Amy & John Novak Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| The Second Son | 2021 | Buy |
| The Double Bind | 2023 | Buy |
Loraine Peck took an unusual path to crime fiction. She started out as a portrait painter and magician’s assistant in Sydney, then dealt blackjack on the Gold Coast, tended bar in the United States, worked in the movie industry, and built a career in international marketing across Australia, the Middle East, Asia, and the US. At 54, she decided to stop everything and take a writing course to learn how to write the kind of books she loved to read.
The result was The Second Son (2021), a crime thriller set in Western Sydney that won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction. Its sequel, The Double Bind (2023), continues the story of the Novak family. Peck’s fiction draws on the gritty side of Sydney’s suburban life, with characters caught between family loyalty and the desire to break free from a world of violence.