Wake

More about the book

In a searing debut crime novel set in the Australian outback, a small farming community grapples with the grief and guilt surrounding the unsolved disappearance of Evelyn McCreery, which haunts them even nineteen years later. The once-thriving town of Nannine has dwindled to a mere stoplight, a couple of bars, and a police station, its landscape ravaged by drought. Mina McCreery, Evelyn’s sister, has lived her life under the shadow of her sister's case, which continues to captivate true-crime enthusiasts online. Now an anxious recluse on her family's desolate sheep farm, Mina is approached by Lane Holland, a young private investigator who left the police academy to pursue cold cases. With a million-dollar reward funded by Mina’s late mother for information about Evelyn’s disappearance, public interest remains high, yet answers elude them. Lane gains Mina's trust through unconventional methods, but his darker motivations threaten both their lives as he becomes increasingly obsessed with the case. This compelling narrative explores how trauma reverberates when private tragedies become public spectacles, revealing that it’s never too late for the truth to emerge.