Publisher details

Author: Fiona Lowe
Publisher: Harper Collins (US)
Released: 24 February, 2026
ISBN: 9781038921505

The Drowning

Buy now

Retail partners

Synopsis

A body on the beach. An inheritance. A family pulled apart. Bestselling Australian author Fiona Lowe returns with her most engrossing mystery to date, perfect for readers of Liane Moriarty and Sally Hepworth.CC Cilento's best memories are of spending every summer holiday running wild in and out of the Friend family beach house with her cousins, James, Ollie, Felix and Lily. It's the next best thing to having brothers and sisters. They've continued the summer tradition into adulthood, getting together at the shack with its absolute beach frontage.But now a bombshell has dropped: the four Friend siblings have officially inherited the property - along with an unexpected fifth share to CC. What starts out as the perfect gift, and a way of keeping the family connected forever, quickly devolves into an emotional power struggle. Half of them want to keep the legacy intact, while the others want to sell - and each side will do anything to make it happen. Soon, CC can't tell friend from foe.When a body is found on the shack's beach, has this family dispute turned deadly?

About the author

Fiona Lowe

Fiona Lowe has been a midwife, a sexual health counsellor and a family support worker; an ideal career for an author who writes novels about family and relationships. She spent her early years in Papua New Guinea where, without television, reading was the entertainment and it set up a lifelong love of books. Although she often re-wrote the endings of books in her head, it was the birth of her first child that prompted her to write her first novel. A recipient of the prestigious USA RITA® award and the Australian RuBY award, Fiona writes books that are set in small country towns. They feature real people facing difficult choices and explore how family ties and relationships impact on their decisions.When she's not writing stories, she's a distracted wife, mother of two ‘ginger' sons, a volunteer in her community, guardian of eighty rose bushes, a slave to a cat, and is often found collapsed on the couch with wine. You can find her at her website, fionalowe.com, and on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.