Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently hosted author Sarah Bailey. The two introduced readers to Gemma Woodstock, the lead homicide investigator in Bailey’s The Dark Lake. Although the bookstore sold all the copies of The Dark Lake that night, you can still order them through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2iPQ53c
You might want to order the first in this new Australian police procedural series, one very dependent on the character of Gemma. Here’s the summary of the book.
Rosalind’s secrets didn’t die with her.
The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind’s student years and then again when she returned to teach drama.
As much as Rosalind’s life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town’s richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her?
Rosalind’s enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets–an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past. Brilliantly rendered, THE DARK LAKE has characters as compelling and mysteries as layered as the best thrillers from Gillian Flynn and Sophie Hannah.
You can learn more about The Dark Lake and Gemma Woodstock through the Livestream program. https://livestream.com/poisonedpen/events/7895396