The revelation of a long-buried body in the aftermath of a storm and king tide brings a general sense of foreboding to Lagunes Bay, a fictional coastal community on Victoria’s western coast. The trio of friends at the heart of this novel, newly adults, are fracturing, each subject to different forces that play on their personalities and identities.

For Tate, his sense of self is shifting and growing as he grapples with adulthood and family loss. His best friend Luther is stuck in his own rut, caught between a ‘bad boy’ image he can never shake off and burning regret. For Brylie, the return to Lagunes Bay with her vicar father reawakens bitter feelings from when their family suddenly left the town, and new suspicions about why they did. But it is Hayley, the dead girl, the one whom everyone seemingly forgot, whose story threatens to tear the whole damned lot asunder.

In crime fiction books like this one there are often several truths. Two of these are that small towns are always full of secrets and deep-seated resentments, and that terrible things usually happen in multiples. Congratulations are in order here for the way in which debut author Luke Johnson sensitively tells this story. The events of this book all feel quite real, and immediate, and there is great pathos for the three central characters. Though there is also a great deal of empathy for the women in this book, particularly Hayley, and Tate’s mum, there is also deft handling of ideas around masculinity, and what it is to be a ‘good’ man. Johnson is a fresh new voice in the genre, and fans of Jane Harper, Mark Brandi, and Margaret Hickey will be drawn to this book.