Brendan Colley is a Hobert based writer. In 2019 Brendan won the University of Tasmania Prize for an Unpublished Work. This came after decades of writing and has delivered us, the readers, The Signal Line, his first novel.Geo has returned to Tasmania following the death of his father. Geo’s back to sell the family home, little realizing that his brother Wes is living there while his marriage breaks down.Wes followed in their father’s footsteps becoming a cop. He’s more like their father than Geo is comfortable with and he’s not having any of Geo’s talk about selling.Geo needs the money to fund his auditions and fulfill his dream of joining a Symphony Orchestra. Their whole family have musical talent but Geo is the one trying to realize his. Geo feels no attachment to Hobart and wants to be rid of the ghosts of his father and the way he treated him.Geo’s arrival sets the stage for an ultimately family conflict… and then a ghost train appears followed closely by an eccentric ghost train hunter.What is Geo to make of the increasingly eclectic cast of characters appearing in his life and why does he feel so at home with them all?The Signal Line is about the things that get us out of bed in the morning and equally keep us up at night.Geo and Wes are each other’s foils; Wes had the talent to make it, Geo the drive. Their father’s descent following a shooting has left them estranged, Geo feels like he was raised by a different man.Without the money from the sale Geo can’t fund his dream of becoming a concert violist and lately he’s come to question that dream.When ghost hunter Sten arrives in Hobart Geo sees in him someone who has unflinchingly followed an impossible dream; to board the ghost train. Can Geo find the same kind of certainty in his dream and is he ready to do what it takes to make it come true.Let’s start by addressing the elephant (or ghost train) in the room. Yes this book has at its core a big whack of the supernatural including a spectral train driving through its core. The supernatural in The Signal Line is handled with a dab hand such that while it literally possesses a ouija board and a lamp it never tips the story into the ridiculous.Instead we have a story that speaks to the reader about longing and purpose. Wes and Geo are perfectly, albeit violently poised in a tense equilibrium. Both have a restless energy that has prevented them finding peace and driven them back together.While the brother’s relationship is at the heart of The Signal Line, the book contains an irrepressible cast of strange and wonderful characters.And of course there's a freakin ghost train. I cannot overstate how exciting the presence of the train is and yet it fades (pun intended) as we lose ourselves in the book’s relationships. There’s absolutely something about a story that constantly surprises you with elements that you are coming.The Signal Line is a definite candidate for fave read so far this year.
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