Clowns at Midnight

Following the breakdown of a long-term relationship, crime novelist David Leeton retreats to remote New South Wales, where he finds himself accepted into the local community and befriended by urbane Sardinian farmer Carlo Risi, an expert on European folklore and ancient religions. Leeton is a coulrophobe: he has a terrible phobia about clowns and related images. Over the course of weeks, eerie happenings disturb his peace of mind: a masked figure from Sardinian folklore lurks in the bush, and a blood-covered sewing dummy appears in his attic. Dowling controls the mystery with subtle sleight of hand: is narrator Leeton losing his mind, or is the outback community complicit in some arcane ritual beyond his understanding?