- This edition an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
- ASIN : B0DT4MVND9
- Publisher : Penguin eBooks, July 1, 2025
- Print length : 364 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1761342073
Synopsis (Amazon)
High on a hill above the small Victorian town of Carrabeen, 300 wind turbines constantly spin.
Except one is now deadly still – a body hanging from its huge white blade.
Detective Sergeants Belinda Burney and Will Lovell are shocked to discover the dead man is Geordie Pritchard, a rich local philanthropist and owner of the wind energy farm.
Suicide at first seems the likely explanation, until Geordie’s widow Lucinda insists her husband was murdered – and she has the death threats to prove it.
Certainly the wind farm has ripped the rural town in two. Some welcome the jobs and prosperity it brings, others are enraged by the loss of farming land.
In short, Pritchard was both saint and sinner. But who in the small community hated him enough to want him dead?
My Take
An unusual and contemporary setting for a murder mystery, with a very topical feel to it.
As of September 2024, there were 90 operational wind farms in Australia, totalling 11,420 MW in capacity. The largest wind farm is Coopers Gap Wind Farm in Queensland, which began generating to the grid in June 2019, with a capacity of 453 MW. Most of Australia's wind farms are situated in coastal areas.
There are several mysteries attached to the main story, not the least how Geordie Pritchard managed to hang himself from the blade of a turbine. And then when the corner determines that he was in fact murdered, how did they get the body up onto the blade, and who would have hated Geordie enough to murder him?
There is a good range of interesting characters but none of them seem to have a motive. This is a small Victorian town with growing unemployment, and farmers struggling to make a living. Geordie Pritchard saw wind farms as an income solution but still the wealth belongs to only a few. The town is also divided: many are opposed to the alienation of farming land in this way.
An excellent and recommended read.
My rating: 4.6
I've also read
- 4.7, CUTTER'S END - Mark Ariti #1
- 4.6, STONE TOWN - Mark Ariti #2
- 4.5, BROKEN BAY - Mark Ariti #3
- 4.8, CREEPER
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