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This was my final book to complete my 2018 ŷ������ challenge, and what a book it was!

Holy shit! 4.5 ⭐️

"They're like sharks in here mate...they'll pounce at the first sign of blood."

Wow! This was the definition of a claustrophobic small country town. Aaron Faulk returns to Kierawalla for the first time in 20 years, but not on good terms. His childhood friend is dead, presumed suicide after murdering his wife and son.
Twenty years previous, a teenage girl drowned in the nearby river, throwing the whole town into turmoil.
The searing heat, caused by 2 years with no rainfall only adds to the paranoid and boiling atmosphere. As Aaron begins looking into the death of Luke Hadler and his family, he becomes more and more uncertain. Luke was many things as a teen, but a murderer? And what about the drowning of Ellie Deacon? Was it really suicide, or something more sinister?

It was easy to get sucked into this novel. From the alcohol fueled feuds between neighbours, to the secrets hidden in plain sight. I was captivated by the powerful descriptions of the landscape in a dying town. The crimes added to the atmosphere and I thought it all unraveled in an exceptional way.

Highly recommend.