First published 2018
Detective Harriet Blue faces an impossible situation. Her brother Sam sits in custody, charged with killing three students whose bodies turned up by the Georges River. Everyone believes he did it. Everyone except Harry. Her determination to prove Sam's innocence gets her exiled to Last Chance Valley, a dying outback town with just 75 residents. Harry thinks she's been sent there to rot. Then someone finds a diary on the roadside. The pages describe a plan to kill every person in town. When the first resident dies just after Harry arrives, she realizes the countdown has begun. Back in Sydney, a young woman knows something that could free Sam. She holds the evidence that would crack his case open. But she can't share what she knows. A killer has taken her hostage. Harry must race against time on two fronts. She needs to stop a massacre in the desert and save her brother from a murder conviction. The clock ticks down as both cases spiral toward deadly conclusions.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, race-against-time
Setting: Georges River, Last Chance Valley, Sydney
Period: 21st-century
370 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: murder