Marele Day has created powerful characters who are clearly defined by their distinctive voices and these characters fulfil their role within the novel of private investigator genre. The two main voices are easily distinguished, not only by the dual narrative but by the different voices created by Day’s word choice imagery, tone and syntax. Day uses Sydney as a backdrop to explore the issues of the past and present, alienation, technology and facades.
Distinctive voices help shape the meaning by emphasising thematic contents. The distinctive voices of Claudia and Lavender reflect how insidious Sydney is. The “surfer boys” are casual and