L.J.M. Owen: The Great Divide

Echo Publishing L.J.M. Owen The Great DivideA darker tale from the author of the popular Dr Pimms, Intermillennial Sleuth mysteries, L. J. M. Owen delivers us a new Australian rural crime novel full of twisted secrets and hidden victims in The Great Divide.

In the rural Tasmanian town of Dunton the body of a former headmistress of a children’s home is discovered, revealing a tortured life and death. Detective Jake Hunter, newly-arrived, searches for her killer among past residents of the home.

Unearthing pain, secrets and broken adults, Hunter pushes aside memories of his own treacherous past, focusing all his energy on the investigation.

Why are some of the children untraceable? What caused such damage among the survivors? The identity of the murderer seems hidden from Hunter by Dunton’s fog of prejudice and lies, until he is forced to confront not only the town’s history but his own nature…

For fans of Jane Harper, Val McDermid, Kathy Reichs and Emma Viskic, this is gripping, atmospheric, rural Australian crime fiction at its best.

Dr L.J.M. Owen has degrees in archaeology, forensic science and librarianship. She speaks five languages and has travelled extensively through Europe and Asia. She was inspired to write the Dr Pimms series by the neglected women’s stories she discovered between the cracks of popular archaeology.

Three books in this series, Olmec Obituary (2015), Mayan Mendacity (2016), and Egyptian Enigma (2018) have been published by Echo Publishing. Owen is also the Festival Director of the Terror Australis Readers and Writers Festival – a celebration of literature and literacy in southern Tasmania, and divides her time between Canberra and southern Tasmania.


The Great Divide is published by Echo Publishing and available from all leading book retailers including Booktopia.

Image: The Great Divide – courtesy of Echo Publishing