Candice Fox has written a fantastic first novel, with the storyline grabbing the reader from the first chapter and demanding to be read without pause or break.

Fox captures the broken personalities of the story's main characters and tells a human interest story within the clothes of a mystery thriller and she does it exceedingly well.

Put on the coffee, don't sit too comfortably and lose yourself in the voice and imagination of a new writer.

After spending eight months in prison after being accused of thirteen year old Claire Bingley’s abduction and rape, then having the charges dropped through lack of evidence, ex-Detective Ted Conkaffey knew he needed to escape Sydney and everything it now represented to him. When he found himself in Crimson Lake near Cairns in far north Queensland, he thought he’d be safe. The dilapidated rental; the lack of material belongings – none of that bothered him and he found himself buried in a bottle of Wild Turkey night after night – until he rescued a wounded mother goose and her six baby chicks.

Ted’s lawyer pointed him in the direction of another damaged soul – Amanda Pharrell had spent years in prison for murder. Now she was a private investigator in Crimson Lake and when Ted went to see her, he was shocked to be hired as her partner in the business. Their job – to find the missing local writer, Jake Scully. But as the two miscreants investigated, it was obvious that people in the town were becoming aware of who Ted was…

The dark secrets surrounded various members of the town and Ted and Amanda found themselves in the middle of it all. What would happen to them with the vigilantes after blood? And would they discover where Jake Scully was?

Crimson Lake by Aussie author Candice Fox is a dark and disturbing crime thriller that seemed too multi levelled to me. I felt there was too much going on; an excess of crimes, bad guys and criminals which made it difficult to keep my head around. I know I’m in the minority with this one, but I found myself disappointed after the huge spin Crimson Lake has had.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital copy to read and review.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for an advance copy of Crimson Lake, a thriller set in North Queensland.

Ted Conkaffey, former policeman, escapes to the Cairns area after his trial for rape and assault of a minor is dismissed half way through. He is sinking into alcoholism when his lawyer suggests he contact Amanda Pharell, a private investigator who has a murder conviction and a 10 year sentence in her past. She is investigating the disappearance of successful YA author, Jake Scully.

I am finding Crimson Lake a difficult novel to review as it has good and bad points although I'm tending to come down on the side of good.

The plot is extremely busy with 3 different investigations/stories going on. Firstly there is the investigation into Jake's disappearance where Amanda has been hired by Jake's wife, Stella who is fed up with the police investigation. Secondly there are the events surrounding Amanda's conviction. Thirdly there is the investigation into Ted's innocence as he maintains or his guilt as the rest of the world maintains. The novel, therefore, does not have a linear timeline. It is peppered with letters from a fanatical fan to Jake which only the reader knows about and has flashbacks to both Amanda's and Ted's interviews with the police and the events surrounding their arrest and afterwards. It is a bit of a scattergun approach and takes some getting used to.

If the plot is overdone then the characters are even more so. What are the chances that 2 public enemies turn up in the same small town and end up working together? I know that writers feel the need for a hook in their characterisation but 2? Having said that the characterisation is great. Amanda is a bit of a flake, relentlessly upbeat with a penchant for rhyming doggerel she is, nevertheless, a smart if less than ethical operator. Ted is a man in crisis, holding on to his innocence when the world has turned against him and beaten him down. He has lost everything, wife, job, child but with the state withdrawing the charges he was unable to prove his innocence and could be retried at any time. Ms Fox has done an excellent job on his character and his and the public's reactions have a real ring of authenticity about them.

I also like the hot, steamy weather evoked in the novel as it is very atmospheric and the resolution which I notice has drawn some negative reviews. I think it is in keeping with the novel and quite slick.

Crimson Lake is a mixed bag. I think the format is unnecessarily complex and does not allow the reader to get fully absorbed as the emphasis keeps shifting but the good characterisation and small town atmosphere of hate compensate. I would be interested in reading a follow up. 3.5* is a fair rating.

Candice Fox has done it again, another excellent thriller. This time a detective is accused of a child abduction has to escapes attention by moving to Crimson Lake, a remote crocodile infested area in the North of Australia. He needs to work again, and teams up with an unlikely partner, a private investigator with a murderous past. The author expertly uses these circumstances to build a strange environment for them to investigate a missing person case. All the locals having a downer on both investigators deserved or undeserved, adds another dimension. This is a complex case the details of which provide a few twists and turns. Running alongside this, Ted (the detective) tries to resolve his own predicament and clear his name. Although it deals with very serious crimes it has its humorous moments with Ted's partner cycling everywhere, refusing lifts. Very different set up to the previous Candice Fox books but equally exciting and thrilling.

Absolutely brilliantly! One of the best books I've read for a long time. Realistic, gritty main characters, a story that keeps you gripped all the way through, and an ending that doesn't disappoint. I'm sad to have finished it, and I hope there's another book with these likeable, imperfect people coming soon.

This is my first novel by Candice Fox and it absolutely won't be my last. I loved Crimson Lake!! Multilayered characters, a sense of imminent doom and a quirky sense of humour throughout. Plus a coroner who I need to hear more from! Highly recommend.

This is a wonderful story of a man wrongly accused of a crime who relocates to a small town and finds himself tangled in helping to prove the innocence of another person wrongly accused. This is all done whilst he is trying to find the murderer of a local author.

I enjoyed the scenery and geese and the fact that neither of the main characters allowed thier experiences to turn them into bitter people.

