How do you move on when the world won’t let you?

12:46: Claire Bingley stands alone at a bus stop
12:47: Ted Conkaffey parks his car beside her
12:52: The girl is missing . . .

Six minutes in the wrong place at the wrong time—that’s all it took to ruin Sydney detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not convicted of a brutal abduction,Ted is now a free man—and public enemy number one. Maintaining his innocence, he flees north to keep a low profile amidst the steamy, croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake.

There, Ted’s lawyer introduces him to eccentric private investigator Amanda Pharrell, herself a convicted murderer. Not entirely convinced Amanda is a cold-blooded killer, Ted agrees to help with her investigation, a case full of deception and obsession, while secretly digging into her troubled past. The residents of Crimson Lake are watching the pair’s every move… and the town offers no place to hide.

My Review

I loved this book. It’s taken me on walks with my dog and I’m sure I ended up walking further because I was so engrossed.

Ted Conkaffey was a Sydney detective, thrown out of the force after being accused of child rape and abduction. Of course we the reader know he is innocent, but his colleagues and even his wife don’t believe him. He has spent eight months on remand, but was released due to lack of physical evidence, but he can be re-arrested at any time.

So he moves north to a remote house in the crocodile-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake. Having no idea what to do next, he adopts an injured goose whom he calls Woman and her brood of goslings. Then his lawyer introduces him to private investigator Amanda Pharrell, who has served ten years for the vicious murder of her high school ‘friend’ Lauren.

Amanda has been hired to investigate the disappearance of successful but controversial author Jake Scully by his wife Stella. Ted joins Amanda in the investigation but is also interested in discovering whether she was justifiably convicted. Journalist Fabiana is more interested in looking at Ted’s conviction.

There are so many intertwining threads in this riveting book and some really fascinating characters – Ted and Amanda make an interesting if mis-matched pair. Others are not so nice (not that you could describe Amanda as remotely nice, more weird), while others are downright horrible. The two police officers who hound Ted are probably the worst.

It’s a combination of the likeable characters, particularly Ted himself, the steamy, claustrophobic setting, and the brilliant narration which make this such a great audiobook. I listened on Borrowbox and am waiting for the next instalment to become available in four days time. I can’t wait.

About the Author

Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.

As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.

Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.