This debut adult crime novel from the author of Deadly Unna is set in Darwin. This is, I believe, a first. The main character is Detective Dusty Buchanon, a female cop in the very male world of the Northern Territory police force. Dusty gets taken off a case she had been working on by the new female commander and nearly considers leaving the force. However the discovery of the dead body of a young Thai prostitute, found in a billabong near a camp of disaffected Vietnam Veterans, looks to get her back on top. Then the body disappears and her colleagues turn against her-but she’s tough and determined to get to the bottom of the case. Dusty is a likeable hero and the somewhat exotic setting of Darwin (to me anyway) with its melting pot of people and cultures makes for a very good and ‘unputdownable’ thriller, with a bit of sex and dark humour to carry it along. I thoroughly enjoyed it and eagerly look forward to the further adventures of Dusty Buchanon.

Peter Milne is a crime aficionado and director of Abbey’s Bookshop, Sydney

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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