Ted Conkaffey a Sydney policeman, has been allegedly accused of abducting a 13 yr old girl from a bus stop and attempting to kill her. For him it was being in the wrong place at the wrong time and lack of evidence sees him being released from prison after 8 months. With his marriage broken and all friendships dissolved he relocates to a new life on the outskirts of Cairns. But as he was never proven innocent, the nightmare can never go away. On the advice of his lawyer he teams with social outcast Amanda Pharrell, a private detective in the town of Crimson Lake. Amanda also has a history. She was accused of stabbing a fellow school friend to death and has served her time in a Brisbane prison.

What a fantastic book. There really were three threads running through this story. Ted and Amanda, (a tattooed push bike riding misfit) investigate the disappearance of Jake Scully, a local and well known author but unknown to each other, Amanda starts to investigate Ted's story and Ted researches Amanda's. These are two totally flawed but extremely likeable characters that come together and start to respect each other. Ted thought that he could hide away in a small town but word gets out and he is at the mercy of vengeful towns folk and the local police. There are just a few that he can count on...maybe as friends.

I was granted a digital copy of the book to review via Netgalley but I chose to listen to the audio book version. The narrator's raspy voice seemed to make Ted's character come to life but it did take me a while to get a handle on Amanda's character. The more I listened, the more I was totally engrossed in the storyline. The humidity, the danger of the croc's, the bullying from the local police and others all came to life.

I feel I should give this audio version a rating of 5 feather dusters or 5 dogtail wags, as it meant my house was cleaner and the dog went for longer walks while I listened. I have read that there will be another instalment and I can't wait.

This is atmospheric crime fiction set in small town Cairns in Queensland, Australia. It is intricately plotted to weave in three separate murder investigations. Detective Ted Conkaffey's life falls apart when it is alleged that he abducted and raped a young girl, Claire Bingley. He is held in prison for some months until the prosecution drops the case for insufficient evidence. His wife has left him, he hurts from being separated from his baby daughter and the shock that no-one believes that he is innocent, including all his fellow police officers. He packs his bags, and moves to Cairns hoping his life can settle down from the horror he has experienced, which turns out to be little more than a pipe dream.

He is living by Crimson Lake, with the ever present crocodiles and rescues an injured goose he names Woman and her goslings. The geese give him a reason to pick up the pieces of his life again and he joins Amanda Pharrell PI, a convicted murderer, in the investigation into the missing celebrity author, Jake Scully. Amanda is a loose canon, both fragile and tough, with a terrific line in the outrageous, the comic and an irritating habit of conversing in rhymes. Her office is inhabited by an army of cats, and despite her different personality, her and Ted, the two broken souls, connect. It appears that Jake Scully has been killed and consumed by a crocodile but there is so much more to the story which Amanda and Ted delve into including obsessive fans, a marriage that seems to barely exist, and a troubled son, Harrison.

Two brutal and arrogant local cops abuse their power as they focus on Ted and make his life increasingly stressful and miserable, trying to break up his partnership with Amanda. In the meantime, Ted is driven to delve into the murder that Amanda has been convicted of. Amanda returns the favour by looking into Ted's crime, and is joined by Fabiana, a journalist who initially stalks Ted. Ted finds there is no escape from his past, as the local community lay siege to his home, with a lynch mob mentality, wanting him out and willing to do anything to achieve this aim. This is a closed community which harbours secrets, blackmail, corruption, and murderers in its midst.

This is a beautifully written story with a compulsive narrative. The characters are to die for, so complex and interesting, having to cope with extreme circumstances and even the minor characters are remarkably well drawn. The small town is populated with people heavy on judgement and mean of spirit. I particularly loved the goose and goslings with the growing relationship with Ted, just so lovable. Definitely hope this spawns a series, there is certainly enough material for it to do so. This is brilliant crime drama which I highly recommend. Many thanks to Random House Cornerstone for an ARC.

Set in tropical Cairns, QLD, Australia, which for me just added to the enjoyment of this book. 3 seemingly unrelated events, are twisted together in this thoroughly enjoyable thriller. Recommended for all

Set in humid, small-town Cairns, this is a book with bags of personality in the writing and characters: especially in Amanda Pharrell, a convicted murderer with a nice line in rhyming doggerell! Now a PI, Amanda teams up with new arrival Ted who has been arrested but not convicted of the rape of a young girl - can the two outsiders uncover the mystery of a bestselling author's disappearance?

Fox writes well and keeps things turning over but it feels like there's an overload of baggage in having *two* investigators both being shunned by the town and with criminal pasts and spells in prison behind them - one would have added a bit of a frisson, two is overkill. To add to that, both cases are so badly put together that neither stands up to the barest scrutiny so it's hard to believe that either of them was imprisoned - it's a see-through authorial manipulation to give the characters some emotional heft with their traumatic pasts. Add to that an unbelievable solution to the mystery of the vanished author and all the good stuff (and there's plenty of that) gets undermined.

There's so much promise here in atmosphere, characters, writing that it's a shame more restraint wasn't applied and more convincing and satisfying solutions created for at least two of the crimes. Hopefully that's something that Fox will iron out in the future: 3.5 stars.

To be posted on Amazon and Goodreads

Thanks Netgalley for letting me review this book. This is the first book I have read of this author and it involves 3 crimes, the book had great characters and was very interesting to me to read about the small town cultures in Queensland. I shall definitely looking out for more books by this author

I enjoyed the story but found it difficult to read as there were no chapters. It was one big long one and I found it hard finding a place to put it down. Aside from that it was a very good read, I found myself really liking the characters and the plot was interesting and captivating.