There have been so many excellent Australian books lately and this was no exception. After enjoying the author’s first book, The Night Whistler, I was happy to get stuck into this one. Goodness it’s almost historical fiction, set as it is in 1971 in the small rural town of Moorabool. Sergeant Mick Goodenough heads up the police presence in the town.

It all starts with the apparent suicide of Deputy Mayor Tony Poulos, found dead in his car from a rifle shot. Soon after that Christine Makepeace, a supervisor at the abattoir, is found dead in her home. Another suicide? A circular mark on her temple could be that of a gun held to her head, Mick theorises, but the pathologist disagrees.

Still, Mick is curious about a few things. When Allie, an Aboriginal worker from the abattoir, gives him a key and tells him that Christine left her a note and the key asking her, in the event of her death, to get a notebook from her locker and take it to a particular journalist his curiosity is piqued. But when he gets the notebook he is whacked on the head and the notebook is taken. He is starting to smell a very big rat!

Things really hot up after that. It looks like there is a big cover up going on and no one is safe from the perpetrators who will stop at nothing to get what they want. The characters are priceless and the author gets the small town vibe spot on. There is much intrigue and a lot of humour and snarky dialogue. I enjoyed this sequel as much as the first book, it’s a little step back into a past that I lived through and the author gets it so right. This was a very entertaining story. Many thanks to Netgalley and Text Publishing for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

What a wonderful Australian noir crime thriller. The writing is up there with other great Australian authors like Candice Fox, Garry Disher and Tony Cavanaugh. Set in the 1970's in country Australia, where policeman Sergeant Mick Goodenough investigates suspected 'suicides'. There are many twists and turns, humour and romance throughout the story that led to a very exciting and rewarding finish. The novel is well worth five (5) stars and highly recommended to all noir, crime, thriller readers.