Don’t know why the story was slow for me to start...about 1/2 way it got to that... I can’t put it down - like the first one. Story had unexpected end but left door open for next in the series! ( )

After punching a prosecutor, Harry is exiled to a small town in the Outback only become embroiled in a potential domestic terror plot. Her partner and a friend both continue to look into her brother's case while she works with local law enforcement and terrorism to determine the extent of the local plot.

This is the second book in a series featuring 36-year-old Sydney Detective Inspector Harriet “Harry” Blue. Four months have passed since the first book, when Harry’s brother Sam was arrested for being the Georges River serial rapist/killer.

Harry knows Sam is innocent, but doesn’t know who set him up or why. She has been attending his trial, and when the prosecutor taunted her, she punched him out. Thus she is issued a 9-day restraining order and has to leave town - yet again.

Her boss sends her back to the desert to investigate a murder in Last Chance Valley, a town of seventy-five residents in New South Wales, Australia with only one active serving police officer, Senior Sergeant Victoria “Vicky” Snale. It was the previous chief of police, “Soupy” Campbell who was killed in an explosion at his house. In addition, Vicky found a diary at the side of the highway outlining a manifesto to kill all the residents of the town. Harry finds herself once again teamed up with another officer, this time Special Agent Elliot Kash, a federal counter-terrorism expert.

The residents in the town already blame someone for the killing, a 15-year-old kid, Zac Taby, who is Pakistani, and from the only nonwhite family in the valley. Kash is all over that idea, and he resists Harry’s efforts to get him to keep an open mind. One thing they all know for sure however is that Zac is in danger from other residents of the town, and Harry wants to protect him.

The story alternates between Harry’s investigation and that of her partner Whitt back in Sydney, who is helping Harry try to exonerate Sam. He is working with a friend of Harry’s, Tate “Tox” Barnes, an unconventional albeit effective detective. The two of them manage to identify someone who might be the real culprit of the Georges River killings.

Back in Last Chance Valley, the team discovers who is really behind the killing and threats, and why, and it is a truly horrific story. As the culprit explains to Harry, “Bad things happen because a couple of people do them and a bunch of people do nothing about it.” This inspires revenge, a desire that will affect Harry in this book as well.

As the two stories progress, all of the “good” guys come under threat of their lives, and it is not clear who will make it and who won’t. And it is clear the idea of revenge will continue as a theme in the series.

Evaluation: The bad guys in this series tend to be very non-nuanced and caricatured. The good guys are far from perfect, but at least they have layers. It’s not a subtly written series, but relatively entertaining. ( )

Not my favorite Harriet Blue story. Seemed forced which is odd since it was written with Candace Fox. Sad story though. ( )

Not as good as most of his books. ( )