Published 9th June 2022 by Hodder and Stoughton.
From the cover of the book:
EVERYBODY THINKS THEY KNOW MINA McCREERY.EVERYONE HAS A THEORY ON WHAT HAPPENED TO HER SISTER.
NOW IT'S TIME TO FIND OUT THE TRUTH...
Mina McCreery's sister Evelyn disappeared nineteen years ago. Her life has been defined by the intense public interest in the case. Now an anxious and reclusive adult, she lives alone on her family's destocked sheep farm.
When Lane, a private investigator, approaches her with an offer to reinvestigate the case, she rejects him. The attention has had nothing but negative consequences for her and her family, and never brought them closer to an answer.
Lane wins her trust when his unconventional methods show promise, but he has his own motivations for wanting to solve the case, and his obsession with the answer will ultimately risk both their lives.
Superbly written, taut and compassionate, Wake looks at what can happen when people's private tragedies become public property, and the ripples of trauma that follow violent crimes. Wake won the CWA Debut Dagger in 2019.
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Mina McCreery's nine-year-old sister Evelyn went missing in the middle of the night, from their home on a remote sheep farm near Nannine, Central New South Wales. Her disappearance was never explained, and the case remains unsolved. Nineteen years later, Mina lives as a recluse on the now destocked farm, her life forever altered by the loss of her twin sister and the resulting media storm that made Evie's disappearance a nationwide fascination. Everyone thinks they know Mina, and has a theory about what happened to Evie.
Private investigator Lane Holland has a talent for solving cold cases about missing girls. When he turns up in Nannine offering his services to Mina, she is far from convinced that he is not just another creep attracted by a morbid interest in Evie's case, and the hefty reward that is still on offer. However, when his unconventional methods show promise, Mina is persuaded to let her guard down.
What Mina doesn't know is that Lane has his own very private reason for needing to solve this case, and his secret will put them both in danger...
First and foremost, Wake is a wonderfully atmospheric, tightly plotted crime mystery that draws you in as it weaves its compelling threads around the case of a missing girl whose disappearance has her family, the police, and the public mystified. And what a mystery it is! It's full of taut suspense and perfectly timed reveals that carry you along through first class twists and turns, until multiple truths that have been tantalisingly just out of reach come into focus with shocking clarity.
At the centre of the story we have Mina and the tentative relationship that develops between her and Lane - both of them needing to get to the truth about what happened to Evie, but hiding secrets they cannot fully acknowledge to each other for almost the entire story, which builds in the most delicious slow-burn tension. Burr writes them both with oodles of deftly wrought emotion, exploring the turmoil that roils beneath the calm exteriors they have been forced to cultivate, and delving into really complex themes of fear, responsibility, resentment, guilt, and isolation.
The story unfurls against a setting that is rich in all the scorching Outback elements I look for - complicated small town dynamics, difficult economic times, and a vividly described backdrop being top of the list - and Burr also incorporates some intriguing fresh aspects. I really enjoyed how she brings in land management and conservation issues that she clearly draws from her own family background in sheep farming, and her experience working in the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. I don't think I've ever looked at rural Australia in quite the manner Burr conjures up through Mina's eyes, with a palpable feelings of tenderness and duty vying against bone-weary exhaustion and a desire to break free. It really gets under your skin.
The way that Burr examines how crimes of this kind become public property, with ripples running through time that affect those left behind, is particularly striking too. She does not shy away from the reality of the terrifying reach and cutting cruelty of social media, especially disturbing crime obsessed chat-rooms, and the way in which people bandy about their vicious theories without a thought for the families concerned. She also leaves you with a lot to think about around the reasons why some cases capture the attention of the public at the expense of equally worthy, but less high-profile ones.
This really is a classy debut novel, and I cannot wait to see how Shelley Burr's career develops, because this is exactly the kind of quality Aussie crime story I need more of in my life. Move over Jane Harper, there's a new kid on the Outback block...
Wake is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
Shelley Burr is the winner of the CWA Debut Dagger award with Wake, an alumni of the ACT Writers Centre Hardcopy program (2018), and a Varuna fellow. When not writing she works at the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. She lives in Canberra, but grew up splitting her time between Newcastle and Glenrowan, where her father's family are all sheep farmers. Wake is Shelley's first novel.
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