The Maskeys
Reviewed By Nan van Dissel December 29, 2025
Author Stuart Everly-Wilson
Distributor: Transit Lounge
ISBN: 978-1-923023-42-0
Publisher: Transit Lounge
Release Date: 1 October 2025
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Australian author Stuart Everly-Wilson’s classifies his second published book ‘The Maskeys’ as a ‘crimance’; with an evolving romance in the background, readers have many crimes both large and small to solve. Although this small-town noir centres around two main dysfunctional families, the Reynolds and the Maskeys, Rodney the weedy runt, who lives in a tent and known as ‘the weazel’ is the main protagonist.
In the fictional Australian town Naples on far north coast of New South Wales, an incredible feud which had been festering and simmering away for many years between the two main families, suddenly came to a head. When her house was set alight, Gayle Reynolds felt certain that one of the Maskeys was the arsonist, who was responsible for the fire.
Not only was patriarch George Maskey the major drug dealer of the town, but he had also heavily involved her missing son Duncan in his operation. Meanwhile Rodney’s business shrewdness and quick thinking has kept the ailing George’s undertaking viable.
Gayle is determined to have revenge. Full of spiteful vengeance, and hatred for the Maskeys, and quite out of character, she commits a most unlikely crime, which sets in train the series of events, which she had least expected.
Although readers may initially find the large cast of mainly despicable and morally corrupt characters daunting, the author’s use of their backstories develops them into believable three-dimensional people who at times also undertake acts of kindness and humanity. While engrossed in the narrative, readers will empathize with the characters and at the same time come to understand why the characters do what they do.
An enjoyable holiday read.