Dust (2025) by Australian writer Michael Brissenden is a crime thriller centred around the death of investigative journalist Charles Goodman.

Goodman has been murdered in the now drought-stricken town of Lake Heddon, NSW. NSW police are aware that Goodman was working on a story which involved corruption within the police force and involving organised crime.

Young Aaron Love is the man who found the body of Charles Goodman. Determined to find out what happened to his father (missed & presumed dead), he is joined by a young woman, Shona, & finds out that his father, Tobias Love, was involved in a drug & sex trafficking business.

Tobias Love is one of the few characters in the novel with a detailed backstory. We find out that his father was a dodgy debt-collector who was killed when Tobias was 12, after which Tobias was in & out of foster care & juvenile detention centres.

Although Tobias is caught up with vile criminal activities, he is not the killer.