In book two of her series (after The Dark Lake), author Sarah Bailey transplants Detective Gemma Woodstock from a small rural Australian town, to Melbourne where she struggles to find her place, both in the large city and in her new job with the Melbourne police.
Up until now Gemma has mostly been given minor cases by her boss and she's chafing at the limiting scope of her work. Her wish to be working on something bigger gets answered in a big way when her department gets two major cases in quick succession. A homeless man is killed, with no witnesses or motive apparent to police. And a day later, up and coming actor Sterling Wade is stabbed on the set of his movie while the cameras are rolling. The problem is his death happens while the director was shooting a massive zombie scene and no one can tell who actually killed Sterling. Gemma, and her taciturn partner Nick Fleet, are asked to lead the investigation and as the media spotlight gets brighter and no suspect found, Gemma may begin to regret that her wish for a bigger case was answered.
I've been on an Australian mystery kick lately (sort of accidentally because I've not been looking for them) and this one is another good outing. Solid police procedural with a protagonist with just the right amount of baggage to make her interesting. Sadly, there isn't a third in this series, but it has led me to some lists of other Australian mystery/thrillers. I'll keep you posted about any others I love.