Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti

Old loyalties and decades-long feuds rise to the surface in this stunning crime novel, set in a spectacular Australian landscape known for its jagged cliffs and hidden caves.

Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti has taken a few days' holiday in Broken Bay at precisely the wrong time. The small fishing town on South Australia's Limestone Coast is now the scene of a terrible tragedy.

Renowned cave-diver Mya Rennik has drowned while exploring a sinkhole on the land of wealthy farmer Frank Doyle. As the press descends, Mark's boss orders him to stay put and assist the police operation.

But when they retrieve Mya's body, a whole new mystery is opened up, around the disappearance of a young local woman twenty years before . . .

Suddenly Mark is diving deep into the town's history - and in particular the simmering rivalry between its two most prominent families, the Doyles and Sinclairs.

Then Cherie Swinson, a former actress, is murdered in the Sinclairs' old home - and Mark is left wondering which is more dangerous: Broken Bay's hidden subterranean world or the secretive town above it . . .


'Margaret Hickey blazed on to the Australian crime writing scene with Cutters End. [She] excels at using the setting to add tension and, here, it is the South Australian coast and limestone caves . . . A fresh setting for a crime novel, and the underwater scenes are suffocatingly horrifying.' Weekend Australian

'While the story of small-town loves, rivalries and misdemeanours is well done, it is, as always, Hickey's observations of rural life that are completely engaging.' Sunday Age

'This is the third novel featuring Detective Mark Ariti, and a ripper it is too . . . A fabulous addition to the wealth of Bush Noir novels available, and I recommend it highly.' Good Reading

'A tour de force.' Australian Women's Weekly on Cutters End

'Astonishingly assured crime novel. A pitch perfect outback noir.' Weekend Australian on Cutters End

'Hickey nicely layers the intrigue as we follow the always likeable Ariti, who once again discovers just how secretive and bizarre life in the rural hinterland can be.' Sydney Morning Herald on Stone Town

Cutters End was the winner of the BAD Danger Prize 2022 and was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction 2022.