Welcome to Litsy!

Estie and Ronnie are best friends. One hot day, they begin their after school walk, but only Ronnie reaches home safely. Where is Estie? The answer is slowly revealed as Ronnie, Estie‘s mom, the investigator and others from Durton tell of dark secrets and remember that fateful day. It is a pick for this atmospheric mystery. 3+/5 ⭐️

An excellently done slow-burn, multiple POV queer mystery that truly surprised me a few times! The writing is fantastically atmospheric; I often felt like I was trapped in a stifling, hot small Australian town too! Sad overall, with a recurrent theme that adults are always letting kids down and are ultimately kind of shitty. I am impressed with the author's decision to not make Sarah (the lesbian cop) a hero, as most crime novels do.

I started this one a couple days ago, and last night it won the Lammy for LGBTQ+ mystery! Really good so far!

It seems as though the “alternating voice” technique is all the rage among mystery writers. In the hands of a less skilled author, the story suffers. This is NOT the case in this excellent debut novel. The author maintains a mesmerizing narrative arc throughout. A twelve year old girl has disappeared in a small town. Detective Sarah Michaels rushes to find her, or her killer. Some compare this to Jane Harper. I think Haley Scrivenor is better!

3.5 stars. I did definitely get Jane Harper vibes while reading Dirt Creek, I just wasn't completely drawn in as quickly and often found my mind wondering so I know I wasn't as absorbed as I normally am reading JH books. BUT I was flabbergasted by the outcome and how it all pulls together at the end and that did remind me of JH. I'll definitely be reading more from Hayley Scrivenor's writing.

Dirt Creek is the debut novel of Hayley Scrivenor and it was pretty interesting. Although it is technically a mystery, it functions more as a slow burn character study.

This isn't really structured like a pure mystery novel. Rather the focus is in the townspeople and the mystery is slowly spoonfed to the reader. I don't think this is a bad thing, but it was unexpected.

Set in small-town Australia, this impressive debut novel revolves around a missing girl, 12 year-old Esther. Told across multiple perspectives- her mother, two best friends, the female city detective called in to assist, & a sort out of communal voice of the rest of her peers- this quickly becomes a hard one to stop listening to! A twisting plot, a town full of secrets & a great audio performance all combines wonderfully here! The setting shines!

A fantastic police procedural set in a small town in Australia. Decent writing, good characters, but I did see the twist coming a mile off. Doesn‘t bother me with a thriller/mystery as long the writing is good and the story is compelling. This one ticked all the thriller boxes for me.