to meet this newcomer and figure out their next steps. 

With so much at stake, tempers flare and egos clash within their first few hours together. But even as the tensions rise no one could predict that their very first night would end with a shocking poisoning that leaves one family member dead and another fighting for her life.

A billionaire family’s gated homes including a showpiece coastal estate on the Mid North Coast may seem among the safest and most secure places in Australia, but that’s doesn’t prove the case in New Zealand lawyer turned author Rachel Paris’s impressive debut thriller.

“Succession meets Sharp Objects” was how Paris described her tale in late 2023 when her unpublished tale won the Phoenix Prize for a high-quality manuscript with commercial potential.

See How They Fall certainly ticks those boxes: it’s a riveting, pacy thriller kick-started by a twin poisoning among heirs to the Turner family fortune that then pleasingly goes beyond over-saturated domestic noir tropes by melding internecine family drama, secrets, and threat with police-centred crime thriller and some larger real-life issues.

Paris lures readers into an unpredictable journey via the alternating perspectives of two fascinating women dealing with past secrets and reeling from recent events: Skye, a bohemian artist who married into the Turner dynasty; and Mei O’Connor, a Detective Senior Sergeant in Sydney’s Homicide Squad who’s been near-shattered by her own recent emotional 1-2 gut-punch, and must navigate various pressures and powerful interests during a tough investigation involving the powerful Turner clan

While the wider cast isn’t as nuanced, and even sometimes stereotyped, overall See How They Fall is an impressive debut from Paris, overflowing with hidden truths and hidden evils and the damage they cause. A one or two sitting read that shows plenty of promise. I’m looking forward to what’s next.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.