Author(s): Darcy Tindale

Crime & Mystery

From an exciting new voice in Australian crime fiction, a captivating and atmospheric rural thriller introducing Detective Rebecca Giles.

'Rural noir at its very best.' Candice Fox

'Unpredictable, authentic, a thrilling debut. This gripping tale kept me up all night.' Margaret Hickey

'Full of heart while keeping you on the edge of your seat.' Kyle Perry

On a hot November morning, the first body lies in a cattle trough . . . It will be another two hours before rigor mortis sets in. Until then, the slim fingers will float below the water's surface, gently bobbing, beckoning Detective Giles to come and find her.

Detective Rebecca Giles has just finished interviewing aging petty crim Sticky Pete over a spate of break-and-enters when a disturbing new report comes in. Twelve-year-old Kayleen Ellis has vanished from her home in Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter Valley.

Hours later, Giles is a local hero, having apparently solved Kayleen's case and the spate of jewellery thefts. Yet the hangover from her celebrations has barely kicked in when the body of young jillaroo Ava Emmerson is discovered in gruesome circumstances on a nearby farm. Giles is convinced the link between all three cases lies in the town's tragic history, perhaps even in her own mother's mysterious drowning thirty years ago.

In a place where nothing much changes, suddenly a great deal is happening - and Giles's life and career are now on the line.