Secrets and Lies — Gina Amos

It is Autumn and Ashleigh Taylor has moved to Eden Street, a pleasant tree-lined street in a major city in Australia. She is searching for a quiet suburban life, and when she first arrives she doesn't intend to make much effort in getting to know the people in her street. But this is soon turned upside down when Ruby Phillips, the reclusive neighbour from No.15, unexpectedly turns up on her examination table. Here was one neighbour that she really was going to get to know-intimately. Dr Ashleigh Taylor is a forensic pathologist with the New South Wales Coroner's Office and as she examines the lifeless body of her elderly neighbour, she feels a pang of regret that she had not done more to help her. Ruby's body was discovered, slumped at her kitchen table two days after her death. The two police officers who arrive on the scene are surprised by what they find and Senior Constable Brennan doesn't think much of the young, upstart real estate agent who discovered Ruby's body. Senior Constable Brennan doesn't like real estate agents, and thinks Ambah St John is a piranha who would have covered Ruby Phillips with a lampshade, if the timing was different and it had been an open house inspection. As Ashleigh goes over the information supplied during a briefing with Brennan, she begins to wonder if Ruby committed suicide as the police are suggesting. The empty packets of prescription pills and the empty bottle of expensive Scotch found next to the kitchen sink suggests as such; but doesn't explain the reason why the electricity supply to the house has been cut off, or the sudden appearance of the garish “For Sale' sign, or even the keen interest shown by the aspiring artist and neighbour, Kevin Taggert who seems to have a fascination for elderly women. Ashleigh Taylor also learns from William Phillips, Ruby's estranged son, that he has doubts of his own and doesn't believe that his proud and stubborn mother was capable of taking her own life. As the investigation into Ruby's death continues, more than pathological results are revealed. Ruby had a well-kept secret. A big secret.