Description

When her 29-year-old daughter Paulina goes missing on a sleepy pacific island, Judy Novak suspects the worst. Her fears are soon realised as Paulina’s body is discovered, murdered.

Every man on the island is a suspect, yet none are as maligned as Paulina herself, the captivating newcomer known for her hard drinking, disastrous relationships, and a habit for walking alone. But even death won’t stop Judy Novak from fighting for her daughter’s life.

A scintillating new thriller, inspired by real events, that puts the victim at the centre, by the author of The Love of a Bad Man

Publisher Review

'Laura Elizabeth Woollett has done it again. The Newcomer pulls you in from its eerie opening and drags you along with intriguing characters and beautifully wrought prose. As the mystery deepens, you begin to realise things are never clear-cut, and everybody is guilty of something. A cautionary tale inspired by true events by one of my favourite authors. Read this book now.' -- JP Pomare, author of Call Me Evie 'The Newcomer is a dark and disturbing novel, speaking to some of the most troubling aspects of contemporary Australian society. As in Beautiful Revolutionary, Woollett's prose is delicate and brutal in equal measure, offering an intimate portrait of a small and tight-knit community. With a fast-paced narrative and a complex central character, this is a searing exploration of sexual violence and victimhood, taking forward important conversations within our national psyche.' -- Catherine Noske, author of The Salt Madonna 'Laura Elizabeth Woollett is my kind of writer - fearless, incisive, and darkly poetic. The Newcomer is by turns tragic, funny, sinister, and completely riveting.' -- David Whish-Wilson, author of Shore Leave 'Intensely chilling and sucker-punch powerful, The Newcomer is a murder mystery but not as you know it. With a seamless blend of electric prose, simmering tension, and a deeply evocative setting, Woollett sharpens her focus on the humanity of the victim rather than the identity of the killer. The small-town intrigue sets your heart pounding - but it's the characters, so nuanced and vivid you can almost reach out and touch them, who make it bleed. They pull you into their world from the first page and stay with you long after you've turned the last, forcing you to consider the stories of those who often go unnamed or unnoticed in the wake of violence and tragedy. The result is a crime novel that, like its protagonist, throws out the rule book and blazes its own dark and unforgettable trail.' -- Anna Downes, author of The Safe Place 'Intriguing and touching, The Newcomer is a new kind of crime novel.' -- Mirandi Riwoe, author of Stone Sky Gold Mountain 'With its refreshingly real voice, Laura Elizabeth Woollett's The Newcomer takes Australian crime fiction to a whole new level. Haunting. Raw. Compulsive. I can't stop thinking about it.' -- Anna Snoekstra, author of Only Daughter 'Woollett is a dexterous storyteller - she has a keen sense of place and dialogue, evoking a Kath & Kim-esque fish-out-of-water story as she illustrates the relationships between Fairfolk Island's many locals and Paulina, a "mainie" who is as strange to them as they are to her.' -- Cher Tan * Books+Publishing * '[An] entertaining and powerful read.' -- Bec Kavanagh * Readings * '[Woollett's] depiction of Paulina is as complex as it needs to be. No 'victim' is a facsimile. No story like this, whether true or not, is simple or merely two-sided. Paulina is difficult, moody and reckless much of the time. She seeks solace in the things - drink, drugs, and brutal sex - that hurt her. But as Woollett's clever storytelling and research shows, none of this should lead to a killing in the wilderness.' -- Chris Johnston * The Saturday Paper * 'Woollett manipulates the structure of the crime novel, the suspense of the whodunnit, to destabilise the idea that there is ever one perpetrator of a crime ... [her] prose is intellectual and deliberate ... The Newcomer does a lot in its short pages, weaving together a story of grief and unhappiness with a compelling crime narrative.' -- Bec Kavanagh * The Guardian * 'Woollett convincingly and devastatingly evokes the everyday misogyny of the world her characters inhabit. This is a world in which even apparently friendly exchanges are laced with an acrid antipathy towards women and girls, one in which women are blamed for the male violence that they're subject to ... Politics and fiction haven't always been an easy combination, but they are here ... Throughout the novel, Woollett provides a sensitive and refreshingly unjudgmental insight into the lives of her two female protagonists ... [and her] eye for dialogue and character development is impeccable.' -- Jay Daniel Thompson * Australian Book Review * '[The Newcomer] is stark, confronting, and as compelling as a car going over a cliff in slow motion.' -- Sue Turnbull * The Age * 'Atmospheric and unsettling.' -- Gemma Nisbet * The West Australian * 'This novel is part of a growing (and welcome) trend in recent fiction to explicitly interrogate the idea of "dead girl" mysteries, and make its victim whole and nuanced.' * InDaily *