Mina McCreery is the twin sister of Evelyn. This has made her an unwanted celebrity in the small outback town of Nannine. Nineteen years ago, Evelyn disappeared from their bedroom. To this day she has never been found.
Lane Holland dropped out of the police academy to become a private investigator. Struggling to pay for his sister’s university fees he lives out of the back of his car. He is hoping to solve the case and claim the million-dollar reward. Solving the case would resolve more than one problem.
However, Mina has had more than enough of living under the scrutiny of the public eye, sick of the many who think she had something to do with Evelyn’s disappearance. She now lives a solitary existence on her property. Lane must firstly win Mina over before he can make any headway on the case at all.
Burr writes with a distinctive descriptive style with truly evocative descriptions of the harshness, dryness, heat and isolation of the Australian outback. I could almost feel the heat radiating off the page as I read. Burr vividly describes the emptiness that prevails in what was once a thriving town. Now another drought-created ghost town stripped to a pub and a general store.
A great touch employed by Burr is that some chapters start with an internet web forum, where a discussion group is still discussing the case in the present. Burr skilfully uses these passages to fill the reader in on aspects of the case.
This novel homes in on how missing person cases can have debilitating effects on the family, changing their lives completely and indelibly. A wonderfully crafted narrative and a brilliant debut, especially for lovers of Aussie crime.
Reviewed by Neale Lucas
