This was a Ned Kelly award winner for 2025, always a good sign for an aussie-based thriller.

What to Expect

A woman wakes up in a hospital after an accident, with no memories of the few months leading to it. Her husband died in the accident, and when the police questions her she can’t figure out why. AS she tries to piece her life back together again, physically and emotionally, she starts to learn that things weren’t as they seem, as she remembers.

The story is told in first-person from Clare’s POV, and we’re with her as memories slowly come back, as she tries to dig in and make sense of events, and as tensions rise when she slowly discovers not everything she thought about the people around her was true.

What I liked

I loved the very strong sense of place, as I have many fond memories from the Blue Mountains around Sydney. The author is an anaesthetist herself (as is the protagonist), so the medical descriptions and hospital environment are very realistic. It’s the kind of depth to the story-world that make everything richer and more believable.

I also loved the realistic treatment of the shades of grey in life. This isn’t a moralistic tale – it’s a psychological thriller that shows how ordinary people get involved in complicated events, and solutions aren’t necessarily neatly tied up.

What to be aware of

Things aren’t always nice in Clare’s life. As you’d expect from a psychological thriller, it goes to dark places and the resolution may be unsatisfying if you’re looking for objective absolute justice. If you’re open to the grey shades of life, this makes a good read.

Felix’s and Jack’s Reviews

Jack wasn’t happy with some of the description of police action, but was forced to admit that they made sense – and were realistic, given what we know by the end of the book. Still, he’d wish people cooperated more openly, as that would lead to less troubles. That said, he loved the atmosphere of the thriller in a jurisdiction he operated in for years.

Felix enjoyed the novel, though modern medicine is not something he’s encountered much. The rest of it — all the drama about people not being who they present themselves and the ease with which people fall into dark holes — he wholeheartedly agreed with.

Summary

An excellent psychological thriller, with an unreliable narrator (not her fault) and a grey morality that’s much truer to the modern world.

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Enjoying the reviews, but wondering who the heck are those Felix and Jack fellows? Glad you asked! Felix is the protagonist of the Togas, Daggers, and Magic series, an historical-fantasy blend of a paranormal detective on the background of ancient Rome, and Jack is the police detective running the Unusual Crimes Squad, dealing in occult crimes in modern-day Australia.

Come meet Felix and Jack on the free short stories and novels!