“A police procedural . . . featuring a squad of interestingly flawed homicide cops … working multiple cases that feature multiple puzzles and a pool of incisively well-drawn murder suspects. . . . First rate.”— The New York Times Book Review

“Gripping. . . . As the story neatly advances from the viewpoints of characters both major and minor, Disher artfully employs misdirection. . . . Fans of [Peter Robinson or Ian Rankin] will find much to like in this dark whodunit.”— Publishers Weekly

“Procedural fans looking for something a little different will devour this one…. Enough dark overtones to elevate the series into the Ian Rankin league.”—ALA Booklist

The once-peaceful beach resort of Bushrangers Bay, not far from Melbourne, is the site of multiple crimes that must be investigated by Homicide Squad Inspector Hal Challis of the Mornington Peninsula Police Force and his staff. A toddler is missing; an unidentified corpse has been fished from the sea; cars are being stolen and torched; letter boxes are being burned. And then one of Challis’s own friends, Kitty Casement, who runs an aerial photography service and flies a Kittyhawk, is murdered. Figuring out the connections and identifying the criminals absorbs all the energy and intelligence of this cast of sympathetic but complicated policemen and women.


From the Trade Paperback edition.