Amber

“She thought she was facing a quiet archivist, a wheelchair-using smith and a noble’s girl, but she was wrong; she had chosen to come for two brawling survivors of the Blenraden gutter, a god, and his powerful protector.”
― Hannah Kaner, Faithbreaker

“I think I’ve found something. Was Deb wearing white trainers?”

“Yeah? Maybe? I can’t remember”

“Because I’m in the river and I think I’ve found one of Deb’s shoes. It is possible she may have drowned?”

“What?”

“Well, in films, when you find someone’s shoe on a riverbank, it’s usually because they’re dead.”

“Maybe she just kicked them off and went for a dip to cool off.”

“Where’s the other shoe, then?”

On her corpse obviously, according to my overactive imagination.
“Send me picture of the shoe, maybe. I’m sure it’s fine, Rodney”

I look down at the photo Rodney sent over to me “Oh, for Christ’s sake.” I hit dial.

“Hello, Rodney speaking! How can I help?”

“What? Rodney, it’s Dylan. That shoe. It’s a man’s shoe. Obviously. What size does it say on the bottom?”

“Eleven. Oh! Does Deb have very big feet?”

“No, Rodney, she doesn’t.”

“Great! It’s someone else who must’ve drowned, then. I’ll get out of the river, in that case.”

“You’re… in the river? Actually in it”

“I’m trawling! For bodies! No need now though, if it isn’t Deb”

“Ok. Thanks, Rodney. Keep at it.”
― Beth O'Leary, The Road Trip

“I am a god of people. Of little lies, little hopes, little stories. Middren has not been kind to me, but its people have. A godkiller has helped me, a child has saved me, a knight has cared for me”
― Hannah Kaner, Faithbreaker

“Before she’d moved to the Northern Territory she’d thought it would be a land of perpetual brilliance: blood-red dirt, sapphire skies and emerald trees, and a luminous, pendulous sun reigning over the land. All of that was true – just not at the same time.”
― Sophie Green, The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club