Fatal Frequencies
(2025)(Book 14 in the Maya Thorne Australian Outback Thriller series)
A novel by Phillip Strang
When a retired teacher is strangled with headphone cables at a small-town radio station, the broadcast reveals more than dead air—it exposes decades of calculated revenge.
Detective Maya Thorne arrives at Warragulla's community radio station to find Eliza Mitchell dead in the broadcast booth, headphone cables wrapped around her neck. The station has been broadcasting silence all night—but the digital recording system captured everything.
Eliza, 63, was planning to leave town with her boyfriend Michael, 26. Their thirty-seven-year age gap had divided the community, with some calling it predatory and others defending adult choice. But when Maya digs deeper, she discovers the relationship wasn't the scandal—it was the weapon.
Robert Harrington, pillar of the community and Michael's father, publicly supported the relationship while privately weaponising his wife Diane's maternal instincts. For months, he emphasised the "teacher-student" history, the age gap, the "inappropriate" power dynamic—until Diane believed she was protecting her son.
But Robert's manipulation goes back decades, to a high school rivalry and a woman who chose someone else. Eliza Mitchell took what Robert could never possess, twice. And in the harsh landscape of rural Australia, some men plan their revenge with insurance-policy precision.
As Maya untangles psychological coercion from deliberate murder, she confronts a chilling truth: you don't need to pull the trigger when you can convince someone else their finger belongs there.
In Warragulla, justice and manipulation broadcast on the same frequency.
For Fans of Jane Harper and Ann Cleeves.
Genre: Mystery
Detective Maya Thorne arrives at Warragulla's community radio station to find Eliza Mitchell dead in the broadcast booth, headphone cables wrapped around her neck. The station has been broadcasting silence all night—but the digital recording system captured everything.
Eliza, 63, was planning to leave town with her boyfriend Michael, 26. Their thirty-seven-year age gap had divided the community, with some calling it predatory and others defending adult choice. But when Maya digs deeper, she discovers the relationship wasn't the scandal—it was the weapon.
Robert Harrington, pillar of the community and Michael's father, publicly supported the relationship while privately weaponising his wife Diane's maternal instincts. For months, he emphasised the "teacher-student" history, the age gap, the "inappropriate" power dynamic—until Diane believed she was protecting her son.
But Robert's manipulation goes back decades, to a high school rivalry and a woman who chose someone else. Eliza Mitchell took what Robert could never possess, twice. And in the harsh landscape of rural Australia, some men plan their revenge with insurance-policy precision.
As Maya untangles psychological coercion from deliberate murder, she confronts a chilling truth: you don't need to pull the trigger when you can convince someone else their finger belongs there.
In Warragulla, justice and manipulation broadcast on the same frequency.
For Fans of Jane Harper and Ann Cleeves.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Phillip Strang's Fatal Frequencies