Call of the Falcon

Felicity Price

Hazard Press

Otago Daily Times, March 18th 2005

One of the pleasures of reviewing is the opportunity it affords to read work written by fellow New Zealanders, with an extra frisson of  pleasure when the setting or characters are unmistakably homegrown.  As a result I usually enjoy reading books by local writers.  In Call of the Falcon, Felicity Price makes good use of her journalism background to create an instantly recognisable Central Otago setting, and a vivid portrait of the endangered native bird to which title refers.  Unfortunately, I found the novel itself something of a disappointment. 

An American movie-crew is in New Zealand to film the story of real-life 19th century buccaneer Bully Heyes, who spent several years in the Otago goldfields with his common-law wife and her brothers as part of a travelling show troop . In the process, they spark a fire which sweeps across a highland range where a family of New Zealand falcons have been nesting, killing the adult female and hurting one of the chicks.   Hotshot American PR consultant Alex Zerakowski is holidaying in the area and is roped in to handle the mess.  In the process she encounters the damaged falcon chick, has an epiphany about the shallowness of her own life, and realises she is about to lose the man she loves…

The three stories (those of Bully Heyes, Alex, and of the falcons-and the young boy who has been watching them) are intertwined through the novel, and some work better than others.  The relationship between the boy and his grandfather is convincingly handled, and the physical descriptions of the land and the falcons are extremely detailed (although excessively adjectival).  Alex however has a Bridget Jones-like emotional immaturity that I find very irritating.  Price intends the book to serve also as history and ornithology lesson as well an environmental warning about the impact of filming on the New Zealand high country (discussed in an appended “This much is true…” section).  While commendable, this agenda was a little too obvious at times, and distracted from the narrative.  I like my moralising to be hidden under the other flavours, I’m afraid.  That said, she has obviously put a lot of research into the book, and I learned a lot about both falcons and Heyes, and if these are subjects that interest you, she includes suggestions for further reference at the back.