Bay of Fires: A Novel
A year after a 16-year-old girl goes missing from the Bay of Fires on Tasmania’s northeast coast, the body of a visiting young Swiss woman washes up on the beach, and locals and tourists alike fear a serial killer. Sarah Avery, the second person to come upon the body, becomes intent on finding the killer while keeping secrets about the relationship she ended and the job she quit just before joining her family at their holiday shack. An independent and impetuous woman, Sarah connects with Hall Flynn, the journalist who arrives to cover the story and has his own secrets, notably an inability to get over the girlfriend who betrayed him with his best friend seven years earlier. As suspicion swirls around a strange local man, Hall must decide whether to write the story of his life or to protect a person he has come to care for. While Gee’s debut is nominally a mystery, this is no action whodunit with a slam-bang conclusion. Instead, the novel’s appeal comes more from its unusual sense of place and well-drawn, fallible characters. Enjoy at leisure. --Michele Leber