I love cold case crimes and with the Australian setting (yep, Aussie here), I was pretty excited to find this series. But this was not quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be from Dusty's point of view but instead it's narrated by Sean O'Kelly, her new assistant. I enjoyed the mystery and it was decently written, but I also felt I never really got to know Sean or Dusty all that well because of Sean narrating. They were just sort of there interviewing witnesses and puzzling out who did it.

Although Dusty had somewhat of a background it was never really fleshed out enough to help her come off the page. As far as Sean goes, I know very little about him at all, except that he's a straight male who thinks every female is attractive and is busy calculating his chances with them. It was hard to like him when he was weighing up his chances between Sarah and Dusty. As far as the mystery goes the second murder felt unnecessary and made me feel sad. I mean did he even see anything? Or was it all just a lie? And how could you kill a kid? It was pretty rough.

Still aside from my complaints I did enjoy reading and I'll pick up the rest of the series. Hopefully Dusty and Sean will become more rounded. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. ( )

Journalist Dusty Kent is investigating the unsolved murder of Gabby Peters one year after the event, telling everyone she is writing a book. Together with recent arrival from Ireland Sean O'Kelly who is a super "online" hacker and sleuth, she interviews the entire town, trying to find out where everybody was when Gabby was killed. The method produces an overwhelming amount of information including some which the residents did not reveal to the police at the time when they were first interviewed.
The local police warn Dusty off, telling her she is stirring up trouble, muddying their own investigation. But Dusty has a contact in the police force who she talks to from time to time.

Dusty's methodology also has the effect of giving the reader a bewildering amount of data to sift through.
The setting is close to a surfing beach on the southern coast of Victoria.
In classic Poirot style Dusty holds a gathering where she reveals the murderer, and other surprising facts come to light too.

An interesting start to what is now a series of 4 novels, in which O'Kelly appears to act as Dusty's Watson, recording the cases in his diary.

I read this book on my Kindle but now can't find the Kindle version on Amazon.com. ( )