A Fugitive in the Present.  A Runaway in the Past.

Eliza Carmody returns home to the country to work on the biggest legal case of her career. The only problem is this time she's on the 'wrong side' - defending a large corporation against a bushfire class action by her hometown of Kinsale.

On her first day back Eliza witnesses an old friend, Luke Tyrell, commit an act of lethal violence. As the police investigate the crime and hunt for Luke, they uncover bones at The Castle, a historic homestead in the district. Eliza is convinced that they belong to someone from her past.

As Eliza becomes more and more entangled in the investigation, she is pulled back into her memories of youthful friendships and begins to question everyone she knows...and everything she once thought was true.

Praise for Second Sight

This brilliantly crafted, slow-burn crime novel from Australian Clifford (All These Perfect Strangers) slides with delicious subtlety from a story that begins in small-town reminiscences and regrets, moves into amateur investigation blended with personal history and deep secrets, and then takes a plunge into driving thriller territory. Lawyer Eliza Carmody knows she will get little sympathy in her hometown of Kinsale, Australia, because she’s there not only to visit her pregnant best friend, Amy Liu, and her father, Mick Carmody, who’s unresponsive in nursing care after a car accident, but also to develop her case on behalf of Colcart Electric in a class action suit by Kinsale’s residents over a devastating and fatal bushfire. Witnessing a violent fight involving Luke Tyrell, whom she remembers from childhood, leads her to revisit the events of New Year’s Eve 1996, during which her other best friend, Grace Hedland, disappeared. The author tugs hard at universal human emotions as she explores themes of grief and the unreliability of memory. Readers will view everyone Eliza encounters with a blend of suspicion and sympathy. Clifford is definitely a writer to watch. Publishers Weekly (starred review) and PW Pick for Book of the Week

The tension is high, the pace rapid and the plot primed to keep the pages turning. The Australian

You won’t put this book down until the final page is done. Adelaide Advertiser

Second Sight opens in the beach resort of Kinsale with the incisive prose that has established Clifford as something of a stylist…Trouble and teenagers are at the heart of this fine crime novel. Sydney Morning Herald

Aoife Clifford has absolutely nailed it again. The characters were beautifully drawn and the small town intrigues kept me turning pages to the big reveal at the end. Brava! Fiona Barton, New York Times bestselling author of The Widow

I read Second Sight like I was on fire. I couldn’t get enough of Eliza Carmody. Sarah Bailey, bestselling author of The Dark lake

Aoife Clifford is brilliant at showing how the past is a strong, pulsing stream that infects and directs the present. She's done it again with Second Sight a pacy, gripping thriller with thick ropes of regret, trauma, misunderstood love and misdirected duty slithering beneath. Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated Incident and Fishing for Tigers

Skilfully plotted and intricate, Second Sight is another engrossing read by one of our most talented crime writers. Aoife Clifford's second novel explores how the impact of decisions made decades ago can reverberate, to devastating effect, in the present. A story shaped by the ravages of bushfire, the secrets of a small town, and a returned local's search for redemption. Highly recommended. Anna George, author of The Lone Child and What Came Before

With its shifting viewpoints and sharply observed characters, Second Sight is a shrewdly paced account of a young litigation lawyer's investigation into a suspicious fire and her own troubled history. Garry Disher, author of Under the Cold Bright Lights and Bitter Wash Road.

With Second Sight, Aoife Clifford confirms herself as one of Australia's up-and-coming crime writers. A young lawyer's investigation into a lethal bushfire leads her into danger, and the truth about her own troubled past. A compelling story about secrets, small town loyalties, and lies.' Emma Viskic, author of Resurrection Bay and Fire Came Down