This story was heartbreaking. It was so raw and I felt like I was always bracing for more pain.

Tom has been released from prison after serving his sentence for being an accessory to murder. He is determined to start a new life. He has a new name and is not the person he was before.

You can feel Tom's desperation to stay out of trouble and start afresh. He is so used to life shitting on him, he barely reacts when he is robbed of thousands of dollars. He just moves on to start again.

Luck looks to be on his side at last when he is offered a short term job and somewhere safe to sleep, even if it is in a cemetery. Feeling like he has a bit of breathing space, Tom starts to plan for the future.

Then a journo starts digging around and wants him to relive the past, but it's just too painful and then he gets dragged into a situation that is destined to end badly. Tom knows he needs to get away.

With a heart pounding ending that will give you chills, this is one book that will stay with me for a long long time.

This unflinchingly raw and gritty read has cemented Mark Brandi as not only one of my absolute favourite authors, but must put him up there as one of Australia's best writers.

This successor to Brandi’s debut Wimmera—in ways I won’t specify—possesses an aura of inevitability from the start.

Tom Blackburn has just been released from jail, having fulfilled his sentence without ever truly considering applying for bail. Even before his cash is stolen from the cheap motel room he’d planned to make his base, readers will likely identify the contours of this story.

We know men like Tom—however pure their intentions—rarely break free from the shackles of their past. The penal system chews you up, spits you out, then leaves its mouth open for your return. Left to fend for themselves after years of imprisonment, it’s no wonder so many return to the relative comfort of criminality; it’s all they know, and they’ve been offered no feasible alternative.

With only a few bucks left in his possession, Tom is destined to rough it on the streets. He knows that means the clock is ticking until he’s back in a cell. Not a matter of if, but when; desperation invariably corrupts the soul. But his luck seems to turn when a chance encounter leads to a job and somewhere to stay. It’s hard, physical work in a Melbourne cemetery, and he’s sure something underhanded is going on—but he’s willing to turn a blind eye. To go straight, a man with his kind of baggage sometimes has to divert into the black. But there are always consequences.

Eden is a masterclass of pared-down storytelling; an edge-of-your-seat literary crime thriller, and a compassionate portrait of a man struggling to overcome his past, who seeks a better future. It’s Mark Brandi writing at the height of his powers.