‘See How They Fall’ by Rachel Paris

Published by Hachette New Zealand,
12 March 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-86971867-1 (PB)

It's a truth universally acknowledged, at least in fiction, that a naïve young woman who marries into a wealthy family will eventually come a cropper. 

Ten years ago when Skye's eyes met Duncan Turner's across a crowded art gallery, she thought her ship had come in. That was before she met his autocratic father and realized that her life would never again be in her   own very talented hands. Now Sir Campbell Turner is dead, and his three sons are vying for control of the Turner millions. 

It all begins to go pear-shaped during an autumn weekend at the Turner estate. Skye wakes with the worst kind of throwing-up hangover despite not having drunk much. Then her small daughter Tilly is taken ill, rapidly deteriorates and is rushed into Intensive Care. She subsequently learns that Nina, her sister-in-law, has died after exhibiting similar symptoms. When arsenic poisoning is revealed as the cause, Skye and Duncan come under suspicion and are not allowed to see Tilly. That's when Duncan begins to behave oddly. Skye develops suspicions of her own, and enlists the help of Detective Senior Sergeant Mei O'Connor, who is in charge of the investigation into Nina's death and Tilly's poisoning. 

Mei's boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Wilson, is keen to wrap up the case as soon as possible. Soon a suspect is under arrest – but Mei is far from sure the evidence supports her guilt. From that point onwards, it's a case of two beleaguered women against the might of a powerful family and a senior policeman in line for promotion. 

Maybe it's just coincidence that the bad guys are all men, and nearly all the good ones are women, maybe not. To her credit, Rachel Paris has created a cast of widely varying characters. The three Turner brothers are quite different from each other: authoritarian Jamie, feckless Hugo, wavering Duncan.  Mei's colleague Macca is easily led, and Wilson is far too impressed by power and money. Skye is trusting at first but soon shows her core of steel against considerable odds. Mei is determined, and a firm believer in justice, even against similar odds. Ana, the only friend Skye trusts, is caring and motherly. 

The setting is Australia, alien territory to many readers, though not to the author. Place names and distances are unfamiliar, but locations like status-symbol houses, soulless police headquarters and hospitals with endless corridors are universal and well portrayed. 

It's a debut novel, but you wouldn't know it. There's variety of pace, domestic detail to leaven the tightly wrought plot, plenty of emotional undertow, and eventually the kind of spiralling into disaster that characterizes the denouement of the best crime fiction. Rachel Paris is one to watch.
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Reviewer: Lynne Patrick

Rachel Paris won the Phoenix Prize for the best manuscript in her Masters at Auckland University. She came to writing after a highly successful 20-year law career, specialising in fintech. She gained her Masters in Law at Harvard University. See How They Fall is her debut novel.

Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen, and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher for a few years and is proud to have launched several careers which are now burgeoning. She lives in Oxfordshire in a house groaning with books, about half of them crime fiction.