It's hard enough to investigate your first homicide, but when you're a woman working in a male-dominated environment, with people watching, waiting for your inevitable mistake, it can seem impossible. Susan Geason takes that scenario and adds a further couple of delectable twists such as a gradually returning long-suppressed memory and a bushfire that threatens to cut off an entire city and rolls them into a rousing conflagration titled Wildfire.

Late at night, beautiful nurse Lisa Broderick gets off the train where she expects to be met by her father. He's running late so she begins to walk home through the dark streets of Sydney's western suburbs. She's not seen again until her brutalised body is found. She had been stabbed multiple times and raped. The case has a galvanising effect on the city.

Rachel Addison has been added to the homicide team charged with investigating the case. She is a psychologist and this is her first homicide case so she is determined to provide as much of her specialised expertise as possible. She is also keen to demonstrate that she is up to the job. Teaming up with her is another outsider to the regular homicide team. Mike Ross is a detective who has been brought in from Special Branch, bringing to the team added specialised knowledge. The two of them, however, are branded as outsiders and so, naturally, they are treated with a little uncertainty and suspicion.

Together, Rachel and Mike interview Lisa's colleagues at the hospital hoping to get an impression of what kind of woman she was, as well as whether anyone noticed someone taking an interest in her. In the early stages they're hoping that she knew her attacker rather than that she was a victim of a random attack.

Little progress is made initially with leads being hard to come by but, as witnesses begin to come forward the case begins to take off.

But this story's not all about the murder of Lisa Broderick, as tragically compelling as that is. Rachel herself is a psychological mess. She has built a rock hard protective shell around herself refusing to allow anyone to get too close to her. At night she is haunted by recurring nightmares and, while at the hospital, inexplicably suffered a fainting spell followed by a vomiting attack. For some reason this case has brought back long forgotten memories of an event that took place in her life when she was a little girl.

The psychologist in her recognises that she needs professional help and so she proceeds to visit a psychiatrist in the hope of unlocking the secrets that her mind has so effectively suppressed. Sure enough, while the case she is investigating unfolds, so do the memories of her past. Whether it's all in her tormented mind or it is actually happening, Rachel can't help but feel that she is being stalked by someone. Her gravest fear is that Lisa Broderick's killer has begin hunting for new prey - her.

Wildfire is set during one of Sydney's hottest, driest summers and the city is in the process of being surrounded by bushfires. It's a circumstance that conspires to ensure that the police effort is distracted and personnel numbers are drastically cut. Rachel's role in the case is increased as is her public profile with public appeals and dramatisations of Lisa's last moments putting Rachel's face out there for all to see. In her mind, now besieged by returning memories, she is feeling more and more vulnerable.

Wildfire is a hectic psychological thriller plunging deeply into the insecurities of a woman under severe stress. The murder investigation is paced evenly by the return of memories of a horrifying murder 20 years earlier. The details of one being responsible for the return of the other. One question becomes glaringly obvious, how are the two murders connected?

Not to be overlooked in the midst of all of this human drama is another important comment made throughout the book, that of the treatment of female detectives in a male dominated police force. Equally the stink of corruption within the ranks comes wafting through with regularity and Rachel and Mike are fighting a battle with fellow officers as well as with a dangerous killer.

I'm sure, too, you've already made the leap here. Male detective, female detective - there's obviously going to be some kind of attraction come into play as the two leads find themselves in an increasingly pressured situation. Thrown together and with things getting emotionally harrowing, eventually nature will take its course and the cliched romance will be initiated. You would think that wouldn't you.

This is a multi-layered thriller that covers a lot of ground yet it never seems to get sidetracked or bogged down. Balance is nicely struck between progressing a murder investigation and dealing with a multitude of demons and, importantly, drawing the lot together into an intense finale.