Margaret Hickey fans, rejoice - the popular local crime fiction author has just released a new book, titled 'Cold River'.

The Beechworth-based writer's sixth novel with Penguin, 'Cold River' gives readers another chance to spend time with Senior Constable Sally White, who featured in Margaret's Ned Kelly Award-winning book 'The Creeper'.

It's also a return to a High Country setting, which will bring a sense of familiarity to many local readers as its plot works in lost hikers, and the illegal chop chop trade.

While illness has curtailed Margaret's planned national book tour with 'Cold River', she's excited to share her work with the loyal audience she has developed over recent years - and will no doubt pick up some new fans along the way.

"I absolutely think this book is going to be quite relatable to people who live in the North East, but also it's an adventure," she said.

"It has the loose theme of the illegal tobacco trade in the 1990s, as tobacco-farming gets shut down.

"I was thinking of the High Country as a setting again, and thought that chop chop might be a good way to introduce organised crime, which is a new element for my writing.

"The story starts with a missing hiker, which we know happens every year; people seem to be getting lost in the mountains all the time.

"Then I thought about being lost and what that feels like, and about loss as well - so the story is about being lost truly, and also being lost in a small community."

Margaret has spoken previously about how her local surroundings spark her creativity and ideas for crime novels, and she said this continued to be the case.

"Every day I walk around the gorge in Beechworth, and now that I'm a few books in, walking is part of the planning and the process for me; it's when I get my best ideas," she said.

"I could write a million books set in the North East landscape, because it's so diverse.

"I was walking in the High Country about a month ago, and I looked up and saw a camera in the trees, which made me feel a bit creepy; I know it was there to track animals, but still, there is always something in the High Country which can make you feel unsettled."

That unsettling feeling comes for Sally White in 'Cold River' as she looks into the disappearance on Mount Viking of young hiker Louis Taylor, an aspiring journalist who has been researching the illegal tobacco trade that was once prevalent in the area.

The last person Louis interviewed before his hike has just met a gruesome end, heightening Sally's concerns.

With no other leads, and with the search winding down, Sally is forced to accept that the young man died in a tragic accident - until she learns of another missing persons case that bears striking similarities.

Astrid Marlowe, a young lawyer, vanished in the same mountains two years earlier, and Sally must investigate whether they are simply unlucky hikers lost in the treacherous terrain, or whether they both stumbled onto something - or someone - they shouldn't have.

As well as returning to 'home' territory for the setting, Margaret said she had enjoyed writing another Sally White story; her next book will also feature the character.

"People have said they really like Sally White, she is likeable and she's deeply human, she stuffs up, and is fairly typical of a lot of 25-year-olds - I love that age so much," she said.

"In writing her, I draw on what I was like, what my friends were like, the mistakes we made, and the way we beat ourselves up about it - the highs and lows of youth."

Margaret said the honour of winning the 2025 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction with 'The Creeper' had prompted conversations with readers who were keen to see another Sally White book.

"I like writing about her - it's a joy coming back to Sally," she said.

"I enjoy writing recurring characters because I know them so well, and while my books can be read as stand-alone novels, I think if you read them in order there are little gems along the way as you watch the characters evolve."

Though she won't have the joy of meeting readers and booksellers due to the cancellation of her 'Cold River' book tour, Margaret is grateful to everyone who has supported her writing career.

"I don't know that I would ever have imagined I'd be able to make a living from writing, as I'm doing now," she said.

"That in itself is a huge privilege, and I'm aware of how lucky I am."

* 'Cold River' was released on Tuesday through Penguin Books.