Crime, Mystery and Thriller
The Lost Australians
Even paradise has its ghosts, and some secrets are deadlier than others.
From sun-baked country towns to the glittering towers of the Gold Coast, The Lost Australians series follows investigative podcaster Zara Langley as she dives into chilling mysteries and buried crimes across Australia. Each novel uncovers a tangled web of privilege, betrayal, and danger, where the truth could cost everything.
The more Zara uncovers, the higher the stakes. The lost are not always the ones who disappear.
The Girl in the Creek
True crime podcaster Zara Langley knows better than to get emotionally involved in the cases she investigates. She learned that lesson the hard way when one disastrous story made her the internet’s villain and sent her career into freefall. Now she’s broke, desperate, and chasing a comeback case that cannot blow up in her face.
Salt Creek, Queensland, looks like it should be simple. Iris Zhang was seventeen when she was found face-down in an ankle-deep creek. The police ruled it an accidental drowning and closed the case in two weeks.
Zara opens it up again.
The views spike, and Salt Creek goes quiet in her wake. Words dry up. Doors close softly but firmly. The people who do speak measure every word, like they are afraid of being overheard. Zara realises the silence is not wariness of strangers. It’s fear of what’s already among them.
Then Detective Sergeant Garrett Pennell starts showing up everywhere she turns. He warns her off. He stonewalls. He watches her like he’s waiting for the moment this turns ugly.
Except his warnings don’t sound like contempt.
They sound like fear.
Zara knows she should keep her distance, professionally, personally, romantically. But when danger turns real, she has to choose: trust the man standing between her and the truth… or keep digging alone.
In Salt Creek, either choice could get her killed.