*** LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER AWARD *** *** A SUNDAY TIMES CRIME PICK OF THE MONTH *** 'A SCORCHINGLY GOOD NOVEL' - MICHAEL ROBOTHAM 'Disher is the gold standard for rural noir' - CHRIS HAMMER 'AN UTTERLY COMPELLING MYSTERY WITH RARE HEART AND HUMANITY' - DERVLA MCTIERNAN ________________________________________ AN ACT OF INEXPLICABLE CRUELTY. A FAMILY DESTROYED. Constable Paul Hirschhausen runs a one-cop station in the dry farming country south of the Flinders Ranges. He's still new in town but his community work - welfare checks and a light touch - is starting to pay off. Now Christmas is here and, apart from a grass fire, two boys stealing a vehicle, and Brenda Flann entering the front bar of the pub without exiting her car, Hirsch's life has been peaceful. Until he's called to an incident on Kitchener Street, a strange and vicious attack that sickens the community. And when the Sydney police ask him to look in on a family living on a forgotten back road, it doesn't look like a season of goodwill at all... A HUGELY ATMOSPHERIC POLICE PROCEDURAL SET IN THE DUST OF THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK. PERFECT FOR READERS OF JANE HARPER, CHRIS HAMMER AND DERVLA MCTIERNAN. ________________________________________ 'IN THIS BRILLIANT NOVEL, DISHER TAKES HIS READERS ON A HARROWING JOURNEY' - JOCK SERONG 'AN ATMOSPHERIC AND NAIL-BITING NOVEL BY ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S FINEST WRITERS' -_THE TIMES_ 'DISHER IS BRILLIANT AT RURAL NOIR, CAPTURING THE STIFLING ATMOSPHERE OF A SMALL TOWN WHERE RESENTMENTS SIMMER' - _SUNDAY TIMES_