The Helpline

August 19, 2019
Australian author Collette debuts with the tale of the rather awkward Germaine Johnson as she does her part to assist a rundown senior center and its champions wage an existential struggle against the mayor and her schemes. Germaine isn’t a people person, so her new job at the Australian town of Deepdene’s Senior Citizen Helpline answering calls isn’t a natural fit. She sees an opportunity for advancement when mayor Verity Bainbridge recruits her to oust the troublesome president of the local senior citizens center committee and then to write a building inspection report after Germaine lets slip to the mayor’s friend Don Thomas, owner of the golf club adjoining the senior center, that the center is in poor repair. Germaine is also motivated by her crush on Don. To the end, Germaine has difficulty with feelings, which are, for her, “not only unpredictable” but “could be very unpleasant,” but she does become fond of the people at the senior center, and so, naively, believes that the report will be used to make improvements rather than as justification to close the building and then sell the property to Don. When she discovers this, Germaine works with her new friends at the center and in the town’s government to thwart the mayor. Readers who appreciate offbeat characters or a good David vs. Goliath tale should enjoy this. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management.

June 28, 2018
Germaine Johnson is an insurance probability outcomes mathematician with a burning passion for Sudoku championships. More comfortable with calculus and polynomials than people, the only job she can get post-retrenchment is answering a seniors’ helpline for the local council. ‘What would my key performance indicators be?’ she asks in her interview. Often-hilarious antics ensue as Germaine navigates her way through local government bureaucracy gone mad, and she unwittingly becomes the hero in a fight to save the local senior citizens centre from being closed down in favour of the golf club next door. In the process, she discovers a capacity for friendship she did not know she possessed. Comparisons between Germaine and Don Tillman in Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project are obvious, with both characters displaying autism spectrum conditions, however, the satirical skewering of the everyday operations of local government sets The Helpline apart. The story’s examination of brain power versus people power is delivered with wit and heart. Many readers today are searching for light but clever comic writing with a bit of a punch; they will happily find it in Katherine Collette’s debut.

Scott Whitmont is the owner and manager of Lindfield Bookshop and Children’s Bookshop