The main character, Grace Disher, is an outdoor and environment education teacher at a Catholic School in Melbourne and she is about to face every teacher's worst nightmare. Grace is leading an overnight outing through Victoria's south-east area. She has been chosen to take the place of the senior outdoor education teacher, Eve Slater, who had pulled out at the last minute.

Her support teachers are Gerard Kruger, the physical education teacher, and Tom Winter, the IT guy. 

She has relieved the boys of their mobile phones and stored them safely. The second-day plan they are following is that the men will supervise the group of eighteen sixteen year old boys, as they walk from the overnight camping ground to the remote and wild Juliet beach. 

Disher would take the minibus, park at Juliet beach and meet them at the other end of the beach, where the walking track meets the beach, at the time agreed.When she has debriefed the boys the night before and discovered that several of the boys went on ahead during that day, which meant the slower boys did not have a full rest period at the designated resting places. 

She gathered all the boys together and explained that the boys have to stay together. Warning them that there was severe weather forecast for the area, but they would be safe with their wet weather gear. She said it was imperative that they do not go into the water. 

The next day, she watches as they pack up and leave on their trip to Juliet beach, then heads out in the bus to park at the Juliet campsite and walks back along the beach to meet them. Meanwhile ehe weather has worsened. The sea is growling as it hits the shore and the rain is sheeting down, driven by the severe howling winds. 

As she walks towards the rendezvous point, she notices movement ahead and thinks there must be another group on the beach. Then she notices three boys racing each other to the sea and thinks 'those boys shouldn't be doing that in this weather, I wonder who's in charge?

Suddenly it dawns on her that these are three of her boys. They have arrived very early and they're now running into mountainous seas and treacherous undertow. By the time the others arrive, at the correct time, she explains what has happened and they immediately start a search for the boys, hoping they are still alive, but fearing they are lost.

She advises one of the teachers to get to the car park, where he should find a signal on their phones to call emergency services and the school.

Everything starts to escalate as some of the boys use their hidden mobiles to call their parents about the tragedy that has just taken place.

The news starts going viral on social media and it is picked up by mainstream media, who report and speculate about what has happened. 

The author has produced a masterpiece of what can happen when fact, fiction and conjecture get together on both mainstream media and social media. He weaves a disturbing picture of how this can affect the lives of people involved and how they cope with the situation.

This is a 'can't put it down' book as it races from one scene to the next at a blood-curling pace, leaving you breathless and wondering what will happen next. 

Although this is written about schoolboys, it is not a book for young people. There is a little bit of sexual play and nudity. Also, there are a lot of expletives, which I felt uneasy reading. Even the author, in his Acknowledgements at the end of the book, apologised to his mother for the 'swearing'. So why write it in, if your conscience tells you no?

I found there were a few dreaded 'gotten' words in the book and wondered when contemporary authors would ever find English words to take the place of this dreadful Americanism.

Unfortunately I found a couple of typos, which is becoming quite common these days, although the last three or four books I have read, did not contain a single typo - which gave me a false sense of security.

To summarise, Three Boys Gone a most enjoyable book, with a breathtaking storyline and very well written.

\I would recommend this book to - adults only and happily put it in my 'favourites' pile.

Reviewed by Ken.

The Author

Mark Smith has written four young adult novels including the highly acclaimed Winter Trilogy. The first book in the series, The Road to Winter, was a finalist for multiple awards and has become a popular teaching text in schools throughout AustraliaBeyond his novels, Mark is an award-winning writer of short fiction, with his work featured in prominent publications both in Australia and overseas. He has also co-curated two short story anthologies: Minds Went Walking: Paul Kelly's Songs Reimagined and Into Your Arms: Nick Cave's Songs Reimagined.