Those Who Perish, by Emma Viskic

Resurrection Bay again hosts the action in this fourth Caleb Zelic novel. He has been dividing his time between there and Melbourne, while his wife is staying with her parents in the final weeks of her pregnancy. The deaf PI has been trying to avoid dangerous jobs to keep Kat sweet, but that resolve is threatened when his junkie brother Ant reappears after six months with no contact. Soon Caleb is drawn into a murder mystery centred on an insular island in the Bay, where Ant is in a new rehab facility. Can Caleb keep his family safe and will he have to choose between his brother and his marriage? Visic evokes a great sense of place, with deep layers of community and culture, rural, indigenous and deaf. She maintains tension to the end, with the safety of all concerned in doubt and the identity of the murderer coming as a surprise to both Caleb and the reader. The murder rate in the small coastal town puts it in in danger of becoming Australia’s Midsummer, so it’s probably just as well her next novel will be a standalone.