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This review first appeared in The Hoopla, an online Australian news magazine written by women for women. Read the original post here

The review is posted here in its entirety and unedited

“Pieces of a Lie by Rowena Holloway

The South Australian coastal town of Failie is a hotbed of discontent into which arrives a disgraced copper, sent to this backwater to find out who is behind a series of robberies. The first victim Lincoln Drummond meets is the feisty Mina Everton. Mina is the town pariah after her father Jacko skipped town twelve years ago with the millions put aside for the foreshore redevelopment. Ever since the Everton name has been mud and Mina has had to deal with both her father’s betrayal and the slow death of her mother to MS. With Drummond there, with his city ways and his adherence to the strict letter of the law, Mina’s reputation is about to undergo another battering.

Someone has been breaking into houses and stealing valuable antiques. There seems to be no link between the crimes except for Mina and everyone is too ready to believe that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Furthermore, the rumour around town is that Jacko Everton is back. Mina is determined to find and confront her father. In the meantime, she finds herself drawn into the dodgy and violent underworld of Slab Carlson who has developed a penchant for trading antiques.

Linc Drummond tracks Mina’s every move and the more he sees her in action, the guiltier she looks. Is she Carlson’s mole or his fence and just how embroiled has Mina allowed herself to become with Carlson in order to find out the truth about her father?

Rowena Holloway weaves mystery and suspense into her tale of underworld crime in small town South Australia. Both Mina and Linc are escaping their pasts. They are equally defensive and judgemental, which inevitably means they fail to read each other correctly. Of course there is sexual tension, after all the handsome stranger has come to town but Holloway refuses to trawl the well trodden path of rescued women with Mina Everton. She might have a chip on each shoulder but Mina can handle herself and she is not afraid to ask the hard questions even when the answers leave her feeling more vulnerable and more bewildered than before. Ably supported by a wonderful cast of villains, bent coppers and town gossips, Mina and Linc eventually uncover the truth about Jacko Everton from all those years earlier, and the answer was closer than either realised.

Pieces of a Lie is a great pick for a Summer read. It’s entertaining, well plotted and with enough twists and turns to keep the reader in suspense.”

• Meredith Jaffe Books reviewer The Hoopla: News Through the Eyes of Women

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Meredith Jaffé is a writer, avid reader and The Hoopla’s books editor. Her reviews have been featured in the NSW Writers’ Centre 366 Days of Writing and in 2013 she was a member of the expert panel that selects the longlist for the Australian Book Industry Awards. When she is avoiding work, she cooks, plays Scrabble online or occasionally updates her Facebook page.