Book review: For All The Dead Girls by Sherryl Clark

I hadn’t realised For All The Dead Girls by Sherryl Clark was the second in a series, following Louisa (Lou) Alcott’s first outing in Woman, Missing. She’s a PI here but was (at one point) a police officer and this opens as her estranged father – also the Assistant Commissioner of Police – offers her a job back on the force. I gather Lou wasn’t one to toe the rather-prescriptive blue line and she’s seemingly happy working at Paul Marshall Investigations. Paul is obviously her mentor who seemingly cares and respects Lou, and she likes ‘Gang’ PMI’s tech-genius who plays a big role here as we dip into the murky online incel-like world of women-haters. Trigger-warning that this centres around women and children exposed to domestic violence and those who try to support them are targeted viciously via online ‘pile-on’.

About this book

While juggling a missing person case with unexpected ties close to home and saving an innocent woman and her child from a dangerous domestic situation, Lou ends up in the line of fire of a mysterious dark-web hate group, known only as SYB.

As Melbourne simmers through a relentless heatwave, the murders of more women are connected to SYB and Lou becomes the number one target of their vicious campaign of incited violence. #GetLou #killthebitch

Lou lurches between a fire-bombed safe house, car chases and stalkers, as her private investigation firm races against time to uncover the core of the group and work out just how far their tentacles stretch...

My thoughts

I really liked Lou and loved her relationship with her grandfather, a Melbourne crime boss with whom she’s living while her own place is being repaired. I must now seek out tht first in this series. It doesn’t matter here if you’ve not read the first but Clark hints at some backstory involving her father and I’d be keen to learn more.

Lou’s official case here is to track down someone who’s the recipient of a bequest from a dead relative in Ireland. For reasons intially unknown the person changed their identity and doesn’t want to be found. Lou soon learns more about the family’s history and finds herself straddling personal and professional relationships.

The focus here though is women escaping domestic violence. Paul requests Lou pick up a woman (Jasmine) and her child and take them to a safe house. She arrives (with them) to find Paul’s contact and another woman staying there, dead. Jasmine’s moved to another location but the following day calls Lou panicked that her ex-partner has found her. Lou arrives in time to thwart another attack but it’s obvious the cases are linked.

PMI digs into the attacks and finds a group Surrender You Bitches (SYB) behind the movement and Gang dips into the darkweb to online forums where men are inciting each other to target their victims and troll those supporting women escaping domestic violence…. or just women in general. Lou’s links are soon uncovered by a dodgy journalist and she becomes the latest online target.

In the background it seems that her grandfather is under investigation and the police involved – a friend as well as an antagonist and potential love interest – are being cagey about their involvement. I appreciated the ‘texture’ offered via Lou’s closeness with her grandfather, despite choosing not to know what he gets up to in business. It adds a moral or ethical layer for readers (and Lou) to ponder. Clark also takes the opportunity to highlight domestic and family violence as a pervasive issue that ‘we’ as a society, cannot seem to extinguish. Despite the unpalatable subject matter (which Clark manages deftly), this is an enjoyable read and ends interestingly so I’m keen to see what comes next.

For All The Dead Girls by Sherryl Clark will be published by Harlequin Australia in late June 2026.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.