Pond War

The car alone should have been a warning. Long, low, the colour of wet slate, parked across two bays like the lines were somebody else's problem — and out of it steps a man who looks at the Safety Bay foreshore the way you'd look at a fish you're about to fillet.When a developer's marquee goes up over the lagoon every kid in Safety Bay has known their whole lives, Barry, Rose, Annie, Kath and Vic know exactly what's coming. What they don't have is proof — so they get some, at dawn, underwater, with a camera and no permission at all. What they bring back is bigger than evidence: a colony, an ecosystem, and a pelican about to become famous. Across livestreams, leaks, a fractured family, and a council hall that will decide it all, the gang builds a case the old-fashioned way — evidence, witnesses, and one very stubborn old fisherman's memory. Book 4 in the acclaimed Safety Bay Six series, for readers who like their mysteries with real teeth and real salt water.