A Devastating Cold Case.

A Town On Edge.

Trust No One.

What Happens When Good People Make Bad Decisions?

Former ABC journalist and television presenter Whitney Fitzsimmons spent years reporting the stories behind the headlines.

Now she's exploring the questions that lie beyond them.

'Journalism gave me the facts. Fiction gave me the freedom to ask why.'

Her gripping debut rural thriller, The Rising, begins in the aftermath of a one-in-100-year flood, when receding waters expose a decades-old cold case: the skeletal remains of a baby no one knew existed.

'Whose blood is it? How did it get there? Panic rippled over Bec's skin, her throat constricted. Darkness crowded her mind as she tried to remember, but there was nothing.' The Rising

It's a story of buried secrets, moral ambiguity and the ripple effects of one devastating discovery.

It's also the story that wouldn't leave Whitney alone.

For years she dreamed of becoming a novelist – she started manuscripts, began to question herself and put them aside before they were finished.

Then The Rising found her.

'It fell into my head. The beginning, part of the middle and the end were all there. I thought it was my imagination playing tricks on me, but it wouldn't leave me alone.'

Finally she stopped resisting.

'I told myself, "Fine. I'll write this one. But I have to finish it."'

For Whitney, the flood was never simply a backdrop.

It became a metaphor for what floods leave behind.

While researching the novel, a news story caught her attention.

Following floods on the NSW North Coast, repair crews uncovered a rare handwritten scoreboard from Sir Donald Bradman's legendary 1934 Ashes series, hidden behind the walls of a damaged home.

It confirmed something she'd instinctively believed.

Floods don't just destroy.

They reveal.

And sometimes what they reveal changes everything.

'As the flood receded, the town emerged. But Birradurra wasn't the same. It would never be the same. Stories were told in a whisper. Dead pets. Dead crops. Dead people.' The Rising

Before the flood, Birradurra was the kind of Australian country town where neighbours became family and life revolved around community.

'Friday night in Birradurra was always a good time. Most people used the end of the working week to have some fun ahead of weekend sports responsibilities and as a reset before the grind started again. But since the floods had cascaded through, it had felt as if all the fun had been washed away …' The Rising

When devastating floods hit the town, local journalist Bec Carter is covering the unfolding disaster. But when the receding waters reveal a baby's skeletal remains, she is drawn into a decades-old mystery that forces her to question everything she believes about truth, justice and loyalty.

Haunted by the disturbing discovery and her own past, Bec becomes determined to uncover what really happened..

But in Birradurra, some secrets were never meant to surface.

More than a whodunnit, The Rising asks whether any of us truly know what we're capable of until we're pushed to the limit.

'I'm fascinated by moral ambiguity. What happens when good people do very bad things for good reasons?' Whitney says.

Long before she became a novelist, Whitney was telling stories in many different ways.

She first trained as an actor at the renowned Theatre Nepean, earning one of just eighteen places from more than 2,500 hopefuls before performing professionally on stage and screen.

It taught her how to step inside someone else's life.

Journalism taught her how to ask better questions.

Television taught her how to connect with an audience.

Writing fiction brought all of those worlds together.

It gave her the freedom to ask 'Why?'

Whitney has always trusted the quiet voice that tells her to keep going.

'I listen to my inner voice and when I know I'm meant to achieve something I keep going. That is the hallmark of my career and my personality. I don't tap out when it gets hard.'

After years of writing, rewriting and almost ninety rejections from agents and publishers, Whitney finally found the right home for the story that had refused to let her go.

While the thriller is set against the backdrop of a flood-ravaged Australian town, Whitney says the novel explores questions that extend far beyond one community.

'It's a uniquely Australian story, but the themes of truth, loyalty, justice and the choices people make under extreme pressure are universal. The Rising forces readers to ask themselves what they would do in the same situation.'

Because sometimes the most dangerous secrets aren't buried beneath the earth...

They're buried inside families, inside friendships and inside entire communities.

And sooner or later, the truth finds its way to the surface.

 

The Rising 

by Whitney Fitzsimmons

RRP: $26.99

 

Buy this book