Eden by Mark Brandi – Our Review – Upcoming Event with Kate Mildenhall + Mark Smith on Sunday Jan 18, 2026

After serving nine years for his part in helping a mate cover up a gruesome murder, Tom Blackburn finds himself ‘free’ on the streets of Melbourne. But having grown up in country Victoria, the city is a foreign place and without friends or family on the outside he’s not sure how long he’ll last.

Things definitely don’t go his way at the start, but after he’s caught sleeping rough at the Carlton Cemetery his luck seems to change and suddenly he has a bed and a job – and maybe even some new friends? Tom is keen to make a new start – save some money, go and visit an old friend who’s moved to Queensland – but the past is not that easy to escape. Not when you’re just trying to survive and certainly not when someone appears to be trying to track you down.

Mark Brandi’s dark and disturbing debut Wimmera has stuck with me since I first read it in 2017. Eden is a return to an uncomfortable world of dark secrets and hidden horrors. Like 2019’s The Rip it’s about surviving on the streets and the effort it takes to turn your life around.

Chilling, poignant and (once you realise what has happened to Tom to lead to these events) heartbreaking, Eden shows a side of Australian life not often explored in crime fiction.

Review by Andi @ Great Escape Books