Guilty by Association

The wedding that wasn't, and a frantic dog started it all.

This was not how private investigator Sonoma (Sonny) Whittington planned to start her few days' break between cases. It all goes wrong when Sonny and her friend, Emily, go to the wrong beach to attend another friend's wedding. Although there is plenty of evidence of recent activity, the only soul they find there is a frantic, distressed dog among the rocks. Something about the scene doesn't sit right with the women. The dog is too well cared for to have been abandoned. As Sonny and Millhaven's top cop, Ben Richards, delve into the mystery, a picture slowly emerges. A young woman employed on a local farm has disappeared. She is the dog's owner and is using a false name.

As Sonny digs deeper, she discovers the girl's name is Bianca Francini. She is a member of the Francini family, one of the major underworld crime families operating along the eastern seaboard. The picture her employer paints of the woman doesn't fit with the family's profile. It becomes clear that Bianca has gone to extraordinary lengths to disappear. She was hiding from someone... And that someone, it turns out, has found her.

The trail leads Sonny to an abandoned graphite mine site on a neighbouring property. Following her instincts - and ignoring Ben's warning - Sonny enters its derelict buildings alone. What she finds there changes everything.

Guilt by Association is a sharp, atmospheric mystery told in the voice of the seasoned and fiercely independent investigator who knows when to follow the rules and when to break them. Set against the quiet landscape of rural Australia, it's a story about loyalty ... a dog's for its owner, a mother's for her daughter, and an investigator's loyalty to the truth.