'Tennyson, Victoria, has a history that most people have forgotten about- beneath local houses runs a network of ungazetted gold rush mine shafts. When two people go missing, two weeks before the local election, no one is looking down below or no one who actually wants to find the missing women.
'Her daughter Margy at high school, Lucy is about to go back to work as an astronomer. Her husband Justin is an ophthalmologist who's also running for state government. The election is in two weeks and Justin has a secret- he's been taking money from Lucy's account.
'When Lucy doesn't turn up at dinnertime one night, there are clues that something is wrong- the family dog, Kepler barks for attention from the front yard, not the back; Lily's mother Renata knows that Lucy would never miss their meet up.
Margy's new friend, Lily, is certain something serious has happened to Lucy, and she keeps telling Margy she has to go looking for Mum. Until Lily disappears too.
When Lucy wakes at the bottom of a mineshaft, her rational mind rails against this possibility. Time should go backwards; she should fall up. She imagines her life at home and slowly counts to see her through her isolation- steps before she fell; heartbeats; breathing the earth's rotation; cicadas singing; pendant swinging on a pendulum; collecting ants and pebbles and words. When Justin decides he'd be better off without her she's left with nothing but her vision of the stars above.' (Publication summary)
