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July 1, 2020
A white female Australian football coach trying to hide from her past gets swept up in the long-simmering race-based conflicts of the small town she moves to when she tries to help her star player, an Indigenous man. Clementine Jones is just a part-time Australian football coach in the tiny town of Katinga in Victoria. A white, middle-class one-time corporate lawyer who's fled Sydney, she's trying to escape her past life and live in anonymity in her haven, a little cottage nestled in the hills. But one thing led to another, and now she coaches the Cats, the town's football team, for a paltry $140 a week. She's an excellent coach, and the team has the chance to go to the finals for the first time in decades. Her star player is Clancy Kennedy, the only Indigenous man on the team, whose pregnant wife is a month from her due date. When he suddenly quits the team and is fired from his job for theft, something doesn't seem quite right to Clem. But when she tries to get to the bottom of it, she finds that the seemingly bucolic town is one where race tensions run high. Very high. On one side is the Indigenous population, trying to get by and live within a system that devalues them and their history, and on the other is a group of militant and criminal skinhead whites who wield physical violence against people and property as if it were a right. This is a rip-roaring tale that addresses weighty issues head-on: Discrimination, race-baiting, harassment, physical violence, corporate corruption, and criminality all play major roles in the story. First-time author Thornton interweaves all this with on-field action, a combination that propels the story forward addictively and will leave readers eager to read the next installment of this new series. A riveting thriller with a heroine willing to get her hands dirty to find the answers she seeks.

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September 1, 2020
Footy fans in small-town Katinga, Australia, are crushed when star player Clancy Kennedy leaves the local team. The team's coach, Clem Jones, is perplexed as it's clear that Clancy is unwillingly quitting the team and even his job. Clem understands her star's reticence to divulge his reasons, though. Secrets of her own, kept from the reader till the last page, have driven her from a Sydney legal career to a new name and lower profile in Katinga. Clem is driven to figure out what's troubling Clancy, uncovering racism against the man, who is an Aboriginal, and sordid behavior by the town's ostensible upper crust. Debut author and former lawyer Thornton offers some very exciting scenes, a lengthy chase among them. These propel a plot that can sometimes drag, but a look at Australian small-town life, and at a woman succeeding in a traditionally man's job, offer interest. Fans of small-town mysteries should try this for its out-of-the-way locale and brave, likable protagonist. This is the first in a series, so readers can look forward to more from Clem.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)