The Blurb:
Four years after the events of Into the Night, DS Gemma Woodstock is on the trail of a missing girl in a small coastal town.
'Every bit as addictive and suspenseful as The Dark Lake . . . Sarah Bailey's writing is both keenly insightful and wholly engrossing, weaving intriguing and multi-layered plots combined with complicated and compelling characters.' The Booktopian
A fifteen-year-old girl has gone missing after a party in the middle of the night. The following morning her boyfriend is found brutally murdered in his home. Was the girl responsible for the murder, or is she also a victim of the killer? But who would want two teenagers dead?
The aftermath of a personal tragedy finds police detective Gemma Woodstock in the coastal town of Fairhaven with her son Ben in tow. She has begged to be part of a murder investigation so she can bury herself in work rather than taking the time to grieve and figure out how to handle the next stage of her life - she now has serious family responsibilities she can no longer avoid. But Gemma also has ghosts she must lay to rest.
Gemma searches for answers, while navigating her son's grief and trying to overcome the hostility of her new colleagues. As the mystery deepens and old tensions and secrets come to light, Gemma is increasingly haunted by a similar missing persons case she worked on not long before. A case that ended in tragedy and made her question her instincts as a cop. Can she trust herself again?
A riveting thriller by the author of the international bestseller The Dark Lake, winner of both the Ned Kelly Award and the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for a debut crime novel.
My Thoughts:
Sarah Bailey is one of the fresh new voices on the Australian crime scene, and I really loved her debut novel The Dark Lake. This is her third book, and continues with the story of DS Gemma Woodstock, single mother and troubled cop, and her obssessive need to solve puzzles and bring justice. Once again she absorbs herself in a case to avoid thinking about her own life, and once again it's a tricky mystery with lots of clever twists. I like Gemma’s strong spirit and hot temper, and the vulnerabilities that she tries so hard to hide.
This mystery is set on the far north coast of NSW, near Byron Bay, a landscape of beaches and bush that is very different from the settings of the first two books. A missing girl is at the heart of the mystery, though it is the murder of her 17-year old boyfriend that brings Gemma to town. A fantasic fast-paced mystery with heaps of surprises.
You might also like to read my review of The Dark lake by Sarah Bailey
