Ben’s Book Club

Genevieve Gannon is an award-winning Sydney-based journalist and author of four novels. She is presently the staff writer for the nation’s biggest women’s magazine, The Australian Women’s Weekly, where she covers everything from cold-case murders and cults to celebrities and sports stars. She has written in-depth political profiles, comedic personal essays and true crime pieces. Her first foray into professional writing included dating and relationship columns which she published while writing her Master’s thesis on global terrorism and the media. She then moved to Canberra to start her news career covering local issues and politics. Before she joined The Weekly, Genevieve was the chief court reporter for Australian Associated Press in Melbourne, covering some of the most notorious crimes of recent years. Her journalism has appeared in most of Australia’s major newspapers and she has recently won the Mumbrella Publish Journalist of the Year.

What if the worst day of your life turns out to be the making of you?

Lillian heard her daughter’s footsteps hurry up the passage. She ran her fingers underneath her eyes, ready to greet her son. But when Kate appeared in the doorway her face was white. ‘Mum,’ Kate said. ‘You’d better come. It’s the police.’

With two bright children, a beautiful home and a husband she’s always depended on, Lillian Hogarth considers herself blessed. Until, on her son Jamie’s final day of high school, he fails to come home. Hospitalised by a coward’s punch, Jamie has been the victim of a muck-up day celebration that went too far. Lillian’s support is unflinching, even as her world begins to crumble. A son whose fate hangs in the balance, a teenage witness who refuses to name the one who threw the punch, and a husband who’s hiding a secret that could destroy their marriage. . .

Is this the end of the Hogarth family’s good luck? Or will Jamie’s determination—and Lillian’s love—be the making of them?