South of Hell

The New York Times bestselling author and Edgar-nominee P.J.Parrish is actually two sisters, Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. Both sisters, born in Detroit, Michigan, were writers as kids, albeit with different styles: Kelly's first attempt at fiction at age 11 was titled The Kill, Kristy's at age 13 was The Cat Who Understood.

Not much has changed: Kelly now tends to handle the gory stuff and Kristy the character development. But the collaboration is a smooth one, thanks to lots of ego suppression and good wine. Their latest, bestselling series debuted with A Thousand Bones and features female police officers Joe Frye.

In the new book in the series, South of Hell, the present and past lovers Louis Kindcaid and female detective Joe Frye are set to collide when they team up to find out what happened to Jean Brandt, reported missing by her husband from their Michigan farmhouse in 1981.

Jean's daughter Amy, only five at the time, has been plagued by dream-like memories of a violent killing, which Louis and Joe assume are memories of her mother's murder. But as Amy's veracity as a witness is put to the test, they begin to realise that the details of her visions are not consistent with the evidence. If Amy didn't witness her mother's murder, whose murder is she seeing?

Returning to the Michigan town of his college days to reopen this disturbing cold case, Kincaid is forced to confront his own past and face the secrets which could threaten his future with his partner and lover Detective Frye.

South of Hell
Simon and Schuster Australia
Author: P.J.Parrish
ISBN: 9781921470127
RRP: $29.95