An excellent debut thriller. Hopefully the first of many.
The plot is familiar and reminded me of similar books by Karin Slaughter and Tana French amongst others. A female detective, Gemma Woodstock, works in the small Australian town in which she grew up. She and her partner are investigating the murder of one of her old school friends, Rosalind Ryan, who was a popular and inspirational teacher at the local high school. However, Gemma still has unresolved feelings and guilt about events which happened when she was a teenager and these become important factors in the investigation of Rosalind's murder.
I loved this book. The atmosphere and tension are gradually increased by alternating between 'now' and 'then' with a clever denouement at the end which left me satisfied that all the loose ends had been tied up.
The plot is familiar and reminded me of similar books by Karin Slaughter and Tana French amongst others. A female detective, Gemma Woodstock, works in the small Australian town in which she grew up. She and her partner are investigating the murder of one of her old school friends, Rosalind Ryan, who was a popular and inspirational teacher at the local high school. However, Gemma still has unresolved feelings and guilt about events which happened when she was a teenager and these become important factors in the investigation of Rosalind's murder.
I loved this book. The atmosphere and tension are gradually increased by alternating between 'now' and 'then' with a clever denouement at the end which left me satisfied that all the loose ends had been tied up.