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4 1/2 stars
Oh my goodness! The ending of this book. Wow! Just, wow! This is the book that really leaves you thinking. I had goosebumps when I finished this book.

In this book Aaron Faulk returns to his rural Australian hometown which he has not returned to in over 20 years. The funeral is for Aaron's childhood best friend, Luke, Luke's wife Karen, and their son Billy. The town believes that Luke had been driven mad through the stress of life on the land and killed his family before turning the shotgun on himself. Aaron is convinced by Luke's family to investigate the deaths, unwilling to believe that their son was capable of murdering his family. So they question is raised: who really killed the Hadler family?

Unwelcome in his childhood town, Aaron is confronted by the reason he and his father were run out of town 20 years earlier. Linked to a mysterious drowning, Aaron was shunned by the town he once called home.

The plot twists the two mysteries making you question how the two mysteries are connected and what really happened to the Hadler family and to Ellie Deacon.

This book is definitely a slow burn, laying out the plot carefully and methodically. There are twists and turns throughout the plot, some predictable, some not so. The book constantly had me guessing who the killer was and I was completely surprised by the killer and their motives. It gave me chills, and was very believable.

This truely is a story of desperation, and Harper has done a wonderful job of capturing the desperation of these small, dying Australian communities.

Loved this book, could not recommend enough.