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Grotesque escalation can produce horror, but repeated extremity eventually flattens feeling. Once every doorway leads to another atrocity, atrocity becomes expectation. The reader might continue because the solution remains tantalising, yet the emotional response is narrowed to shock.

Set against the cold, deserted landscape of Belport Island, the novel alternates between Kate, whose husband fails to return from a supposed medical conference, and Abby, whose ordinarily dependable husband has begun behaving suspiciously. White creates tension through accumulating inconsistencies rather than constant action: unexplained absences, discarded clothing, carefully maintained lies and the unnerving possibility that neither woman truly knows the man she married.

Rather than remaining confined to a single storyline, Vince finds himself exploring a range of communities and motivations. The inclusion of the Amish community, the political campaign, and the strange run of gambling success all seem disconnected at first, but Pomare clearly has a knack for bringing disparate elements together in very clever ways.

Private investigator Reid reluctantly returns to the town he once vowed never to see again after being hired to investigate a fatal car accident. What begins as a routine insurance enquiry quickly expands into something far more complicated, with missing teenagers, old scandals and long-held resentments intertwining until it becomes impossible to separate coincidence from conspiracy.