Lawson, Mary

Clara’s sister is missing. Angry, rebellious Rose, had a row with their mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Eight-year-old Clara, isolated by her distraught parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, is grief-stricken and bewildered. Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, moves into the house next door, a house left to him by an old woman he can barely remember and within hours gets a visit from the police. It seems he’s suspected of a crime. At the end of her life Elizabeth Orchard is thinking about a crime too, one committed thirty years ago that had tragic consequences for two families and in particular for one small child. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies.

‘Crow Lake’ is a slow-burning story of families growing up and tearing each other apart. Kate, now a zoologist, can identify organisms under a microscope, but seems blind to the tragedy of her emotional life. She thinks she has outgrown her family, but she can’t seem to outgrow her childhood.