Publication Date: November 5, 2024
For fans of Jane Harper and true crime, a dark and gripping thriller set in a small town in the Australian Outback, by the author of the international bestseller WAKE.
Gemma Guillory has lived in the Australian Outback enclave of Rainier her entire life. She knows the tiny, red-dust town’s ins and outs by heart, knows the people like they are her family, their quirks as if they were her own.
She also knows her once charming town is now remembered for one reason and one reason only: three innocent people died there at the hands of a serial killer. The last stop on the Rainier Ripper’s trail of deaths fifteen years ago was her picturesque little tea shop. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her policeman husband and their marriage to this day, and some of her neighbors are desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier’s notoriety as the “Murder Town.”
When the tour guide is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer’s wake explodes into the light, and Gemma is drawn into the investigation. Unbeknownst to her, so is a prisoner named Lane Holland, a former private investigator who earned a living cracking cold cases before he ran afoul of the law.
Gemma knows her town. She knows her people. Doesn’t she?
The ghost of a notorious serial killer returns to the small Outback town of Rainier, but bringing up the past is dangerous in Murder Town by Shelley Burr.
The small Australian town of Rainier became infamous due to the arrival of a serial killer, “The Rainier Ripper.” But that was in the past, and Gemma Guillory moved on with her life as best as possible. She had been on the scene when the killer’s last victim passed, a memory that still haunts her. But she has a husband and a daughter, which is her whole world. When a tour company comes to town with plans on bringing in true crime tourism, all the memories of the killings resurface for all in the town.
The death of Gemma’s old flame, Vincent. The body of an unidentified young pregnant woman, her child never found. And finally, the death of Dean Shadwell, experienced by Gemma in her own tea shop. The town is on edge, wanting to bring money into their dying town but not wanting to deal with the memories it will bring. But when the tour guide is found dead, the tenuous peace that has been in Rainier is shattered, and getting answers may be more dangerous than Gemma ever thought possible.
Burr is a great author. I enjoyed her writing style; she made it easy to follow along with the plot. Gemma was a great character that was easy to connect with. I really enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery and was surprised at the ending. That being said, I felt that the story was a little slow. Everything else was just filler besides the very beginning and the very end. I wanted more action or investigation to be had, but I was just met with more questions or feelings, but there was no real movement of the story. I also felt that the ending was a little convoluted, something that is easy to do when you want to make a story that is unique in its ending.
Murder Town is a head-scratching thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end.
Shelley Burr is the author of the international bestseller, WAKE. She works at the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment in Canberra, Australia. She grew up splitting her time between Newcastle and Glenrowan.
