Darkness Runs Deep
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
In the darkest hour, a blood-soaked teenager flees the rural Gerandaroo football oval.
Eight months later, Bess, a young teacher, returns home to Gerandaroo. A childhood game of dare with her former best friend forces Bess to form a women's footy team to play against Denby, a rival town. Bess reluctantly recruits players, but the team has to contend with hostile locals - including Bess's own father. Will this help the small community to come back together - or will it be the final thing that blows everything apart?
As tensions in the town boil over, so too do resentments and secrets and violence that have been previously held tight and close.
Fiercely told and breathlessly compelling, Darkness Runs Deep is a striking new Australian crime novel about the best and worst of who we are.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
For most of this gripping slow-burner, everyone but the reader knows what happened at the Gerandaroo football oval on New Year’s Eve, 1992. Months later, Bess O’Neill returns home to the small farming town, drawn back by the repercussions of the dark incident that no one wants to talk about. When an old friend dares her to start a women’s footy team, the hope is that it will refocus the community’s attention on something positive amid the tragedy. But in a town where the men feel they “own” the game of footy, the upcoming match against a neighbouring town’s team threatens to do more harm than good. Debut author and footy fan Claire McNeel interweaves Bess’s family, romantic and friendship worries with the history of the town and its prejudices, while skilfully concealing the big revelations until the very end. Darkness Runs Deep not only compellingly explores the far-reaching consequences of violence, but also what can be achieved when a group of trailblazing women take charge.
