""Politically savvy, cleverly plotted...the kind of book that invites the ravenous language of binge reading: compulsive, propulsive, addictive.""--New York Times Book Review
For fans of Jane Harperâs The Dry or Gillian Flynnâs Sharp Objects, a searing debut crime novel set in the Australian outback, where the grief and guilt surrounding an unsolved disappearance still haunt a small farming communityâŚand will ultimately lead to a reckoning.
The tiny outback town of Nannine lies in the harsh red interior of Australia. Once a thriving center of stockyards and sheep stations, years of punishing drought have petrified the land and Nannine has been whittled down to no more than a stoplight, a couple bars, and a police station. And it has another, more sinister claim to fame: the still-unsolved disappearance of young Evelyn McCreery nineteen years ago.
Mina McCreeryâs life has been defined by the intense public interest in her sisterâs caseâwhich is still a hot topic in true-crime chat rooms and on social media. Now an anxious and reclusive adult, Mina lives alone on her familyâs sunbaked destocked sheep farm.
Enter Lane Holland, a young private investigator who dropped out of the police academy to earn a living cracking cold cases. Before she died, Minaâs mother funded a million-dollar reward for anyone who could explain how Evelyn vanished from her bed in the familyâs farmhouse. The lure of cash has only increased public obsession with Evelyn and Minaâbut yielded no answers.
Lane wins Minaâs trust when some of his more unconventional methods show promise. But Lane also has darker motivations, and his obsession with the search will ultimately risk both their livesâand yield shocking results.
Compulsively readable, with an unforgettable setting and cast of characters, WAKE is a powerful, unsparing story of how trauma ripples outward when peopleâs private tragedies become public property, and how itâs never too late for the truth to come out.