In the years after his disastrous coming out, Lewis kept his old neighbourhood—and his mum and dad, Madeleine and David—at a safe distance. But tragedy has been drawing him back: first his parents separated, and now they’ve vanished. 

Tucked away in his family home with Doggo the ageing Labrador, Lewis is plagued by troubles both past and present. Confronted with the inner lives of his parents—discovered on audio tape recordings and scribbled in journals—their voices feed his imagination as he delves into the mystery of their disappearance.

When speculation gives way to paranoia, and his investigations drive him deeper into perilous territory, Lewis is compelled to take control of the narrative. 

He’s a writer; he can’t help himself. 

Mincemeat, the enthralling debut novel from Ockham award-winning author Anthony Lapwood, is a wry suburban noir with real bite.

Praise:

A wonderfully unsettling novel, shot through with emotional sleight of hand. In prose that feels drawn from a fever dream, Lapwood asks whether the truth about our families and ourselves is something we uncover or something we create. Elegant, haunting and unexpectedly funny.

— Catherine Chidgey

A missing persons mystery that morphs into an Antonioni-esque existential thriller—Mincemeat is a constantly surprising and taut piece of work.

— Brannavan Gnanalingam