Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute by Maggie Groff, Pan Macmillan, $27.99
Maggie Groff brings us an irresistibly laid-back debut novel, set against a beloved Byron Bay with the magic, magnetism, charm and colourful characters reminiscent of Armistead Maupin’s cult Tales of the City series.
Groff’s tale is set in a commune — swaying with blue-smocked women with “Judy Jetson pony-tails” and names that conjure up drag queens (Cinnamon Toast will birth son Bruschetta) — and features appealing journalist protagonist, Scout Davis, as she investigates the “kidnapping” of a woman suffering from post-natal depression by the Gold Coast cult.
Bad girl Scout is happily seduced by a ripped surfie cop (while her press agency partner is in Afghanistan), and, casts a hilarious figure as a shadowy night member of the GKI (Guerrilla Knitters Institute) whose woven spiders’ webs lace trees, and orange knitted wigs on rubber swim caps (think Julia Gillard) were spun to “further the status of women in government”! Enormous fun.
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