Readers are in for a treat with Unbury the Dead, award-winning writer Fiona Hardy’s hugely anticipated debut crime novel. Long-term Readings Monthly readers will be familiar with Hardy’s warmth and wit over her 12-year tenure as our crime columnist, and it’s a thrill to see her back on those pages, this time as a crime writer.

Unbury the Dead revolves around two ‘cleaners’ (in the mafia sense of the word, not the housekeeping kind), Teddy and Alice, who are called in from their well-deserved holidays for two straightforward jobs that prove to be anything but. Alice has been hired to drive the body of the richest man in Australia to his final resting place, while Teddy is on the hunt for a disaffected young man who’s gone missing. Before too long it becomes clear the two jobs have more in common than expected, and that’s where things start to get dangerous.

An investigative-thriller-cum-road-trip-adventure that meanders delightfully through the familiar surrounds of Melbourne and regional Victoria, Unbury the Dead is a cracking mystery, but where it really shines is in the tender depiction of the ride-or-die friendship between our two protagonists.

Hardy’s exquisite grasp of human emotion is shown to full effect as she deftly walks the tightrope between grief and humour. Like Alice and Teddy themselves, Unbury the Dead is sharp-edged but full of heart, distinctly funny, and seriously clever. I can’t wait to see what happens next.