I think I fell for the hype with this one.
Premise sounded good, and it gave a good sense of the remoteness and isolation of the setting, but it was so long and drawn out that it became a chore to read.
I didn't find any of the characters particularly likeable and the parallel story seemed a bit pointless. Also Lane just seemed to have a total personality transformation by the end.
The ending itself seemed quite unbelievable and I was left thinking "was that it" after all the build-up, an unsatisfying ending.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for my eARC in return for my honest review.

This is a typical Australia noir, (is this a thin?) an isolated town where everyone knows each other's business. Lane is a PI looking at cold cases of missing girls for the reward money. Mina is the twin sister of Evelyn, who went missing when she was 9, They both come from difficult family backgrounds, and are damaged, but are drawn together, and reveal their deepest secrets to one another in order to find out what happened, and how their pasts are linked. The book is a bit gloomy. I liked the way the clues and revelations kept coming in small steps. Very nice plotting.

This was a good, dark thriller and I enjoyed this one. It was a little different to others I have read and the setting made it seem more interesting. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

An intriguing and thrilling mystery that will keep you engaged throughout.
A great debut novel from a talented new writer.

For those of you itching for addictive Aussie crime fiction, I present the answer to your quest in Wake by Shelley Burr. I have just finished it and am still reeling by the finale. Fans of Jane Harper and Chris Hammer will be thrilled to learn of this debut author who writes in a similar atmospheric tone making the most out of Australia's harsh, isolated and wholly unforgiving landscape.

What makes Australia the perfect setting for crime fiction? In Wake it is all about the carefully hidden secrets, which abound, as most characters have something they work hard to keep hidden. The remote location of a deteriorating farm an hour or so from the nearest rundown town makes the perfect environment for investigating a cold case of a missing local girl. But Lane, a private investigator, has a lot of work to do to bring Mina McCreery, the twin sister of the girl who disappeared nineteen years ago, on side. To say she is resistant is an understatement.

I live on a steady diet of Chris Hammer and Jane Harper. The complexity of their stories, the desolation of the location speaks to me, always leaving me wanting more. I am beyond pleased to welcome Shelley Burr to the club as Wake provides a well-paced drama full of mystery and twists that kept me reading and looking for a place to hide so I could read on and on in peace. I was absorbed by it and feel gutted to have finished. High praise, indeed, for this new author I will be on the lookout for in future.

I love outback noir and this is a great example of the genre. Filled with dusty, vast expanses of land and a mystery that revolves around it, with two brilliant protagonists, it’s very much a character led story. Really enjoyed it.

Wake is a solid Australian Noir. WAKE: Wednesday Addams killed Evelyn.

Lane Holland is a small time private investigator chasing rewards offered for solving cold cases. He rocks up in Nannine, rural New South Wales, to see whether he can shed light on the disappearance of nine year old Evie McCreery over a decade ago. Evie disappeared in the night from a remote farm station. Only her sister Mina and the farm manager's wife were on site, and the site is larger than some small countries.

Lane finds Mina McCreery, now grown up, still living at the station. Her father is away, the old farm manager and his wife kept on more from habit than from any real job of work to do. The McCreerys are rich and they have abandoned all pretence of actually farming the land. Mina says she is desperate to find out what happened to Evie, but not quite desperate enough to want Lane to come in a rake over the very cold coals.

The story is taut. Both Lane and Mina have secrets that drive them in seemingly perverse directions. They barely trust one another, and in this small community, nobody trusts them. Their characters, and those of the supporting cast, feel real and complex. The setting feels authentic almost to the point that the reader can feel the dust blowing in the wind. The point of view shifts from Lane to Mina - and sometimes further afield - creating interest and suspense as the scene cuts away at the crucial moment. There are red herrings and blind alleys, there are sub-plots and history. The storytelling craft is really there and the novel is hard to put down.

If there is a flaw, it is in an ending that doesn't quite feel satisfactory. There are loose ends and unanswered questions. Maybe that is part of the game - to keep the reader thinking - but sometimes a good journey needs a destination to match. Does that sound too cryptic?

There have been a number of regional Australian noir novels in recent years; this one is up there with the best.

How does a 9 year old just vanish, never to be seen again? Have they been abducted and kept alive or has something more sinister happened? Mina lost her older sister Evelyn and she’s given up hope. But PI Lane wants to solve the case; he seems to have a knack for solving the unsolvable missing person cases!

