Dust and Echo
(2025)(The sixth book in the Sarah Reeves Australian Outback Thriller series)
A novel by Phillip Strang
In the unforgiving heat of Central Australia, where the red earth harbours ancient secrets, Detective Sarah Reeves is called to investigate when the body of Ruby Tilmouth is found wrapped in a canvas swag and bound with wire on a remote access track.
What begins as a murder investigation quickly becomes something more complex when a faded photograph found with the body connects Ruby's death to the twenty-year-old disappearance of Aboriginal teenager Jessie Coolwell. As Sarah digs deeper, she discovers Ruby was investigating Jessie's cold case, following leads that powerful local figures had long since buried.
As the red dust swirls across Alice Springs, Sarah uncovers a web of corruption and silence spanning two decades, connecting a respected retired police officer, a youth worker, and a young man manipulated by their toxic influence. With each revelation, the danger mounts as those who buried the past will do anything to keep it hidden.
Time is running out as a false confession threatens to derail the investigation, forcing Sarah to confront not only a killer but an entire system designed to protect those with power at the expense of justice.
In this harsh landscape where tracks can disappear with a single gust of wind, Sarah must read the signs left behind by two young women separated by twenty years but connected by their search for truth in a place where some secrets kill to stay buried.
Genre: Mystery
What begins as a murder investigation quickly becomes something more complex when a faded photograph found with the body connects Ruby's death to the twenty-year-old disappearance of Aboriginal teenager Jessie Coolwell. As Sarah digs deeper, she discovers Ruby was investigating Jessie's cold case, following leads that powerful local figures had long since buried.
As the red dust swirls across Alice Springs, Sarah uncovers a web of corruption and silence spanning two decades, connecting a respected retired police officer, a youth worker, and a young man manipulated by their toxic influence. With each revelation, the danger mounts as those who buried the past will do anything to keep it hidden.
Time is running out as a false confession threatens to derail the investigation, forcing Sarah to confront not only a killer but an entire system designed to protect those with power at the expense of justice.
In this harsh landscape where tracks can disappear with a single gust of wind, Sarah must read the signs left behind by two young women separated by twenty years but connected by their search for truth in a place where some secrets kill to stay buried.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Phillip Strang's Dust and Echo