Crimson Lake Books in Order

The Crimson Lake books follow Ted Conkaffey, a former Sydney detective whose life collapses after he is accused—but never convicted—of abducting a thirteen-year-old girl. Hounded by the media and abandoned by most of his friends, he retreats to the steamy, crocodile-haunted town of Crimson Lake in far north Queensland, hoping to disappear.

Instead, Ted is pushed into working with Amanda Pharrell, an eccentric private investigator and convicted killer who has no patience for his brooding. Amanda served time for a teenage murder and comes out the other side scarred, tattooed and frighteningly good at her job. Together they become the town’s strangest investigative duo, united by the fact that everyone else thinks they’re monsters.

In Crimson Lake, the pair are hired to track down a bestselling author who walked into the swamp and never came back. The missing-writer case runs alongside Ted’s struggle to adapt to a community that vandalises his house, stalks his movements and would gladly see him driven out—or worse. Ted also starts picking at the details of Amanda’s old conviction, unsure whether he’s working with a murderer or a woman who took the fall for someone else.

Redemption Point raises the stakes when the father of Ted’s alleged victim arrives in Crimson Lake with a revenge plan of his own. At the same time, Ted and Amanda are drawn into the investigation of two bartenders shot dead at the shabby Barking Frog Inn. Detective Pip Sweeney, on her first homicide, reluctantly accepts their help, and the trio uncover a tangle of small-town grudges, drug deals and buried guilt.

In Gone by Midnight, a holiday at a Cairns hotel turns into every parent’s nightmare when an eight-year-old boy vanishes from a locked room shared with three friends. Security cameras show no one leaving. The boy’s mother hires Ted and Amanda because she knows what it’s like to be the prime suspect. For Ted, the timing is brutal: he finally has a week with his young daughter Lillian, and chasing the missing child forces him to risk the fragile relationship he’s only just started to build.

What makes the Crimson Lake series stand out is its blend of swampy, almost gothic setting and oddball humour. Ted is bruised but decent; Amanda is chaotic, fearless and often inappropriate, and their friendship becomes as compelling as any mystery they solve. Running underneath every plot is the question of whether people branded as monsters can ever really reclaim their lives.

The books have also been adapted for television as Troppo, introducing Ted and Amanda to readers and viewers who like their crime fiction humid, morally knotty and a little bit wild.