Ben’s Book Club

Born in New York, Joan Sauers is a screenwriter, producer and author who worked in London, Los Angeles and New York before settling in Australia. She has had fourteen books published and has also written many screenplays. She is currently writing the TV series Ladies in Black, and a sci-fi romance created by her daughter, as well as her next Southern Highlands mystery. Joan divides her time between Sydney and the Southern Highlands, with one daughter and two grandsons.

In the sleepy, scenic Southern Highlands of New South Wales, a beautiful young woman goes missing.

Six years later, recently divorced historian Rose McHugh leaves the city to start a new life in the Highlands and finds a roll of film buried in her back garden. On it are photos of the missing woman.

Against the advice of an enigmatic detective, she uses her powers of persuasion and her knack for deciphering clues to pursue the case. As Rose searches through tangled secrets and hidden places haunted by the past, she realises there is a killer at large.

As she makes new friends, and dangerous enemies, Rose closes in on a suspect—but will she solve the mystery too late to save herself?

Set in the atmospheric villages and forests of the Southern Highlands, ‘Echo Lake’ is a compulsive read that will keep you guessing until the very end.