Dark Wave ✧
“With luscious prose and a sumptuous setting, Lana Guineay’s debut novella is a brilliant reworking of the classic crime novel.” – Seizure.
“The novel moves in fast motion, with noir rhythms and atmospherics. (Sample: “The air was hot and close, the right environment for an orchid, wrong for a hungover man. His voice was raspy. His eye bags had gone from carry-on to check-in.”) Fun and delicious.” – Molly Young, Vulture
“…written in impressionistic prose that captures fleeting experience beautifully…all the hallmarks of a rollicking crime read wrapped up in Guineay’s delightfully surprising prose style.” – Sam Van Sweden, KYD magazine
“On one level, it’s a classically formulated detective caper; on another, a sensitive portrait of a relationship over seasons, from bloom to decay to regeneration. Filled with lush prose and a sharp sense of mystery, Dark Wave breathes new life—and surf—into the noir genre.” – Melbourne Writers’ Festival
When Paloma Knightley returns to her family-owned resort on a private island in the Whitsundays, she begins to receive anonymous letters suggesting they are in danger. She calls her ex-boyfriend, ‘legendary’ George Green, a retired surfer now investigator, to do some digging. Ultimately, they uncover secrets darker than they ever wanted to know, and confront their own past of regret, love, and desire. On Songbird Island, the truth is as dazzling and as mercurial as the ocean…
Winner of the 2020 Viva La Novella prize.
