Set in the Australian outback, in the Central New South Wales farming town of Nannine, WAKE is a cleverly plotted character-driven novel that shows the struggles one family encounters amidst the grief and suspicion of the disappearance of their beloved child.
It had been nineteen years since Evelyn McCreery disappeared from her family farm after returning from a local fair with her mother and sister. There has been no trace of Evelyn, and the internet sleuths and cold case investigators cast suspicion on the family and others in their quest for the 2-million-dollar reward.
Evelyn’s twin sister, Mina, always struggled in her sister’s shadow, but after her sister’s disappearance, Mina has become more reclusive over the years. She has few friends and stays close to the farm, but when Private Investigator, Lane Holland, shows up unexpectedly, Mina realizes he may just be the person to solve the case. Lane has successfully solved other disappearances, but his motivations are rooted in personal history. He is deeply protective of his younger sister, harboring a secret, and financially strapped, but helping Mina learn the truth could set Lane free as well.
As Mina and Lane work together, they uncover clues and deceptions that send the case in new directions that culminate in a night of dark reckoning. Will they survive the truth?
WAKE is an addictive crime thriller set in a harsh land with well-developed, complex characters. The tension is palpable as new leads are developed and chased. The author cleverly illustrates how the internet and social media can cast suspicions and try cases in the public forum based on assumptions and inaccurate or incomplete information. Mina and Lane are fascinating characters who traverse their personal tragedies in different ways. Lane is on an obsessive hunt across the land while Mina is trapped in her grief at her family farm. Together, they make their way to the revelations and closure they both desperately need. For all the great components of WAKE, I did feel a little let down by the ending, as I felt further clarification would have been more satisfying. Overall, this is an author to watch.
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 McCreery’s life has been defined by the intense public interest in her sister’s case—which 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 family’s 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, Mina’s mother funded a million-dollar reward for anyone who could explain how Evelyn vanished from her bed in the family’s farmhouse. The lure of cash has only increased public obsession with Evelyn and Mina—but yielded no answers.
Lane wins Mina’s 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 lives—and yield shocking results.
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