Mount Gambier Library will host acclaimed author of Cutters End Margaret Hickey to launch her new release Stone Town on Sunday.

Stone Town is a captivating Australian rural crime drama filled with sinister twists and complex characters.

When Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti took a posting in his hometown he did not anticipate three teenagers stumbling upon a body in the dense Stone Town bushland.

With half of the small country community with the motive and the means to pull off the crime, is the murder surprising after all?

However, the gruesome murder is overshadowed by a mystery consuming the entire nation: the disappearance of Detective Sergeant Natalie Whitsed.

When she vanished, Natalie had been investigating the celebrity wife of crime boss Tony ‘The Hook’ Scopelliti.

What did she uncover, and has it cost her life?

Ms Hickey is an accomplished author and playwright from north-east Victoria and her work has won both the Grace Marion Emerging Writers Prize and the Victorian Regional Writing Prize.

Library Programs Team Leader Kristi Brooks said Margaret Hickey’s writing was a masterclass in rural noir.

“Her previous novel Cutters Edge was shortlisted for Australia’s premier crime prize, The Ned Kelly Debut Crime award, and won the Danger award for best crime novel using Australia as a setting at BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival,” she said.

Sunday’s 11am book launch is a free event with refreshments provided and books available for sale and signing – the perfect Christmas gift.

Bookings are required.

Contact Mount Gambier Library at 8721 2540 or book online at www.mountgambier.sa.gov.au/library under ‘Programs and Events’.