“Gemma Guillory has lived in Rainier her entire life. She knows the tiny town’s ins and outs like the back of her hand, the people like they are her family, their quirks as if they were her own.

She knows her once charming town is now remembered for one reason, and one reason only. That three innocent people died. That the last stop on the Rainier Ripper’s trail of deaths fifteen years ago was her innocuous little tea shop. She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her policeman husband and their marriage to this day and that some of her neighbours are desperate – desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier’s reputation as the murder town.

When the tour operator is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma’s doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer’s wake turns to foreboding, and she’s drawn into the investigation. Unbeknownst to her, so is a prisoner named Lane Holland.

Gemma knows her town. She knows her people. Doesn’t she?”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. You may have noticed that I’ve been missing in action over the last few months. I’ve been in the midst of a rather long and quite tedious reading and reviewing slump, which was unfortunately coupled with double shoulder surgery. I plan to return to the blog properly in the New Year but until then, I will be sharing the odd meme, along with some of my favourite reads over the past year or so.

With that in mind, I am delighted to be sharing my review of Murder Town with you again today. Murder Town was published by Hodder & Stoughton on 6th June 2024 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats. I chose to read a free eARC of Murder Town but that has in no way influenced my review.

I seem to say this at the start of every other review at the moment (which can only be a good thing, IMHO) but I LOVE Australian crime fiction. If you’re a regular here on damppebbles then you are probably already aware of this. Mainly because I feature a lot of Aussie crime but also because I keep telling you 😂 (every other review, right?!). Anyhoo, back in 2022 I read Shelley Burr’s debut, WAKE, and I fell head over heels for it. WAKE was my 2022 book of the year. It’s an absolute ‘must read’ for any crime fiction fans and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Burr’s second book for what feels like a very, very long time. Murder Town, book two in the PI Lane Holland series, was published in between Christmas and New Year so if it was vying for a spot on my top books of 2023 list then it was cutting it fine! But make it it did. Squeaking in at the last moment, Murder Town is one of the best books I read in 2023.

Seventeen years ago the Rainier Ripper put the small, close-knit town of Rainier on the map for all the wrong reasons. With a body count of three, the Ripper was finally caught and sentenced to life in prison. But the town could not distance itself from the devastation caused, particularly those who were up close and personal with the killer’s victims. Gemma, then a nineteen-year-old working alone late at night in her Grandmother’s Teashop, was one of the last people to see Dean Shadwell alive as he banged on the door, crying for help.  Now, seventeen years later, a dark tourism company wants to organise a Rainier Ripper tour, calling at the shops and locations where the Ripper’s victims were found. Many in the town aren’t keen but businesses are failing, footfall in the town is at an all-time low. On the eve of a meeting to discuss the proposal, a grisly discovery is made. The tour organiser is found dead in the fountain outside Gemma’s teashop. He’s been killed to look exactly like one of the Ripper’s victims. Is this a copycat or does the Ripper’s influence reach further than anyone ever thought….?

Murder Town is a riveting, fully engrossing, perfectly plotted murder mystery and I loved it. This is the second book in the PI Lane Holland series but if you haven’t read the first book, WAKE, then there’s no need to worry (although it’s sublime and absolutely worth picking up). Murder Town is a book I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for a while now so as soon as it arrived, I got stuck in. I didn’t even waste time with reading the blurb. Which is why I didn’t realise initially that it features Lane Holland. Lane does absolutely play a part in this story, and references are made to his previous case (the previous book), but they’re only in passing. I don’t think any in-depth knowledge is needed. But I will say again, it is worth picking up a copy of WAKE, just because both books are so very good and definitely worth your time. Back to the point I was making; even though Lane does feature, he’s not the main character in this one. He’s participating from afar, miles away from Rainier on the end of a phone. For me, this book was all about Gemma Guillory and the residents of Rainier. I thoroughly liked Gemma who is doing the best she can as a wife, mother and business owner in a town that is tarnished with a dark past. There is a large cast of characters in Murder Town but Gemma stood out above them all. Rainier is a place where everyone seems to know your business and this intrusiveness, the claustrophobia of such an environment is handled beautifully by the author.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. I loved everything about Murder Town. The characters are believable, disparate and diverse, and all seemed to fit perfectly in Rainier. The setting is vivid to the reader. You really get a strong feeling of a what Rainier was, compared to what it is now, post-Ripper. The inability of the townspeople and the businesses to shake their association with a serial killer was a little heart-breaking. So why not just go with the flow and use what they have to their advantage? I could see the town’s reasons for considering the proposal. The murder mystery aspect of the book is handled well with plenty of intrigue and suspense. The reveal came as a shock to me. I wasn’t able to guess the outcome but that only added to my overall enjoyment of the novel. With the large cast of characters there are many suspects to pick from. Really clever, immersive plotting which I loved. All in all, Murder Town is superb. It’s a well-written, fully-engaging murder mystery with a different feel compared to others in the same genre. Utterly compelling, very addictive and a real highlight of my reading year. Highly recommended.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of Murder Town. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Murder Town by Shelley Burr was published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton on 28th December 2023 and is available in hardcover, audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

Shelley Burr is the winner of the CWA Debut Dagger award with Wake, an alumni of the ACT Writer’s Centre Hardcopy program (2018) and a Varuna fellow. When not writing she works at the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. She lives in Canberra, but grew up splitting her time between Newcastle and Glenrowan, where her father’s family are all sheep farmers. WAKE is Shelley’s first novel.