As I delved into Lane’s investigation and Mina’s recollections of the events 19 years ago, I couldn’t decide what had happened to Evelyn. Had she been abducted? Met an unfortunate demise at the hands of another? Run away? I did question Mina’s memory especially with other accounts of events coming to light. Could this young woman have muddled what actually happened?

Wake is a bit of a slow burner of a read. It might be me but there is something different about books set in Australia. There’s just something different about the writing. There’s a different pace to the ones I’ve read. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, more a personal observation.

WAKE is a dark thriller that gave me that unreliable narrative that makes me question so much but also forms a base for an interesting and captivating read. Some of the twists and turns Burr took me on left me bewildered at the outcomes and consequences. This is an unassuming but great debut and I’ll be looking out for what’s next.

Nineteen years ago, Evelyn McCreery disappeared, vanished from the family farm – no tyre tracks, no footprints, just vanished without trace. Everyone has their theory as to the truth behind her disappearance, most of those theories involving her sister Mina. Now living along on the same farm, she is living the life of a near-recluse – until Lane, a private investigator appears.
Convinced that he can find the truth about what happened, although motivated in part by the huge reward, Lane is reluctant to take no for an answer, just as reluctant as Mina is to trust him. As he begins to get closer to the truth, it seems that his obsession with finding the truth might prove deadly for them both.
This is a hard book to write a constructive review for. On the one hand, I didn’t particularly enjoy it. On the other, I can see why others would. So let’s try and address why that is.
Primarily, this is a thriller where the surprises consist of “unexpected” actions that the protagonists take, rather than the antagonists – indeed, it takes an age for us to see any significant actions of the antagonist – and you have to wonder, from a plot point of view, if the choices being made are merely to make the plot happen, rather than being for character reasons. Given that for the majority of the book we are sitting on Lane and/or Mina’s shoulder, at least one revelation felt like a bit of a cheat. Admittedly, I suppose with a re-read, I might see how the author cleverly danced around the truth in a Carr-ian way, but I’m not desperately inclined to re-read this.
But on the other hand, fans of psychological thrillers or books like The Dry, might well enjoy this book a lot. The author takes a lot of time working on the characters, and, apart from the above revelation aside, the characterisation is engrossing and believable. The ending is rather shocking (rather than surprising in my book) but as a whole, this is more of a character piece than the sort of of mystery-thriller than particularly appeals to me.
Wake is out now in ebook and hardback. Many thanks for the review e-copy.

This book is such a long drawn out story. I found it so hard going read and couldn't get into it. I did manage to finish it however I really didn't enjoy it.

Mina McCreery has lived most of her life in her missing sister's shadow. She disappeared during the night nineteen years before . Up until her death, five years before, their Mother had kept the disappearance in the public's eye. Even when she died, she left a reward for whoever managed to solve the mystery.
Lane Holland is a private detective and shows up in Nannine looking to solve the murder. Mina is reluctant to let him get involved so pushes him on a friend who has also had a sister disappear without a trace.
Slowly Mina softens to him and he seems to come up with some valid theories.
However all is not what it seems and Lane has a past that is just about to rear it's ugly head.
I liked this and found it a compelling read.

Mina's twin sister disappeared 19 years ago - taken from her bed in their farmhouse miles outside the remote Australian town of Nannine. Mina has never stopped looking convinced Evelyn is buried on their land. Now, all these years later, private investigator Lane Holland comes and brings the case up again. Lane is travelling the country investigating cold cases - but what is his motivation? Is it purely for the reward money? We find out that Lane was a young teenager in Nannine with the fairground when Evelyn went missing. This makes the whole investigation more interesting. We know he is protecting his much younger sister, but from what doesn't become apparent until later. I thought this was a great read, and don't want to give away spoilers so will leave it there. #netgalley #WAKE

I'm not sure if I'm going to finish this book. I want to, as I would like to know what happened but at the same time I don't think I have the patience. The story is far too drawn out with excessive information which I feel is irrelevant or just stating the obvious. This has resulted in me losing interest. It could be a mood issue, so maybe I'll come back to it another time, however, in the mean time it's a DNF.

I got Wake by Shelley Burr from NetGalley for free for a fair and honest review.


Wake is a cold case mystery thriller set in the outback of Australia where Lane, a private detective is trying to find what happened to Evelyn, a young girl who went missing one night.


