And Then the Darkness

Two young English tourists watch a glorious Australian outback sunset, and are waylaid in the middle of nowhere by a predatory stranger. There's a single gunshot, and then the darkness. Hours later, Joanne Lees is found wandering the highway, cut and bleeding, her hands bound together and tape matted in her hair. Her boyfriend Peter Falconio seems to have vanished into thin air, leaving behind only a pool of blood on the side of the road. Joanne's account of her ordeal - the apparent murder of her lover, her capture at gunpoint, and her miraculous escape from the back of her attacker's 4WD into the bush - sparked a frenzy of media interest and triggered the biggest manhunt ever mounted in Australia. But with few clues to the lone gunman's identity, and as criticism of the police operation intensified, doubts about Joanne's story began to surface. Was she really as innocent as she appeared? In this gripping account of Peter Falconio's disappearance, award-winning writer Sue Williams delves into the saga as it unfolds, charting the young couple's early lives, an ill-fated love affair, and the dark past of the gun-happy drifter snared by the investigation.