Girl Falling

Finn and Daphne have been friends since school but, although a friendship of sorts continues, they have grown apart. Finn continues to live at home and has a job guiding people on walks in the mountains when she is not serving coffee in the local cafe. Daphne, however, has gone to University and is now working towards her PhD. They occasionally meet up when Daphne returns home but meanwhile Finn has made new friends, especially Magdu who studying psychology at university.

Finn and Daphne enjoy rock climbing and it is decided to invite Magdu to join them. Then Magdu falls. Is it suicide or is it an accident?

Told in the first person by Finn, we gradually learn of events that have occurred in the past as well as the current events. In Girl Falling, Hayley Scrivenor has produced a psychological thriller as past events defining the friendship between Finn and Daphne are gradually revealed. Descriptions of the landscape add to the build up of tension. This is a novel that should be read with few interruptions.

Dirt Town

In a small outback town in Australia a young girl disppears. Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels arrives in Durton, referred to by the locals as Dirt Town, to investigate. Esther was last seen by her friend, Ronnie, on her way home from school. No-one has seen Esther since and there is much speculation in the local community. Everyone knows everybody and many of the residents have grown up in Durton. As the story is revealed so are some of the many secrets of the past.

Haley Scrivenor, the author of Dirt Town, uses a number of voices to tell the story and sometimes different people tell the story from a different viewpoint. Ronnie and her friend Lewis are two of the main voices along with Constance (Esther's mother) and Sarah plus a voice referred to as We (the other children in the town).

This crime novel is very much a study of a community imploding as well as the breakdown of family and other relationships.

In the USA Dirt Town was published as Dirt Creek.

Shortlisted for the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards - General Fiction