Rebecca Bundy has failed to return home on the last day of school in 1984. She had a fight with her mother and as days pass, rumours start to spread throughout the small mountain town. Her burning desire to run away to Queensland, her involvement with a male schoolteacher, or the influence of her rough boyfriend, Bull Tennant, are all rumours that circulate through town after Rebecca’s father reports her missing. However, a murder-suicide on a nearby farm causes Rebecca’s case to become very cold very quickly. Forty years later and her younger sister Eliza is still looking for answers.

Determined to uncover the truth, Eliza is now prepared to share with the world Rebecca’s secrets that she was once determined to keep hidden, in return for the truth of what happened to Rebecca on that hot summer’s night.

Glenna Thomson writes the novel in such a way that it grips you from the start and keeps you hooked all the way through to the gut-wrenching ending. The compelling and clever way in which Thomson has formed the characters evokes a sense of empathy from the reader, and yet leaves them so deeply betrayed once the Bundy family history has unravelled.

Gone is a novel that makes you think you have a handle on the plot, until it’s too late. It’s a gripping and compelling novel leaving the reader with the burning desire to uncover the truth of what really happened to Rebecca Bundy. This is a well-written, well-executed novel and a worthy addition to Australian rural crime noir.

Reviewed by Alison Logie

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After a successful career in overseas aid, and as a senior executive with a global food company, Glenna and her husband spent almost twenty years living and working on their cattle property in rural Victoria. During that time they also owned and operated a commercial blueberry orchard.

Glenna’s time in the country enables her to write authentically about life in the city as well as in remote locations. She now lives in inner Melbourne with her husband. She is also the author of Blueberry and Stella and Margie.

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