Her first seven novels sat squarely in that genre, stories of the everyday, the power of female friendships, the idea of belonging and finding your place in the world.

And then in 2018 things got a little dark. She published The Missing Pieces of Sophie McCarthy, a twisty novel with an unreliable narrator, more Gone Girl than Irish frolic.

She knew from the first page Sophie McCarthy would be a different book to her previous ones so she published it under the pseudonym B.M. Carroll: "I think you need to let your readers know, your publisher know, and yourself know, if you're writing something different," she said back then.

And now B.M. Carroll is back with Who We Were, a novel which, while not as dark as Sophie McCarthy, is still full of twists and turns, and intrigue.

Set on Sydney's northern beaches, it's the tale of a group of school friends who are preparing for their 20-year high school reunion. As the reunion nears, they start receiving anonymous threats, culminating in a terrible event which brings them all together in a way they never expected.

The story is told from the perspective of different characters (a device Carroll also used in Sophie McCarthy).

In the parlance of John Hughes' The Breakfast Club there's the rebel, the princess, the outcast, the brain and the jock. And like that seminal movie, everyone gets to tell their story.

Indeed, it's a clever ploy by Carroll that we learn a lot about their lives 20 years ago. Who was friends with who and why, who fell out, which of them were lovers or enemies, or both. It makes us care about the characters to some extent.

But we also get to know a lot about their adult lives, steeped in regular adult problems. They're all dealing with things we're dealing with, recalcitrant teenagers, decaying relationships, stalling careers, mental health issues, money problems. All those things you don't see coming when you're a self-obsessed 18-year-old.

But at the same time they're dealing with issues that have stemmed from those teenage years. Watching how their actions, and interactions, have played out over the past two decades. Is the person you are at 18, the person you are closer to 40?

Who We Were is a fun, light, read, perfect for an afternoon in isolation. Perhaps suburban noir will find a larger place on our reading lists in lockdown given that our own suburbs have become our complete worlds.

Let's just hope yours isn't quite as deadly as this neighbourhood.