‘Woollett manipulates the structure of the crime novel, the suspense of the whodunnit, to destabilise the idea that there is ever one perpetrator of a crime … [her] prose is intellectual and deliberate … The Newcomer does a lot in its short pages, weaving together a story of grief and unhappiness with a compelling crime narrative.’

‘Woollett manipulates the structure of the crime novel, the suspense of the whodunnit, to destabilise the idea that there is ever one perpetrator of a crime … [her] prose is intellectual and deliberate … The Newcomer does a lot in its short pages, weaving together a story of grief and unhappiness with a compelling crime narrative.’

‘Powerful … Laura Elizabeth Woollett is an excellent writer. She doesn’t deal in stereotypes: even her toxic males … are sensitively portrayed.’

‘Woollet subverts the crime-fiction genre in this character-driven narrative … immensely readable.’

‘An expertly plotted page-turner.’

‘Laura Elizabeth Woollett has done it again. The Newcomer pulls you in from its eerie opening and drags you along with intriguing characters and beautifully wrought prose. As the mystery deepens, you begin to realise things are never clear-cut, and everybody is guilty of something. A cautionary tale inspired by true events by one of my favourite authors. Read this book now.’

‘The Newcomer is a dark and disturbing novel, speaking to some of the most troubling aspects of contemporary Australian society. As in Beautiful Revolutionary, Woollett’s prose is delicate and brutal in equal measure, offering an intimate portrait of a small and tight-knit community. With a fast-paced narrative and a complex central character, this is a searing exploration of sexual violence and victimhood, taking forward important conversations within our national psyche.’

‘Laura Elizabeth Woollett is my kind of writer — fearless, incisive, and darkly poetic. The Newcomer is by turns tragic, funny, sinister, and completely riveting.’

‘Intensely chilling and sucker-punch powerful, The Newcomer is a murder mystery but not as you know it. With a seamless blend of electric prose, simmering tension, and a deeply evocative setting, Woollett sharpens her focus on the humanity of the victim rather than the identity of the killer. The small-town intrigue sets your heart pounding — but it’s the characters, so nuanced and vivid you can almost reach out and touch them, who make it bleed. They pull you into their world from the first page and stay with you long after you've turned the last, forcing you to consider the stories of those who often go unnamed or unnoticed in the wake of violence and tragedy. The result is a crime novel that, like its protagonist, throws out the rule book and blazes its own dark and unforgettable trail.’

‘Intriguing and touching, The Newcomer is a new kind of crime novel.’

'With its refreshingly real voice, Laura Elizabeth Woollett’s The Newcomer takes Australian crime fiction to a whole new level. Haunting. Raw. Compulsive. I can’t stop thinking about it.’

‘Woollett is a dexterous storyteller — she has a keen sense of place and dialogue, evoking a Kath & Kim-esque fish-out-of-water story as she illustrates the relationships between Fairfolk Island’s many locals and Paulina, a “mainie” who is as strange to them as they are to her.’

‘[An] entertaining and powerful read.’

‘[Woollett’s] depiction of Paulina is as complex as it needs to be. No ‘victim’ is a facsimile. No story like this, whether true or not, is simple or merely two-sided. Paulina is difficult, moody and reckless much of the time. She seeks solace in the things – drink, drugs, and brutal sex – that hurt her. But as Woollett’s clever storytelling and research shows, none of this should lead to a killing in the wilderness.’

‘Woollett convincingly and devastatingly evokes the everyday misogyny of the world her characters inhabit. This is a world in which even apparently friendly exchanges are laced with an acrid antipathy towards women and girls, one in which women are blamed for the male violence that they’re subject to … Politics and fiction haven’t always been an easy combination, but they are here … Throughout the novel, Woollett provides a sensitive and refreshingly unjudgmental insight into the lives of her two female protagonists … [and her] eye for dialogue and character development is impeccable.’

‘[The Newcomer] is stark, confronting, and as compelling as a car going over a cliff in slow motion.’

‘Atmospheric and unsettling.’

‘This novel is part of a growing (and welcome) trend in recent fiction to explicitly interrogate the idea of “dead girl” mysteries, and make its victim whole and nuanced.’

‘A brilliant evisceration of the stories we tell about gendered violence and “good” victimhood.’

‘This exquisitely crafted tale from the author of Beautiful Revolutionary explores … themes of power and the way we perceive victims. Memorable.’

Laura Elizabeth Woollett is the author of a short story collection, The Love of a Bad Man (Scribe, 2016), and two novels, Beautiful Revolutionary (Scribe, 2018) and The Newcomer (Scribe, 2021). The Love of a Bad Man was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. Beautiful Revolutionary was shortlisted for the 2019 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, and the Kathleen Mitchell Award. Laura was the City of Melbourne’s 2020 Boyd Garret writer-in-residence and a 2020-22 Marten Bequest scholar for prose.