The Last Illusion of Paige White: A Novel

by Vanessa McCausland

Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES “BEST THRILLER OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)”

“Compelling, haunting, and beautifully written . . . a clever, page-turning modern mystery as well as a thoughtful exploration of female friendship, family dynamics, and the complex impact of social media on self-identity.”—Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling author

If you didn’t post it, did it even happen?

“Maybe this limbo I’m in is me needing to atone for my sins. Maybe I need to go back and remember my life but be more honest with myself this time. Because, stuck in this hazy, perfect world of my own creation, I know that I haven’t been all that honest.”

Gorgeous, charismatic Paige White has always lived a picture-perfect life. Her meticulously curated social pages exude an old-fashioned, wholesome lifestyle set against a picturesque town in Australia. Images of breakfasts lakeside with her daughter, sunny afternoons in the family van, and romantic picnics with her husband are the envy of her thousands of followers.

But when a dark, brooding image pops up on Paige’s page, where she appears waterlogged and disheveled—and shortly after she’s discovered drowned—alarm bells go off.

Jane Masters, Paige’s childhood best friend, has returned for the funeral. Jane left years ago to pursue a bigger life as a journalist in Sydney, putting everyone from her early days in the rearview mirror. But as Jane sinks deeper into the community she thought she’d never return to, she begins to discover that darker things lurk beneath the sparkle of the lake.

Told partially through Paige’s reflections on her life from limbo, The Last Illusion of Paige White is a smart, introspective, impeccably-plotted mystery that will have readers second-guessing what is truth and what is illusion, and their own obsessions with their online worlds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593799956
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/10/2025
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Vanessa McCausland studied English and Australian literature at Sydney University and graduated with honors in theater and performance studies. She worked as a journalist for nearly twenty years, including as a news and arts journalist for The Daily Telegraph, and her writing has appeared in numerous other publications. She’s published five novels in Australia. Her third, The Beautiful Words, was shortlisted for the 2022 Davitt Awards for crime writing. She lives in Sydney with her husband and daughter.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

Jane

She traced the outline of the woman’s face on her screen. Dark hair strewn like seagrass across pale skin. Sticks and foam and flowers in the sand.

It couldn’t be her.

Jane closed the browser window, her hand reacting before her mind could fully make sense of the image.

Sometimes at low tide, the water was so shallow you could wade out to the middle, and when the sun hit at a certain angle it was like a mirror, like walking on water. When Jane thought of her childhood, she always thought of this mirror place. And the tree cathedral on the lip of the lake, branches stretching toward the low, hot sky in worship. The briny water, warm around her ankles.

She willed her eyes to focus on her desktop, to reconnect with the thread of her news story. She was meant to be writing about locals protesting the development of a huge shopping mall on their street. Her editors were pestering her for copy but she was still waiting on a quote from the council. She straightened her back and took a sip of water. Her eyes wouldn’t focus on the words in front of her. Everything was hazy, like the morning mist that veiled the water at dawn.

A message pinged on her screen. URGENT.

Masters. Drop the development story and get this Instagram woman one up now.

Jane’s hands were shaking. It can’t be her. Surely someone would have told me.

She studied her hands as though they were someone else’s. Blue veins that threaded under her skin like estuaries. Does a home etch itself into a body?

She pressed her palms onto her desk, took a deep breath. She had to focus. She was a journalist. She lived in Sydney now. She had built a life here, a career. That shallow lake didn’t have any purchase over her anymore.

And yet.

Jane hovered over the link her editor had sent, hesitating. It felt like holding her breath underwater. The call of the wetland birds at dawn. The flash of silverfish just pulled from the water. The sound of her dad’s voice.

She pressed the link and the image slid onto the screen again. The woman’s eyes were closed, wet hair fanned out in the shallows. Jane felt the lukewarm water on her own skin. She touched her face as if expecting to find moisture.

No. No. No.

She felt the surge of nostalgia, of longing, at the same time as the awful wash of recognition hit her. She read the headline.

Haunting Last Post Before Woman Found Dead

Jane drew in a deep breath, and it felt like breathing in water. She continued reading.

Tragic last social media picture posted only hours before her body was found in the lake.

The white curve of her arm cradled her head as though she were sleeping. As though she were one of those archetypal women reclining in a Renaissance painting. The tree cathedral above her like a green crown. Their place. The place where everyone played as children, drank as teenagers, and then got married. Jane was the one who got out.

Her eyes skimmed the story, as though, by only half-reading it, it would only be half-true. The haunting photo seemed a harbinger of things to come only hours later.

Paige White led an idyllic lake-side life . . . Tragedy struck one morning on a lake near her home . . . She was turning thirty-five that day . . . It seemed she might have been leaving a message in her last Instagram photo. Police are still investigating the cause of death, and are asking the public for help.

Jane stood. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t look at the words, the pictures, couldn’t compute what they meant. She felt herself moving away from her desk. Suddenly Jackson was beside her.

“Hey, Masters, did you get the breaking Instagrammer story? Can you get something up ASAP for online?”

She turned to him. He looked calm. She noticed a small brown stain just below his collar, the tiny threads of silver at his temples. The faint line between his eyebrows creased deeper.

“Are you okay, Jane?”

She reached out for him, gripped his arm. “I can’t.”

He shook his head. “What’s going on?”

“It’s Paige.”

He took a step toward her. “You knew this girl? The influencer?”

She tried to speak but her mouth, her lungs, felt flooded.

“Bloody hell. A mate from back home? Were you two close?” He rubbed his chin. He hadn’t shaved this morning and his eyes were slightly red. She wondered if he’d been out again last night and who he’d been with.

