Smother

Winning isn't everything. It's more.

Bruce College, a private school in a leafy Melbourne suburb, is a place for winners. Affectionately known as Bruisers, its boys' football program has a reputation for pumping out superstars. But when its girls' team pushes for glory, sixteen-year-old Grace Dooley is left with a catastrophic brain injury, and her parents want someone held accountable. The school points the finger at the coach, Brick Hannaford, a former professional player who is struggling with the legacy of his lauded, 300-game career. Brick says he was coaching the kids exactly as the parents and school demanded: hard.

In a rut, questioning her single-minded pursuit of a career at the expense of her personal life, lawyer Romola Cross takes on Brick's case. She soon finds herself caught up in the complex and disturbing fallout of school sport turned toxic. As Romola investigates the reasons Grace played that day, she begins to understand the pressures bearing down on the girl - from peers, teachers, coach and parents. But who should take responsibility?What will the Court's judgment be? And, once the case is over, will Romola find what she's been searching for?

Smother is a novel about chasing dreams, and how the quest for victory can risk losses far beyond those on the scoreboard. It's a story about the forces of love, ambition and fear, and finding the right balance before it all comes undone.

About the Author

Eve Thomson is a partner at a leading Australian law firm, where she's a litigator, working on everything from class actions and media law to consumer protection. Her debut novel, She Too (Echo Publishing, 2023), dealt with law and celebrity, drawing from Eve's experience advising some of the country's biggest publishers on defamation matters.

Eve is also a mum of two, and for her second novel, Smother, she has combined courtroom expertise with her experiences on the sidelines of kids' sports - both worlds as cut-throat and full of drama as each other. Eve lives at the beach in South Australia with her family.