1955, Mount Pleasant, Perth, Western Australia. Anna Fitzgerald lives with her widowed mother, she works at a grocery store and I would describe her as nice young woman. Anna’s life takes some unexpected and tragic turns, and always by her side is her best friend Gracie.

Anna, Gracie and Eddie visit Gun Island, they stay overnight, camping, swimming, snorkelling, diving and star gazing. Anna finds an old relic, the area is believed to be the site where many ships were shipwrecked and some from the Dutch East India Company or VOC.

Anna contacts a jeweller about how to clean something that’s been in the ocean, covered in barnacles, and sand. This is how she meets Bernie DeVry the shop owner and Samuel Friedman a bench jeweller. Bernie has his fingers in many pies, he likes to think he’s a big wheeler and dealer and instead he comes across as sleazy and cunning, Anna doesn’t trust him and rightly so. Samuel is nice, he has experienced tragedy himself, and trustworthy.

Anna writes letters to the Netherlands, and trying to discover the names of the VOC vessels that went missing in the early 1700’s, would any of them have female passengers and finding a person translate old documents. However, Anna needs to be very careful, there’s a lot of interest around locating shipwrecks, she doesn’t the wrong people to find out and what else there could be under the water or washed ashore?

I received a copy of The Shearwater’s Song by Lisa M. Marino from NetGalley and Troubador Publishing in exchange for an honest review. While reading this book you need to take into account the time it was set in, life was simple, moved at a slower pace and I thought Anna character was fitting.

Written because the debut novelist wanted to share her interest in shipwrecks off the Western Australian Coast, the Abrolhos reefs near Geraldton, what could be lying at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and highlight the mystery around this.

I liked the references the shearwater birds, to everything there is a season and a reason. A narrative about tragedy, loss, discovery, friendship, saltwater, treasure hunting and love. Yes the story jumps around a bit, one minute Anne is happy, then sad, some people might think the plot is lacking in depth and structure and I believe not everything has to be perfect and use your imagination.

A quick and enjoyable read, a pleasant way to spend my afternoon and considering what's possible, three and a half stars.

Set in 1950s Western Australia, this story has some well researched historical facts in it. The remote Abrolhos Islands there had numerous wrecks in the area in the age of sail. Many of them were Dutch East India Company vessels. Anna has had her share of loss and feels guilt about events too; an item she finds on a trip to dive off these islands with friends changes her life. Finding out the truth behind the find becomes an all consuming quest. Both on land and sea there are obstacles to her quest which will challenge her even further.

This is roughly the outline of the story here and the book follows Anna's adventures and trials. Anna is the main character in this and a couple of weeks after reading this few other people who are involved in this remain in my mind. There's a sense that this feels very dated I guess and rightly so give the era it's set in. It also feels quite naïve, again given Anna's age that is not that surprising. However for me both those aspects seem to dominate this book. That said parts of this book were very readable.

I really liked the historical aspect of this story and the adventure around that did keep me reading. However I never really felt fully engaged with this book - the ride felt rather uneven. I do have some issues with the language here and also the overly obvious repetition of some themes. Yes Anna was preoccupied with them however they became slightly irritating for me. The historical quest was good and well worked but it really didn't grab me in the way I'd hoped it would.