I recently finished reading Never Never by James Patterson and Candice Fox. Never Never is a large, heavy paperback, wrapped in the vibrant hues that signal the Australian desert as well as the thriller genre. The taglines on the book jump out at me: my favourite one promises that ‘the pages turn themselves’.

Patterson, the world’s highest earning author last year, is an entrepreneurial force in the publishing industry and Fox is a multi-award-winning Australian crime author, so Never Never is a fascinating collaboration for people interested in contemporary Australian crime writing. The novel’s protagonist is the spiky, sweary Detective Harriet Blue. Following the arrest of her brother for multiple murders, Harry’s boss bundles her out of Sydney and sends her to investigate the disappearance of several young people at a mine in Western Australia. Harry is picked up at the airport by her friendly new partner, Edward Whittacker. They clash immediately, and the investigation traces a rocky path as the killings continue.