Carlon was an Australian writer, whose fourteen psychological suspense novels were published in Britain in the sixties. It's only in the last ten or so years that she has been re-discovered in her home country and in the US. She has been compared to Patricia Highsmith and Barbara Vine, and from the books I've read, the comparisons are justified.

The newly married Stuart and Kathy Heath decide to foster a young boy, but Johnnie, a tough little city kid, doesn't fit into life on the cattle station. He's foul-mouthed, wary of affection and scared of horses. He's also prone to telling tall tales, so when he goes missing for a day and comes home with a story of a murder no-one believes him.

Johnnie caught only a glimpse of the murderer so would not recognise him, or her, again, but the murderer knows who Johnnie is, and wants to get rid of him. ( )