Review by Booklist Review
In her American debut, Clifford takes us to Australia, the likeliest place on the planet to accidentally hit a kangaroo with a car. And that is just what happens to Tess Carmody in her father's prized Mustang. That was 20 years ago, when she and her sister, Eliza, were teenagers. At around the same time, one of Eliza's friends disappeared without a trace after an alcohol-and-hormone-fueled beach party. When Eliza, now a successful corporate attorney, returns to her hometown, she witnesses a brutal crime perpetrated by someone who was also at that party, and her interactions with other old friends lead her to question the veracity of her memories. Told through two time lines, first-person present and third-person past, this book could be called Third Sight because Eliza's second set of conclusions gets turned around in a surprise finish. Some readers might be baffled by the complexity, or grow impatient with the teen angst, but fans of Jane Harper's mysteries, also set Down Under in creepily threatening small towns, will feel right at home.--Jane Murphy Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This brilliantly crafted, slow-burn crime novel from Australian Clifford (All These Perfect Strangers) slides with delicious subtlety from a story that begins in small-town reminiscences and regrets, moves into amateur investigation blended with personal history and deep secrets, and then takes a plunge into driving thriller territory. Lawyer Eliza Carmody knows she will get little sympathy in her hometown of Kinsale, Australia, because she's there not only to visit her pregnant best friend, Amy Liu, and her father, Mick Carmody, who's unresponsive in nursing care after a car accident, but also to develop her case on behalf of Colcart Electric in a class action suit by Kinsale's residents over a devastating and fatal bushfire. Witnessing a violent fight involving Luke Tyrell, whom she remembers from childhood, leads her to revisit the events of New Year's Eve 1996, during which her other best friend, Grace Hedland, disappeared. The author tugs hard at universal human emotions as she explores themes of grief and the unreliability of memory. Readers will view everyone Eliza encounters with a blend of suspicion and sympathy. Clifford is definitely a writer to watch. Agent: Clare Forster, Curtis Brown. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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