“POPPY Gee’s debut novel Bay of Fires is a trouble-in-paradise literary thriller set in the beautiful Tasmanian coastal region of the title.

Tasmanian-born, Brisbane-based journalist Gee delivers a compelling character-driven story that is refreshingly original.

Sarah Avery, an aquaculturist in her mid-30s, has returned to Tasmania from a job managing a Queensland barramundi farm following a relationship break-up. She’s an unlikely heroine, a complex amalgam of sensitivity, obsessiveness, misanthropy, boozer and tomboy. She’s ensconced for the summer at her family’s holiday shack in the Bay of Fires, where she lives with her parents, airline stewardess sister Erica and Erica’s pilot boyfriend Steve. Her parents are locked into their social habits and seem oblivious to her despair, which she confronts by drinking too much and fishing. Only her sister notices, but Sarah’s envy of Erica’s seemingly perfect life makes her resist finding any succour there.

When a young Swiss backpacker is found dead on the beach, the small village becomes the focus of a media pack. Among them is Hall Flynn, an old-school local journalist, broken since his wife ran off with his best friend. Against the unlikely dance of these characters is an array of fascinating minor players, all superbly drawn.

More than a murder mystery, this is a tale of odd-bods and resistance to the status quo. In many ways the smaller the community, the larger the characters become, and Bay of Fires in this respect reminds you of other writers of the geographic fringes such as E. Annie Proulx. There’s a powerful social intelligence at work here and Gee’s compassion for her characters and their predicaments is palpable. She has taken the scaffolding of a crime novel and used it to tread beyond the parameters of genre conventions and investigate the messier terrain of human frailty and endurance. It’s a book that gets you thinking about people rather than plots, and is all the better for it.”

“This suspenseful literary fiction is journalist Poppy Gee’s first novel—and makes perfect holiday reading. When Sarah Avery returns to her family’s shack on Tasmania’s idyllic north-east coast, minus a career and a boyfriend, she’s certain she’s hit rock bottom. But when a body washes up on the beach, a journalist arrives to investigate—and begins uncovering secrets that threaten Sarah’s world. Fans of Tim Winton will be drawn in by this evocative account of a sleepy coastal town and the events that shake it to its core.”

“A thrilling murder mystery set on the coast of Tasmania. Poppy Gee’s heroine is tough and absolutely winning. I’ve been handing this to all my friends.”

“Beautifully atmospheric and superbly gripping, BAY OF FIRES is a stellar debut. Poppy Gee has a deft hand with characterization, and a clear, fresh voice. She brought me straight to the wild shores of Tasmania, and into the troubled heart of her heroine — and all the while she had me eagerly turning the pages late into the night as she carefully tightened the screws of suspense.”

‘If you loved Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, you’ll like this murder mystery. Lock your doors… it will creep you out.’