The sixth novel with Detective Inspector Hal Challis and Sergeant Ellen Destry, from Australia's King of Crime

'A superb chronicler of cop culture' - SUNDAY TIMES 'Disher is the gold standard for rural noir' - CHRIS HAMMER 'The equal of Joseph Wambaugh and James Lee Burke' - THE TIMES EVERY MAN HAS A BREAKING POINT Calm never lasts on the Mornington Peninsula, especially for Detective Inspector Hal Challis. Today, he's dealing with a serial armed robber, a brutal home invasion and a mysterious cat burglar, not to mention the offender disguised in a police uniform stalking his beat. But with Sergeant Ellen Destry away, a boss who's more committed to budget cuts than police work, and a team that struggle to separate personal lives from professional duties, one more case could be enough to push Challis to breaking point. From the multiple Ned Kelly Award-winning author of Consolation and Sanctuary comes the sixth Hal Challis investigation, for readers of Jane Harper, Ian Rankin and Chris Hammer.

"A world-class police novel and Disher continues to be one of our best and most consistent crime novelists" - Canberra Times

"Disher's layered plotlines, peppered with familiar Mornington Peninsula references, make this an engaging yet unsettling read" - Sunday Herald Sun

"This is classic Disher, the taut writing bringing a complex plot into as sharp relief as the vivid settings and dread-laden atmosphere do the fully rounded characters" - West Australian

"This very fine novel submits to the thriller conventions but with an easy freedom that makes it seem as if Disher made the rules himself... A compulsive and unsettling novel that should win Disher many new readers" - Sunday Age

"Disher doesn't just provide classy entertainment. His fiction is a kind of social barometer of prevailing tensions in the community, especially in the outlying badlands of Australia's provincial coastal towns" - Weekend Australian

"DI Challis and his sergeant Ellen Destry...are both deftly, yet complexly drawn characters: two of the best in the genre and Disher easily one of the best writers" - Weekend Herald