Highway Thirteen: Stories by Fiona McFarlane

In this collection of linked short stories, the common thread is the twelve murders committed by killer Paul Biga. Biga is loosely based on the real life serial killer Ivan Milat. Laid bare to the reader is how violence and trauma can affect so many. There's Simon from England, whose older sister was backpacking in Australia and disappeared. While Eva and her husband, Gerald, lived across the street from Biga when he was young and are witness to the tearing down of the home many years later. In another story, May lives with her boyfriend and suspects that he could be the one the authorities are looking for. Other stories feature a famous actor playing Biga in a miniseries, a politician running for re-election with the bad luck to have the last name Biga, and a group of English schoolgirls' trip to Rome that has a connection to the case. The stories, spanning over 70 years with characters of a wide variety of ages, are thought provoking and hard to forget.