The Footstep Thief

A murder mystery with no murder, The Footstep Thief takes place in a Kafkaesque world where Stephanie enters a maze of night shifts in a university laboratory in an Australian country town. When time allows Stephanie passes her nights hunting down the perfect vending machine, searching for the Grey Nurse, imagining herself in classic movies, and talking to her dead brother, Dave.

Yet over the course of one week Stephanie's world untangles. Struggling to find a hidden meaning in Dave’s cryptic last message, she has to cope with the likes of her ex-lover, Jason (now a fledgling celebrity) who reappears to prepare a television show; or Gillian, Dave’s would-be fiancé, who places a controlling finger everywhere. Even Stephanie’s flat-mate keeps a list of her failings against God on his clipboard.

Then one night Stephanie sights Dave’s nemesis, Sir Dom.

The Footstep Thief was originally published as a short story (Ariadne’s Thread) in the 2010 Sleepers Almanac (reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald as grim but vivid – Kerry Goldsworth)