Dirt Town

Winner of the 2023 Davitt Award for Best Debut Crime book

Shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction 2023

My best friend wore her name, Esther, like a queen wearing her crown at a jaunty angle. We were twelve years old when she went missing.

On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together. Esther never makes it home.

Ronnie's going to find her, she has a plan. Lewis will help. Their friend can't be gone, Ronnie won't believe it.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels can believe it. She has seen what people are capable of. She knows more than anyone how, in a moment of weakness, a person can be driven to do something they never thought possible.

Lewis can believe it too. But he can't reveal what he saw that afternoon at the creek without exposing his own secret.

Five days later, Esther's buried body is discovered.

Character-rich and propulsive, with a breathtakingly original use of voice and revolving points of view, Dirt Town delves under the surface, where no one can hide. With emotional depth and sensitivity, this stunning debut shows us how much each person matters in a community that is at once falling apart and coming together.

Esther will always be a Dirt Town child, as we are its children, still.

Winner of the ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year 2023, Shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards 2023 for Debut Fiction, Shortlisted for the ABIA The Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year 2023, Shortlisted for the Davitt Awards Adult Crime Novel 2023, Shortlisted for the Davitt Awards Debut Crime Book 2023, Finalist for the 2023 ITW Thriller Awards for Best First Novel, Longlisted for the 2023 CWA ILP John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award, Longlisted for the 2023 Margaret and Colin Roderick LIterary Award