Wake A novel

Mina's twin sister, Evelyn, vanished from their outback sheep ranch when they were eight, and her unsolved disappearance has become an Australian true-crime obsession. Mina's mother fueled the interest of journalists and internet sleuths with a best-selling book and the offer of a multimillion-dollar reward. After her mother's death, however, Mina keeps a low profile, shielded from accusers and information seekers by the tight-knit community. Private detective Lane Holland appears without warning, boasting a history of closing high-profile cases and pledging his intention to find Evelyn. Slowly, Lane wins Mina's grudging trust, and she doles out bits of her past until he finds the details that expose her family's and their ranch manager's lies. Back-footed from the revelations, Mina doesn't suspect that Lane holds the key to Evelyn's disappearance in his own past, and he's running out of time to stop her killer. Winner of the 2019 CWA Debut Dagger award, this slow burner balances a gripping mystery with thought-provoking insight into the true-crime subculture's complicated interaction with victims' families.

When nine-year-old Evie McCreery, the victim at the center of Australian author Burr's uneven debut, vanished from her home in Nannine, "a barely populated town in Central New South Wales," her disappearance became a national story. Two decades later, it remains the subject of speculation online, including from those subscribing to the theory known by the acronym WAKE (Wednesday Addams Killed Evie), a reference to the resemblance of Mina, Evie's twin sister, to the actress who portrayed that character on screen. The mystery is revived by PI Lane Holland, who specializes in investigating unsolved disappearances in the hopes of reaping the reward money, which he uses to help support his younger sister. Mina initially resists Lane's outreach to her, but her attitude changes after he makes significant progress on another case that has also been unresolved for years. Burr neatly doles out the Holland siblings' dark backstory and effectively shows her tortured leads alternating between hope for closure and resignation, but the final reveal isn't fully satisfying. This familiar tale of an investigator probing a cold case who's concealing his own secrets breaks no new ground. (Aug.)