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Haze
Not yet published
Expected 24 Feb 26You can't outrun the past forever...
The coastal town of Broughlet is battling the worst fires on record. As the flames draw close, tensions are brewing between the inhabitants of the town and The People's Cleansing Light, a cult led by the charming and cunning Fairchild Shaw. Accusations of arson fly and violence threatens to erupt.
When ex-cult member Constable Dahlia Turner returns to her hometown she is determined to put her harrowing past behind her. But there are some in the town who don't want to let her forget. When her closest friends are murdered and their son abducted, Dahlia is forced to confront her demons in order to save the boy.
Dahlia is in a race against time to find Jude before it's too late - but how far is she willing to go to save him? As the inferno rages on, she discovers that sometimes the line between saviour and sinner blurs...
The coastal town of Broughlet is battling the worst fires on record. As the flames draw close, tensions are brewing between the inhabitants of the town and The People's Cleansing Light, a cult led by the charming and cunning Fairchild Shaw. Accusations of arson fly and violence threatens to erupt.
When ex-cult member Constable Dahlia Turner returns to her hometown she is determined to put her harrowing past behind her. But there are some in the town who don't want to let her forget. When her closest friends are murdered and their son abducted, Dahlia is forced to confront her demons in order to save the boy.
Dahlia is in a race against time to find Jude before it's too late - but how far is she willing to go to save him? As the inferno rages on, she discovers that sometimes the line between saviour and sinner blurs...
400 pages, Paperback
Expected publication February 24, 2026
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27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Another outstanding debut from an Australian author. We are so lucky to have so much writing talent in this country and Sam Elliot is one to add to that list. Haze is a very clever and unique crime thriller, with twist after twist that just compels you to keep reading,
Set in a small coastal town called Broughlet, Haze has so much happening all the time it is impossible to get bored. We meet Constable Dahlia Turner, who has led a troubled life and has not long returned to town. The place is under threat from multiple fires, believed to be deliberately lit. She is doing to the rounds to ensure that nobody in the threat areas is still in their homes when she comes across a horrific scene and discovers that a child is missing.
Dahlia doesn’t like to follow the rules and do as she is told and gets herself into trouble quite a lot.but she has a big heart and is determined to find the missing boy and discover what happened in his house.at the same time the town is at war,with a local business man and the cult fighting for what they believe is right.
This book had me hooked. You could almost feel the heat from the fires burning on the pages. The author really puts the reader into the scene so well, I really did feel as if I was there. Dahlia is frustrating and makes some terrible decisions, but for the right reasons. I do hope we get another book with her.
Thank you so much to the team at Macmillan Australia for the advanced copy of this book to read. Publishes on February 24th and must be added to your TBR.
Set in a small coastal town called Broughlet, Haze has so much happening all the time it is impossible to get bored. We meet Constable Dahlia Turner, who has led a troubled life and has not long returned to town. The place is under threat from multiple fires, believed to be deliberately lit. She is doing to the rounds to ensure that nobody in the threat areas is still in their homes when she comes across a horrific scene and discovers that a child is missing.
Dahlia doesn’t like to follow the rules and do as she is told and gets herself into trouble quite a lot.but she has a big heart and is determined to find the missing boy and discover what happened in his house.at the same time the town is at war,with a local business man and the cult fighting for what they believe is right.
This book had me hooked. You could almost feel the heat from the fires burning on the pages. The author really puts the reader into the scene so well, I really did feel as if I was there. Dahlia is frustrating and makes some terrible decisions, but for the right reasons. I do hope we get another book with her.
Thank you so much to the team at Macmillan Australia for the advanced copy of this book to read. Publishes on February 24th and must be added to your TBR.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Australian crime writers are becoming a little obsessed with fire. There are obviously a good reasons for this as every summer the continent lights up and the communities most under threat are smaller rural and regional locations. This allows for narratives that combine rural crime with a mix of additional threat. So it is no surprise that Sam Elliott’s debut Haze, much like James Delargy’s recent novel Into the Flames, opens with a murder (a double murder in this case) discovered during an evacuation caused by a massive bushfire.
As Haze opens a major bushfire threatens the small coastal community of Broughlet. Constable Dahlia Turner has been charged with making sure local properties have been evacuated in the face of an oncoming fire. Her last stop is that of her best friends – couple Callum and Xavier. She finds the pair dead and their nine-year-old son Jude missing. She quickly decides Jude has been abducted rather than just run away (but how she reaches that conclusion is more than a little tenuous). Turner is soon on a mission to find Jude, but in order to do so she has to confront the town’s two opposing forces – a cult called The People’s Cleansing Light (to which she belonged as a child) that is obsessed with fire as a means to ascend to a higher plane (and hence have the local nickname ‘crispies’), and a local developer and his band of ne’er-do-well sons (who still blame Turner for the death of their brother).
