Published: 9 June 2022

Author: Shelley Burr

Published by: Hodder & Stoughton

Genre: Crime

Length: 368 pages

Reading dates: 7-10 June 2022

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.

Almost 20 years ago, 9 year old Evelyn McCreery disappeared from her families farm in the dead of night. Her twin sister Mina was left unharmed. The case was never solved but everyone had a theory – some think Mina killed her sister and her mum helped cover it up. Others think the mum had something to do with it. The farm she was taken from was isolated and miles away from the nearest town so whoever took her would have to driven to the property but there was no evidence of that and no evidence of intruders in the house.

The case has been looked at and revisited extensively over the years. The twin’s mother battled endlessly to find out what had happened to her daughter – undergoing countless interviews and writing a book about her experience all in the hope of keeping the case alive in the hope she would be found, but sadly she died before she found her daughter.

Mina has lived her whole life in the shadow of what happened to Evelyn – she is wary of strangers because of what they want from her so when Lane, a private investigator approaches her she isn’t interested in him helping her. Instead she sends him to a friend of hers who also has a missing sister. When Lane proves his worth as an investigator, Mina starts slowly trust him and talks to him about what she knows. However, Lane has his own motivations for solving the case, and it’s not just the $2 million reward…

Wake drew me in straight away and although it was a novel with little action, I kept thinking about when I would be able to pick it up again. The mystery of Evie’s disappearance was eye opening – the vastness of the Australian landscape where her home was situated, meant if she was buried somewhere it was nearly impossible to find her. Hearing about all the theories about what could of happened from murder chatrooms made me understand why Mina lived a reclusive life.

A compelling and for me unpredictable crime mystery, Wake was an engaging read that successfully demonstrated the vastness of Australian outback. A brilliant story with interesting characters, I thoroughly enjoyed Wake – highly recommended.

Thank you to Steven Cooper for inviting me on the blog tour and for my copy of the book. Please check out the other blogger reviews below:

About the author

WAKE won the CWA Debut Dagger in 2019 and was previously shortlisted for both the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award and the Bath Novel Award.

Shelley works in environment policy in Canberra and is studying agriculture at the University of New England. She is an alumni of ACT Writers Hardcopy program and a Varuna fellow.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ByssheShelley
Website: https://www.shelleyburr.com.au/