Author(s): Chris Stuart

Lesbian Fiction | NZ Fiction | Crime | New Zealand Authors

In a grimy graffiti-covered recess in one of Melbourne's tangled inner city laneways, a woman is found murdered. 'Why would anyone want to kill her? She was so ordinary.' was the oft-repeated phrase DI Robbie heard when the name of the deceased was revealed.

So why then was the body propped up in such an extraordinary position, almost as if she was intimate with the portrait on the wall? Was this death intended to be symbolic or was the placement merely a device to deceive?

Set against a background of civil unrest and rising white extremism, a government tainted by corruption and a family desperate to hide secrets, DI Robbie Gray, along with her Indigenous officer Mac, dig deep.  As they work the case, they must also grapple with their own demons of guilt and failure while determining a motive. 

Was this a random thrill kill, politically driven or tragically personal? When an arrest is made, DI Robbie Gray realises that not all killers hold a weapon, masks don’t always disguise, and the legacy of long-held secrets can have tragic consequences.