Wake is a mystery thriller that uses a number of different story styles to draw the reader in, firstly one of the ways that Shelly Burr draws people into the book and gives readers, some idea what the salient point of the story is.

As well as adding a number of red herrings in there as well.

In addition to this the main use is the unreliable narrator, while the Wake is told through the perspective of more than one person, including Lane the Private detective and Mina McCreery the missing girls sister.

This really adds to the twist and turns throughout the novel giving us as readers a mystery through
the book.

In addition to the different perspectives the story does do a number of short flashback scenes, that allows the reader to gain an insight to events surrounding when Evelyn went missing.

Wake was a really interesting cold case thriller however foe me while I enjoyed it, at no time when reading the book was the a great urge to find what happened to Evelyn.

Having said that with the basic plot line plenty of twists Sally Burr’s mystery thriller was still worth reading.

Unfortunately I really struggled with WAKE. It was just too much of a slow burner for my taste. I did keep going with it as I don't like to give up on a book but I found the ending quite disappointing too. I'm sure some people will love it but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my ARC.

Well written. Heavy on setting description and character progression which can occasionally slow down tension in the plot. That said, the surprises were interesting and made sense.

Pleased to be able to say that the book had enough meat for me to enjoy the plots and it kept me interested to the end. My only challenge were the Australian words that appeared from time to time. Notwithstanding, this is certainly a book to read on holiday.

Wake is an incredibly strong debut thriller from Shelley Burr. Based in an extremely remote part of the Australian outback, Mina McCreery lives on a non working sheep farm an hour from the nearest small town. She and her father live in self imposed isolation after the notorious disappearance of her twin sister 19 years ago, the intense public interest is too much for them.
When Lane, an investigator, offers to look into the case again Mina initially rejects him. Slowly he builds her trust but why is he here, and what is his link to the case?
Wake is cleverly plotted, slowly revealing Lane’s past as Mina begins to open up. The characterisations are excellent and Shelley Burr really uses the Australian landscape to build Mina’s sense of isolation and anxiety. I raced through the last section, desperate to find out what happens at the end. If you like Jane Harper, you will love this novel.
Thank you to #netgalley and #hodderbooks for allowing me to review this ARC

What a great book! Very atmospheric & certainly Aussie Noir.

Nearly twenty years ago, Mina’s 9 year old sister, Evelyn, disappeared from her family’s remote farm in New South Wales. Mina is now a virtual recluse & the unsolved tragedy has shaped her & the surrounding community.
Then P.I. Lane Holland appears & he seems to be partially succeeding in resolving this cold case. But why is he doing it? Should the past be revisited at all?

I’ve never been to Australia but the writing is such, that I was there. Abandoned farmsteads, inescapable oppressive heat & scrubland as far as the eye can see. The characters drive the story though, uncovered secrets exploding from the page & shattering the community.

Certainly a recommended read.

This is an excellent mystery, which draws you in from the very first line. Mina McCreery lives in the small, outback town of Nannine, in Central New South Wales. It is coming up to the twentieth anniversary of the night that her twin sister, Evelyn (shortened to ‘Evie’ for the cute factor in the press) went missing, the mystery still unsolved. Mina’s mother, Beverley, did everything she could to raise the profile of her daughter’s case and, as she and nine-year-old Mina, were alone in the house that night, much of the internet judged one, or other, of them guilty. Now Beverley is dead, and Mina is left in an isolated farm which is hours from anywhere. She works online, her only real friend Alanna Rennold, whose own sister disappeared and who ran a Missing Persons Support Group with Beverley, before her death.

Evelyn’s unsolved case is very high profile still, with a large award up for grabs for anyone who can discover what happened that night. Enter Luke Holland, a P.I. who specialises in similar cold cases and who is desperate to claim the award in order to provide for his sister. Luke is a damaged character and, as we gradually learn, is enticed by more than the award. Although Mina’s immediate instinct is to pull away from any involvement in opening up the investigation, she becomes intrigued by Luke and begins to share more than she has done previously, opening herself to being hurt.

I thought with an excellent, intelligent, and well-paced novel, which really hooks the reader in. I loved Mina, who is so obviously aware of how she is viewed by the public online, who is so hurt and yet sharply witty. Luke is also a fantastic character, very vulnerable, and you feel deeply for both of them. I absolutely loved this and recommend it highly to any crime fans and I look forward to reading anything else by Shelley Burr. She has immediately jumped to list of authors to pre-order! I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.