As can be seen from this summary, Turner has way too many connections to every element of the case of the missing boy and yet… she is paired up with Fowler, an out-of-town detective, to try and solve it. Community tensions mount as both sides blame the other for starting the fires and the threat of those fires increases. In amongst this, Turner and Fowler start to understand that Jude is possibly not the first child to go missing from the town and the stakes for their investigation increase.
There is a lot going on in Haze, all of it centred around Turner. She has a dark, personal connections to all of the main players and suspects and is herself a little out of control due to her concern for Jude. This is on top of the fact that even before this series of events she was often shunned, suspected and verbally abused by her fellow townsfolk due to her former connection with the local cult. This gives the narrative a frenetic pacing but might make readers wonder why she came back to the town at all.
A fair amount of suspension of disbelief is required to make Haze work, particularly the ultimate solution to the overarching mystery. But in this regard the pacing helps: event piles on event so quickly that invested readers will keep turning the pages. And Turner can be a compelling, if frustrating protagonist. Elliott leaves some elements of Turner’s backstory deliberately vague and at least one more novel featuring her (Deepfake) is expected next year.
As Haze opens a major bushfire threatens the small coastal community of Broughlet. Constable Dahlia Turner has been charged with making sure local properties have been evacuated in the face of an oncoming fire. Her last stop is that of her best friends – couple Callum and Xavier. She finds the pair dead and their nine-year-old son Jude missing. She quickly decides Jude has been abducted rather than just run away (but how she reaches that conclusion is more than a little tenuous). Turner is soon on a mission to find Jude, but in order to do so she has to confront the town’s two opposing forces – a cult called The People’s Cleansing Light (to which she belonged as a child) that is obsessed with fire as a means to ascend to a higher plane (and hence have the local nickname ‘crispies’), and a local developer and his band of ne’er-do-well sons (who still blame Turner for the death of their brother).
As can be seen from this summary, Turner has way too many connections to every element of the case of the missing boy and yet… she is paired up with Fowler, an out-of-town detective, to try and solve it. Community tensions mount as both sides blame the other for starting the fires and the threat of those fires increases. In amongst this, Turner and Fowler start to understand that Jude is possibly not the first child to go missing from the town and the stakes for their investigation increase.
There is a lot going on in Haze, all of it centred around Turner. She has a dark, personal connections to all of the main players and suspects and is herself a little out of control due to her concern for Jude. This is on top of the fact that even before this series of events she was often shunned, suspected and verbally abused by her fellow townsfolk due to her former connection with the local cult. This gives the narrative a frenetic pacing but might make readers wonder why she came back to the town at all.
A fair amount of suspension of disbelief is required to make Haze work, particularly the ultimate solution to the overarching mystery. But in this regard the pacing helps: event piles on event so quickly that invested readers will keep turning the pages. And Turner can be a compelling, if frustrating protagonist. Elliott leaves some elements of Turner’s backstory deliberately vague and at least one more novel featuring her (Deepfake) is expected next year.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is one of the most original crime novels I’ve read in a long time.
Constable Dahlia Turner is door knocking properties to ensure residents of Broughlet have evacuated ahead of a raging fire when she stumbles across a horrific crime, and discovers her best friends' child is now missing.
Haze isn’t just tense - it smoulders. The embers practically burn off the page. Sam Elliot’s descriptions are so vivid you can feel the heat in your lungs and taste the ash. It’s intensely atmospheric without ever compromising on pace.
The twists are properly twisty, and the ending is a genuine surprise but it’s earned. The clues are there. Once you know, you can trace the trail backwards and understand how the puzzle pieces click into place.
I can’t wait to see what Sam writes next.
Thank you Pan Macmillan for an early review copy.
Constable Dahlia Turner is door knocking properties to ensure residents of Broughlet have evacuated ahead of a raging fire when she stumbles across a horrific crime, and discovers her best friends' child is now missing.
Haze isn’t just tense - it smoulders. The embers practically burn off the page. Sam Elliot’s descriptions are so vivid you can feel the heat in your lungs and taste the ash. It’s intensely atmospheric without ever compromising on pace.
The twists are properly twisty, and the ending is a genuine surprise but it’s earned. The clues are there. Once you know, you can trace the trail backwards and understand how the puzzle pieces click into place.
I can’t wait to see what Sam writes next.
Thank you Pan Macmillan for an early review copy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews