Why am I passionate about this?
I learned from a young age to question everything. The law always interested me, but I was an impatient high school graduate who instead completed a journalism cadetship in Sydney, Australia. I always loved police reporting and the ability to get inside the ‘real’ story where few others could. There is a certain pleasure observing the lives of (witting or unwitting) criminals and an element of “there by the grace…” too! I’ve always empathised with the underdog and the Drug Grannies were indeed just that. I believed there was more to their story. Earning their trust was important. I threw myself into their fight – more an activist than a journalist!
Sandi's book list on life’s adventures featuring crime, drugs, and travel
Why did Sandi love this book?
This is a gripping crime novel by an Australian author who tantalizingly weaves the wonder of the land down under within a deeper mystery mixing guilt, grief, and the complexities of family life in the outback.
For the uninitiated, it takes the reader to parts of Australia where few visitors travel… except the circus, their workers, and their secrets. The reader can almost taste the red dust, and sweat the heat in this wonderful book. There is no private when crime becomes public!
I really enjoyed the author’s ability to bring the reader through so many suspenseful crescendos without ever losing us, and then dropping an absolute unexpected ‘reveal’ in the end. Brilliantly done!
1 author picked Wake as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
"Politically savvy, cleverly plotted...the kind of book that invites the ravenous language of binge reading: compulsive, propulsive, addictive."--New York Times Book Review
For fans of Jane Harper’s The Dry or Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, a searing debut crime novel set in the Australian outback, where the grief and guilt surrounding an unsolved disappearance still haunt a small farming community…and will ultimately lead to a reckoning.
The tiny outback town of Nannine lies in the harsh red interior of Australia. Once a thriving center of stockyards and sheep stations, years of punishing drought have petrified the land and Nannine has been…