Stone Town

Stone Town by Margaret Hickey is the sequel to Cutters End published last year. Twelve months have passed and Detective Sergeant Mark Artri has returned to Booralama, the small rural town where he grew up in outback South Australia. Mark and his wife are divorced and he is living in his late mother's former home.

One Friday night three teenagers discover the body of property developer, Aidan Sleeth, in the bush. Two detectives arrive from Adelaide to investigate the case but it is soon obvious they are more interested in investigating the disappearance of Detective Sergeant Natalie Whitsed who was thought to have been in the area near Stone Town, close to Booralama. Then Mark is alerted by police headquarters in Adelaide that one of the detectives is thought to have connections with a cime syndicate. A short time later a young cyclist is knocked from his bike in a hit and run incident.

Mark knows the area and the people well and it is soon obvious that the death of Aidain Sleeth has connections to a move to purchase local land for property development, a lucrative activity. 

As he investigates the the cases Mark comes to a better understanding of the importance of community and the support of neighbours prevalent in the small town and the role and the esteem in which his mother was held in Booralama. 

As well as being a crime novel set in an outback Australian environment Stone Town is about the necessity of accepting and understanding grief in order to move on with life.