Hydra by Adriane Howell is true to its title – a beast that is hard to contain. It’s loosely Australian gothic, and tells of Anja, a young, ambitious antiquarian, whose specialty is mid-century furniture.

We learn a few important things about Anja early in the story – her rival at the auction house where she works is Fran; her marriage ended on a recent trip to Greece; and she is intent on classifying objects based on emotional response (as opposed to origin or period).

Teapots, I decided, were connected to storytelling, belonging to the Department of Once Upon a Time.

As well as her marriage imploding, so does Anja’s career (not helped by a run-in with Fran). Suddenly adrift, she purchases a clifftop cottage on an isolated stretch of coast held by the neighbouring naval base. The cottage is derelict and surrounded by scrub. Anja does her best to tame the garden and yet a presence – beast, ghost or other – is close, and Anja’s fear slowly rises.

The story is told in the first person and Anja’s unraveling is interspersed with historical naval intelligence reports, which elude to specific but unexplained events at the naval base. The reports correlate with Anja’s suspicions about the presence of a beast, allowing the reader to join some of the dots, but still maintaining the suspense.

There was something a little bit too clever about Hydra for me – perhaps my lack of knowledge about Greek mythology did me a disservice and I failed to see the parallels. And particular events – such as the ghost in the vineyard, the fateful dinner at the fancy restaurant, the suiciding squid, and the sporadic visits by Anja’s father – were given narrative prominence but I failed to see how they pulled the reader toward the conclusion. Maybe I have missed something glaringly obvious…?

Additionally, some of the detail was uneven – lots about mid-century Wegner chairs and Susie Cooper tea sets, light on the emotional plot line (the break-up with her husband left me wondering, as did the argument with her friend, Beth) – maybe this was the author’s intention? Maybe the Cooper teapot was a metaphor for something?

What I did enjoy was the setting – I think modeled on Point Nepean, the Mornington Peninsula and the Tyabb Packing House? That’s what was in my mind as I read. Howell’s descriptions of the landscape were striking and she creates a strong sense of place –

The bush was like a rococo relief: scrolling and curvaceous, dramatic and untamed. Everything uninhibited until … ahead … the emerald shoots of a wallaby grass parted unnaturally…

While I seem a little indifferent to Hydra, there are two scenes that bookend the novel – both feature Susie Cooper and both will make you gasp (for those who have read the book, the first relates to how Anja loses her job, and the second involves a shovel) – that are truly memorable.

3/5 Interesting.

There is champagne and a speech … about the history and significance of the collection… Food is themed – yakitori for Japanese antiquities, devilled eggs for Art Deco design.