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Killing The Rabbit by Alison Goodman
01/08/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Bantam Spectra. 433 page paperback. Price: $ 6.99 (US), $8.99 (CAN) ISBN: 978-0-553-59011-1. Buy Killing The Rabbit in the USA - or Buy Killing The Rabbit in the UK  check out websites: www.bantamdell.com
Occasionally, we get books where I'm not entirely sure why they should fall under our remit. Usually, it turns out the author in question has written SF before and the publisher wants to make sure the fan base knows about it. Alison Goodman's claim to fame is a teen SF story and this is her first adult book. The only thing that makes this loosely SF is the ability of a small number of women in Australia to reabsorb foetuses rather than abort them in a similar fashion to how rabbits do it. Other than that, this is more a standard thriller.
You have a film director, Hannie Reynard, wanting to make a documentary on the subject, royally wasting some money and getting the co-operation of her executive producer, Mosson Ferret, as cameraman as they go on the trail as their main lead, Regina, disappears and others on her list to interview are killed off. We even see this from the perspective of the assassin who isn't quite sure why he is killing off these women. All these factions are eventually brought together at the end of the story.
Goodman leaves the clue at the beginning of the novel and doesn't re-enforce at the end that corporate forces don't like the idea of natural contraception taking place so consequently, we just see the dirt end of the stick. I'm only mentioning that here cos overall, it isn't really pertinent to the story. Goodman's strength is in writing three-dimensional characters and much of the plot of superficial until it's brought into the act to remind you what is going on between a developing love story.
The odd thing I found was that despite Goodman being an Australian and that the book is set in Australia, that the story feels like it could be set in America. There is very little local colour and only a few slips into Australian slang towards the very end. Whether this was deliberate to catch an international market or not is debatable. It's just a shame she couldn't use more of her native land.
Intrinsically, there is nothing wrong with this novel. I'm just not entirely sure if it's Science Fiction. I think now that Alison Goodman has shown she can write for adults that she really needs to get her teeth into an SF subject and show she can write in our genre.
GF Willmetts
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