Caroline Brazier
Two estranged brothers who are reluctantly reunited in their remote hometown at their father’s funeral, become the target of an extortion scam at the hands of a gang of violent local thugs.
Set over three summers at The Westival, a fictional West Australian rural folk festival redoubtable local radio personality ‘Queenie’ describes as “Australia in a tent”. Two young musicians fall in love against a wider collection of tales dealing with a microcosm of contemporary discussion points, including Indigenous, immigration and refugee issues.
When Detective Bennett O’Mara finds a chocolate wrapper on a strangled girl, it leads him to enigmatic chocolatier Juliana Lovece. Just as this perceptive woman gets under his hardened skin, he suspects she may be at the centre of an increasing murder count.
Ex-con Cal McTeer’s return to her hometown of Orphelin Bay blows the lid off a generations-long conspiracy of silence around murder, drugs and Sirens.