Secrets. Betrayals. Murder.
  • All These Perfect Strangers
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All These Perfect Strangers

Aoife Clifford

The truth is never black and white
 

‘This is about three deaths. Actually more, if you go back far enough. I say deaths but perhaps all of them were murders. It’s a grey area. Murder, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So let’s just call them deaths and say I was involved. This story could be told a hundred different ways.’
 
University life is full of perfect strangers, charismatic academics and instant best friends. Pen Sheppard fits in by reinventing herself and wiping away her past, never thinking that others might be doing the same thing. But keeping secrets can become obsessive and betrayal deadly. Within six months three students are dead. Should Pen remain silent? Or will she be compelled to talk, to excuse, to explain … or perhaps confess?

 

About the Author

Aoife Clifford is the author of All These Perfect Strangers, which was long-listed for both the Australian Industry General Fiction Book of the Year and the Voss Literary Prize, and Second Sight, a Publishers Weekly (starred review) and PW Pick for Book of the Week. Aoife’s short stories have been published in Australia, United Kingdom and the United States, winning premier prizes such as the Scarlet Stiletto and the S.D. Harvey Ned Kelly Award.

Praise

 

'A stunning debut.' – Sydney Morning Herald

 

'This debut by an Australian novelist is unputdownable.' – Marie Claire

 

'This is as much a treatise on class, gender, privilege and power as it is a crime thriller. That Clifford manages to convey all that via a gripping murder yarn is a testament to her skill as a writer.' – The Saturday Paper

 

'an assured, clever and profoundly disconcerting psychological thriller.' – AustCrime Fiction

 

'a haunting read, a psychological thriller with loose threads picked at and unravelled chapter by chapter, from past to present, from truth to fiction and back again.' – Readings

 

'All These Perfect Strangers is a novel of disquieting intimacy and controlled suspense, Aoife Clifford deftly tightening the screws until we share the narrator's sense of emotional and physical confinement and the unremitting grip of the past.' – Garry Disher

 

'All These Perfect Strangers is a wonderful, gripping and compelling read that lingers long after the book is closed. Aoife Clifford creates a disturbing but compelling cast of characters, leaving the reader constantly guessing what's around the corner, and her cleverly woven plot shines a harsh spotlight on the question of whether the past can ever truly be left behind.' – Jane Harper, author of The Dry


ISBN
9781761152405

Format
Paperback

Cost
$24.99

Pub Date
January 2024

Extent
416pp

Rights
World

Category
Fiction

Themes
Secrets, Obsession, Mystery