Vendor
	Fritz Agency Christian Dittus
Original language
English
Categories
Thriller / suspense fiction

THE NEWCOMER

Laura Elizabeth Woollett

Based on a real-life murder, The Newcomer is a tense, compulsive psychological drama for readers of Emily Maguire, Kate Mildenhall and Ottessa Moshfegh.

In a hotel room on a sleepy Pacific island, Judy Novak waits. And worries. It isn't the first time 29-year-old problem child Paulina has kept her mother waiting. But Judy can't ignore the island's jagged cliffs and towering pines or the dread that Paulina has finally acted on her threats to take her own life.

When Paulina's body is discovered, Judy's worst fears seem confirmed. Only, Paulina didn't kill herself. She was murdered. So begins a thorny investigation, wherein every man on the island is a suspect yet none are as maligned as Paulina: the captivating newcomer known for her hard drinking, disastrous relationships, and habit of walking alone.

But, above all, Paulina is her mother's daughter. And death won't stop Judy Novak from fighting for Paulina's life.

Laura Elizabeth Woollett is the author of a short story collection and two novels. The Love of a Bad Man was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Beautiful Revolutionary was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, and the Kathleen Mitchell Award. Laura was the City of Melbourne's 2020 Boyd Garret writer-in-residence and is a 2020-22 Marten Bequest scholar for prose.

Available products
Book Published 2021-11-01 by Scribe Publications

Comments

"The Newcomer is an unsettling book about a vulnerable young woman who is her own worst enemy It is stark, confronting and as compelling as a car going over a cliff in slow motion." The Age "Woollett manipulates the structure of the crime novel, the suspense of the whodunnit, to destabilise the idea that there is ever one perpetrator of a crime [her] prose is intellectual and deliberate The Newcomer does a lot in its short pages, weaving together a story of grief and unhappiness with a compelling crime narrative." The Guardian

"The Newcomer pulls you in from its eerie opening and drags you along with intriguing characters and beautifully-wrought prose Read this book now." JP Pomare, author of Call Me Evie "Intensely chilling and sucker-punch powerful, The Newcomer is a murder mystery but not as you know it. With a seamless blend of electric prose, simmering tension, and a deeply evocative setting, Woollett sharpens her focus on the humanity of the victim rather than the identity of the killer. The small-town intrigue sets your heart pounding but it's the characters, so nuanced and vivid you can almost reach out and touch them, who make it bleed. They pull you into their world from the first page and stay with you long after you've turned the last, forcing you to consider the stories of those who often go unnamed or unnoticed in the wake of violence and tragedy. The result is a crime novel that, like its protagonist, throws out the rule book and blazes its own dark and unforgettable trail." Anna Downes, author of The Safe Place