The Lost Girls
A mystery thriller novel about a young woman who returns to her hometown for the 20th anniversary of her sisters’ disappearance and clashes with two rival hosts of true crime podcasts who are determined to solve the mystery, while she tries to unlock her repressed memories of the event.
On a lazy summer afternoon, three sisters disappear in rugged coastal bushland that is supposedly haunted by a little girl who never came home and her mother who was driven to suicide. Only the eldest sister is found and she has no memory of what happened.
Twenty years later, Marlene Knight returns to her hometown for the anniversary of her sisters’ disappearance. She is determined to confront the traumatic events that have defined her life and find answers.
Lisa Conway, the host of an international true crime podcast has come to town to investigate and uncover the truth behind one of Australia’s most infamous cold cases. Hugh Wilkinson, a former football player has returned home after a divorce and is struggling to make a career in local radio. Desperate for money and to remain relevant, he starts a podcast and sets out to solve the cold case, no matter what it takes. Lisa and Hugh clash over their polar opposite methods, motivations and experience while desperately seeking answers to a decades old mystery.
With threads of memory to guide her, Marlene must unravel the mystery of what happened in the bush before she is the primary suspect in both podcasts.
The Lost Girls is an engrossing and atmospheric mystery thriller novel that explores trauma, loss and memory. The story is laced with the intrigue and obsession of Australia’s most popular folklore, the lost child, and the surreal menace of the iconic Australian bushland while exploring into the desperate and lonely world of chronic pain that pushes people to their breaking point.
