The outback town of Rainer has been dying for 17 years, ever since a killer, nicknamed The Ripper, put it on the map by murdering 3 of its residents. Since then the highway has by-passed the town and businesses have dwindled. Gemma is in an uneasy marriage with one of the town's policemen, and is the mother of a teenage daughter.

Now a tourism operator has held out a helping hand and is offering to run a macabre tour based on the events 17 years ago. The families affected are meeting together to agree to the tour. But while they are talking, the tourism operator himself is murdered, his body left in the fountain where the first murder took place.

There are lots of little twists in the plot as Gemma tries to find out who has committed the murder. The reader has a lot to do in working out the little secrets, who is married to who, whose children are whose and so on, but I found the narrative disjointed. The problem was exacerbated by the addition of external plot strands, particularly the decision to interview the original Ripper. ( )