Australian Crime Writers Association

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The Long Shadow by Annie Buist

Write down something about yourself, as a mother, that worries you.

Psychologist Isabel Harris has come to the outback town of Riley because her husband Dean is assessing the hospital-the hub of the community-with a view to closing it down. Isabel, mostly occupied with her toddler, will run a mother-baby therapy group. But on the first day she gets an anonymous note from one of the mothers-

The baby killer is going to strike again. Soon.

Then a series of small harassments begins.

Is it an attempt to warn Dean off? Or could the threat be serious? A child was murdered in Riley once before.

As Isabel discovers more about the mothers in her group, she begins to believe the twenty-five-year-old mystery of a baby's death may be the key to preventing another tragedy.