- Jun 30
- 5 min read
J.P. Pomare has become one of Australia's most dependable crime writers, consistently producing intelligent thrillers that are more interested in people than spectacle. The Wrong Woman continues that tradition, delivering a layered mystery built around buried secrets, fractured relationships and the uncomfortable reality that you can leave your hometown, but your past rarely stays behind.
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.
The novel's greatest strength is Reid himself. He's refreshingly understated for a private investigator. He's quiet, observant and carrying enough emotional baggage to make every interaction feel loaded with history. His return home isn't simply about solving a case; it's about confronting the mistakes and shame that drove him away in the first place. I also appreciated that his sexuality is treated as just one aspect of who he is rather than defining his entire character.
Pomare also makes excellent use of alternating perspectives, allowing readers to slowly piece together the truth from both Reid's investigation and Eshana's experiences before the fatal crash. The gradual unfolding of her marriage creates genuine uncertainty about who can be trusted, and I found myself constantly reassessing my assumptions as new information emerged.
The small-town setting works beautifully. Everyone knows everyone, rumours spread faster than facts, and history has a habit of refusing to stay buried. That atmosphere of suspicion hangs over every chapter and gives the novel a lingering sense of unease.
Where the book lost me slightly was in its complexity. There are several interconnected mysteries, numerous characters with their own motivations, and a few plot elements that become increasingly intricate as the story progresses. While I admired the ambition, I occasionally found myself working harder than I wanted to keep track of every thread. Rather than building tension, those moments sometimes interrupted the momentum.
I also finished the novel wishing I'd formed a deeper emotional connection with more of the supporting cast. Reid is well developed, but many of the other characters remained just out of reach for me, making some of the later revelations intellectually satisfying without carrying quite the emotional weight they were aiming for.
Even so, Pomare knows exactly how to structure a thriller. The short chapters make it dangerously easy to keep reading "just one more," and the twists arrive naturally rather than feeling manufactured purely for shock value. Every revelation encourages you to rethink what you've already read, which is one of the hallmarks of an effective mystery.
If you enjoy literary crime fiction with flawed investigators, morally complex characters and mysteries that gradually reveal themselves rather than relying on relentless action, this is well worth adding to your reading list.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Book Details
The Wrong Woman — J.P. Pomare
Paperback ISBN
978-1869718190 (Hachette Australia paperback edition; varies by region)
Hardcover ISBN
978-1399707367 (Hodder & Stoughton hardcover edition; varies by region)
eBook ISBN
978-0733648250 (Hachette Australia eBook edition; varies by retailer and region)
Genre
Crime Fiction; Psychological Thriller; Mystery; Literary Crime Fiction
Subgenre
Private Investigator Mystery; Small-Town Thriller; Domestic Suspense; Psychological Suspense; Australian Crime Fiction
Tropes / Literary Threads
Private investigator with a troubled past; returning to the hometown you fled; buried secrets; suspicious death; missing persons; dual timeline; dual perspective; unreliable appearances; small-town secrets; family dysfunction; redemption; police corruption.
Publisher
Hachette Australia
(Hodder & Stoughton internationally)
Series
Vince Reid Mysteries
(Book One)
Series Order
The Wrong Woman
The Gambler
Formats Available
Paperback; Hardcover; eBook; Audiobook
Audiobook Narrator
David Linski (Australian edition)
Release Date
27 July 2022
Page Count
Approximately 352 pages
(varies slightly by edition)
Setting
Manson, Australia
Primary Setting Details
The novel unfolds in the fictional rural Australian town of Manson, where long memories, close-knit relationships and buried scandals create an atmosphere of constant suspicion. Reid returns after a decade away to investigate what appears to be a routine fatal car accident, only to uncover links between missing teenagers, fractured families, academic secrets and the town's unwillingness to confront its past.
Main Characters
Vince Reid
A private investigator and former police officer who left Manson under a cloud of public disgrace. Intelligent, observant and emotionally guarded, Reid reluctantly returns to investigate a suspicious insurance claim while confronting the unresolved failures that drove him away.
Eshana
A university student whose perspective unfolds before the fatal car crash that kills her husband. Her narrative gradually exposes the complexities of her marriage and the secrets surrounding Oliver's death.
Oliver
Eshana's charismatic university professor husband. His hidden life and questionable behaviour become central to the novel's unfolding mystery.
Peyton
A local waiter who develops a quiet romantic connection with Reid, providing warmth and humanity amid the darker events of the investigation.
Chief Allan Webster
Reid's former police chief and mentor whose complicated history with Reid reflects the tensions between loyalty, justice and reputation.
Oliver's Sister
Determined to understand her brother's death, she provides additional insight into Oliver's character and the wider mystery.
Cultural & Literary Influences
Australian noir; literary crime fiction; psychological suspense; small-town crime narratives; contemporary Australian social realism; private investigator fiction; character-driven mystery; modern queer representation in crime fiction.
Major Themes
Truth versus perception; redemption; the burden of the past; identity; shame; grief; family dysfunction; trust; deception; justice; small-town reputation; moral ambiguity; belonging; memory; loneliness; power and manipulation.
Content Warnings
Death; murder investigation; missing persons; emotional abuse; infidelity; manipulation; grief; trauma; violence; discussions of suicide; police misconduct; psychological distress; coercive relationships; adult language.
Comparable Titles
The Dry — Jane Harper
Force of Nature — Jane Harper
The Survivors — Jane Harper
The Lost Man — Jane Harper
Scrublands — Chris Hammer
The Silent Patient — Alex Michaelides
The Broken Shore — Peter Temple
The Search Party — Hannah Richell
Ideal Readers
Readers who enjoy intelligent Australian crime fiction, psychologically layered mysteries, morally complex protagonists, slow-burn thrillers, character-driven investigations, small-town noir, literary suspense, and mysteries where atmosphere is just as important as the final twist.
Rating
★★★☆☆
(3 Stars)
Action Level
🔍🔍⚖️⚖️⚖️ / 5
The emphasis falls on investigation, psychological tension and the gradual uncovering of secrets rather than constant action. While the novel contains moments of danger and suspense, its real strength lies in character dynamics, layered mysteries and the slow, deliberate peeling back of long-buried truths.
Where to Buy The Wrong Woman by J.P. Pomare
Affiliate Disclosure
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Danielle Robinson is a literary critic and writer whose work explores literature through the lens of atmosphere, memory, culture, and emotional experience. Holding a double degree in philosophy and theology, she combines academic insight with a deeply refined aesthetic sensibility shaped by more than three decades working across the creative industries as an internationally published, multi-award-winning makeup artist, fashion stylist, and interior stager.
She reads widely and rigorously, reading and reviewing more than 200 books each year as both an ARC reader and commissioned critic. Through Silk & Sentences, Danielle approaches literature as something immersive and lived with — not simply stories to consume, but works that shape the way we think, feel, and move through the world.
She writes from her semi-rural Queensland home, where she lives with Alex, her husband of 33 years, their dogs Oscar and Paige, and an ever-growing library of books.
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