Mount Arapiles, in Western Victoria, is a haven for climbers – hundreds of metres of rugged cliff faces and outcrops for all who love the sport, from beginners to experts breaking records with new routes. Paramedic Skye Sayers and her partner Callum live for the exhilaration and focus of climbing, having moved from Melbourne to a more easygoing lifestyle in nearby Horsham – a haven threatened by Skye’s discovery of a dead body while she is walking their dogs. When the police discover that the body shows signs of death by climbing fall, Detective Elly Shaw calls on Skye’s expertise to assist her in the field. As the two of them travel back and forth from Melbourne to Horsham and up and down the rockface searching for the truth, their determination reveals the cracks in their own lives and their insecurities.

Elly is a skilled detective who lives a solitary life, afraid of letting anybody in, afraid of revealing her worst self-doubt. Skye’s decision to start a family with Callum fills her with both hope for the future and a fear of his past, and of his inability to remove himself fully from the grip of his brother Andrew, a man about to be sentenced for a drug-fuelled hit-and-run. The two women circle each other, Elly pushing back against Skye’s eagerness, and Skye pushing all of Elly’s boundaries, both unsure of the friendship that blossoms. The Crag is both a thrilling police procedural set against the backdrop of Arapiles’ unsettling, looming beauty, and a simmering exploration of the cruelty that women can face from men: from the everyday dismissal of a friend’s bad behaviour towards women, to a disturbing look into job offers for tourists and refugees in regional Australia, and, finally, to murder. This is for readers who love Margaret Hickey, Adrian Hyland, Dervla McTiernan, or a gripping read that traverses the Australian landscape.