He took her hand and squeezed it, but it was subtle, hidden between their bodies. That was the thing about Jackson. He could read people. That’s what made him so good at his job. He bit his bottom lip. He always did that when he was excited, or nervous. She’d seen him both ways, but mainly excited.

He spoke slowly. “I know you’ll need a moment. I’m going to get you a glass of water. Actually, I’ll make you a nice cup of tea, that will help, yeah? And I want you to take a walk around the block while I make it.”

“No, not tea, I don’t drink tea,” she said, annoyed he didn’t know that.

His voice was calm, composed. “Coffee. I’ll get you some coffee. And then I’d like you to come back and just get this story up for the online team now, but then maybe you could look at writing something more in-depth about Paige down the line. Do you think you could do that? To, you know, to honor her?”

Jane felt bile rise in her throat. “I . . .”

“I know you can do this, Jane. You’re one of our best feature writers. You’re the only one who can do this story justice. It’s a really great story. She has . . . had a lot of followers. Her body was found a few hours after she posted that image on socials. No words, just a photo of herself lying in the shallows of the lake. She’s not dead in this photo, despite what it might look like, lying there like that. She’s got a smile on her lips if you look closely. Apparently dead bodies don’t . . . can’t smile naturally like that. But then she was dead a short time later.” He paused, his fingers drumming on the desk. “That picture and the timing is eerie. It implies it might have been suicide, but we know the police wouldn’t issue a press release and ask for help if there weren’t suspicious circumstances.”

He leaned forward to study the image on her computer screen. “Chilling. You can’t help but feel there’s more to this story.”

This isn’t just another story to churn out.

Jackson squeezed her shoulders. It was something he did. This had been the first thing that had made her think there might be something more between them. He was touchy-feely with people, but the way his hands had lingered so close to her neck . . .

He ran his thumbs down her bare arms now and she shivered. It was so rare he showed her overt affection in the office. “You can do this.”

Jane looked around but everyone was continuing as though nothing had happened. She turned to the screen.

I’ve written stories about dead girls before. It’s another story. I just have to get something up fast. I can do this.

She felt herself nodding slowly.

“That’s my girl.”

She felt discomfort skittle across her skin.

Paige isn’t just another dead girl. She was your friend.

Editorial Reviews

Compelling, haunting, and beautifully written, The Last Illusion of Paige White is a clever, page-turning modern mystery as well as a thoughtful exploration of female friendship, family dynamics, and the complex impact of social media on self-identity. You’ll be thinking about it long after you turn the last page!”—Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“McCausland expertly weaves together multiple strands of a multilayered story, including the burdens of Paige’s social-media persona and Jane’s unsatisfying relationship with her boss-with-benefits in Sydney. . . . McCausland is a thoughtful, subtle writer with a deep understanding of her characters’ psyches. What lends a special poignancy to the story are the chapters narrated by Paige, reflecting deep regret for her life’s mistakes.”—The New York Times

“A compelling, gothic-tinged novel . . . expertly portrays influencers’ obsession with beauty and perfect photos . . . McCausland examines with a fresh eye the complicated and competitive relationships among teenage girls and their messy relationships with their parents. . . . It’s an emotional mystery that McCausland fires up with forbidden romance, the heartbreak of a motherless child, and a surprising denouement. Social media takes a dark turn in this intriguing tale of regret.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Sizzling . . . The death of an influencer shakes up a small Australian town in this mesmerizing whodunit from McCausland. . . . When the truth finally comes out, it’s a gut punch. This works equally well as a mystery and a warning cry against the dangers of social media.”—Publishers Weekly

“Vanessa McCausland probes boundaries between reality and illusion in this psychological crime, delivering both small-town mystery and an unnerving excursion into the hall of mirrors that is the world of social media.”—The Sydney Morning Herald

“A compellingly gritty underbelly. . . . This is a perfect summer read.”—The Daily Telegraph

“What an addictive read. Vanessa McCausland nimbly combines a twisty small-town mystery with a thoughtful critique of influencer culture, all set against the wild, irresistible beauty of the Australian coastal landscape.”—Mikki Brammer, author of The Collected Regrets of Clover

“An original concept, poetic writing, and an astute commentary on the trap of social media, this book will haunt you long after you turn the last page. I loved it.”—Pip Drysdale, author of The Sunday Girl and The Close-Up

From the Publisher

2025-05-30
In this compelling, gothic-tinged novel, an Australian influencer is found dead, drawing her childhood friend home to investigate her death.

Paige White’s body is found shortly after she posts a haunting photo on social media showing herself lying in shallow water. Jane Masters, who went to high school with Paige nearly 20 years ago, is now a successful Sydney journalist. She’s pulled back to her rural hometown on a lake to mourn her friend but also to write a story about social media darling Paige. Perhaps inspired by Alice Sebold’sThe Lovely Bones (2002), McCausland imagines Paige ruminating from a limbolike place about the picture-perfect but inauthentic life she experienced through her social media feeds. The author expertly portrays influencers’ obsession with beauty and perfect photos and the way many social media users depend on their feeds for affirmation of self-worth. For Paige, all the pretense becomes exhausting. How, she wonders, “did it all come down to a little love heart or a thumbs-up or a smiley face?” There’s more to this story, though, because details surrounding Paige’s death unearth long-kept secrets from the past. Alternating among chapters narrated by Paige, Jane, and another high school friend, Audrey, who struggled more than most with self-esteem, McCausland examines with a fresh eye the complicated and competitive relationships among teenage girls and their messy relationships with their parents. Murder suspects include Paige’s husband and an online poet who may not be who he says he is. It’s an emotional mystery that McCausland fires up with forbidden romance, the heartbreak of a motherless child, and a surprising denouement.

Social media takes a dark turn in this intriguing tale of regret.

Kirkus Reviews