Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor

 Durton Creek, Australia is a small town where everyone knows everyone and a great place to raise children.  But small towns hide secrets.  Like the boy who realizes that he's attracted to other boys.  Like the drugs that are being dealt.  Like the reason that a dog is kept chained up at the local motel.  Like who Veronica (Ronnie's) father is.  Like the man who beats his wife and children.  Like what really happened at a party thirty years ago.  

Then a twelve-year-old girl named Esther goes missing.  She left school with Ronnie who is her best friend and Lewis who hangs out with them.  They all walk together on the path home until they come to the church where their paths diverge.  They split up.  Ronnie and Lewis make it home but Esther does not.  

An outsider is sent to help the police force.  DS Sarah Michaels has secrets of her own such as what happened in the fight with her girlfriend right before she came to town.  But she is determined to find Esther or find out what happened to her.  

When Lewis tells Ronnie that he saw Esther by Dirt Creek the day she disappeared, everything starts to emerge and the secrets start to be revealed.  As the truth emerges, the people of Durton Creek will never be the same. 

This is Hayley Scrivenor's debut novel and has garnered a lot of attention and won the Lambda Literary Award. She grew up in Australia so the geographical details are spot on.   It delves deeply into the secrets that a small town tends to develop and the way that people have friends as adults that they have had since childhood.  The secrets of children and how loyal they are to their friendships is highlighted.  It also discusses how outsiders feel in such a town.  I grew up in a small Sourthern town and my mother came from a Northern state.  We always had that feeling that we weren't quite on the inside.  I listened to this novel and the accent of the narrator added so much to the realism of the book.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.