Fran thought she'd never return to Ash Mountain but her dad has become ill, her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city anyway. In a blistering summer, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem as old friendships and rivalries are renewed and new ones forged. But the tumult of her home life is the least of her worries, because a bushfire is roaring towards Ash Mountain and the town's long-held secrets will soon be exposed in the carnage.

Ash Mountain is a uniquely Australian domestic noir - warm, blackly funny and a powder keg of accumulated tension. Vividly portraying small-town life, and a woman and a land in crisis, this is a disaster thriller you will never forget.

The Author
Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of thirteen adult and young-adult thrillers, including Ash Mountain (2021) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and is now a major BBC/ABC drama. Helen worked in a Halfway House in Edinburgh herself and as a criminal justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Kilmore, Victoria, Australia. She now lives in Glasgow with her husband.

Found in my mailbox this morning, thank you so much LadyIndigo. I had forgotten about this tag so a nice surprise. Thanks for the book and your very newsy letter, enjoy your time in the warm!

A very quick and suspenseful read, possibly loosely based on the Kinglake bushfires? A small town, but big enough to have a Catholic boarding school, Fran returns to look after her bed ridden father and through the coming of age of her teenage daughter, discovers things about her own past and many other school children of her era.

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Retuning to her home town brings back all sorts of memories - and then half the current time is annihilated by a bush fire.

Fran hates her hometown, and she thought she'd escaped. But her dad is ill and needs care. Her relationship is over and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway. She returns home to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer. As past friendships and rivalries are renewed and new ones forged, Fran's tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants.