You can run, but you can never escape your family.
Amy and Johnny Novak have fled to a seaside town in northern New South Wales. They want a fresh start with their eleven-year-old son Sasha, and Amy is determined to shake off the legacy of Johnny’s criminal family.
But it’s hard to outrun the Novaks.
Are Amy and Johnny still keeping secrets from each other? And how did they get involved in a high-stakes game with Arturo Raoul De Leon, aka The Snake? Can Amy rise to the occasion to keep her family safe or will she be forced to become Johnny’s partner in crime?
Loraine Peck’s The Second Son won the 2021 Best Debut Crime Fiction Ned Kelly Award and was shortlisted for two Davitt Awards and the Danger Award. With its character-driven plot, psychological finesse, humour and sparkling dialogue, The Double Bind is an enthralling sequel.
INTERVIEWS and REVIEWS
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andThe Double Bind
‘An urban noir masterpiece. Street-wise, with crackling prose, this is a deep, rich mystery with family at its centre. It keeps all the promises of the best crime fiction on offer.’
‘A breathless follow up to one of my favourite books from last year.’
‘Once again Loraine Peck expertly blends family dynamics with organised crime to bring you a razor-sharp, compulsive page-turner that’s as much about love, marriage and parenting as it is about drugs, guns and gang violence. A powerful and very worthy follow-up to The Second Son.’
‘Australia’s Queen of the heist is back with a new set of twisty double crossings that had me ripping through the pages to find out how Johnny and Amy Novak were going to get away with this one.’
‘An epic crime saga with characters who’ll steal your heart then drive a dagger through it. The Double Bind hooked me and wouldn’t let me go.’
‘A dab hand at mingling psychological suspense and black comedy, Peck has produced a crime sequel as worthy of binge-reading as the original proved to be.’
‘A sensational read.’
‘A dab hand at mingling psychological suspense and black comedy, Peck has produced a crime sequel as worthy of binge-reading as the original proved to be.’
‘A sensational read.’
‘Honestly, The Double Bind is like a Netflix drug-cartel crime series exploded on the pages, with razor-sharp dialogue and characters thrown into situations that seem so impossible you have no idea how they’ll get out of them…This is a cracker that somehow manages to be even better than Loraine’s explosive debut The Second Son, which introduced readers to the Novak family and took out the 2021 Ned Kelly for best debut crime novel.’
