He is incredibly talented at blending compelling stories with memorable characters and vivid settings. The sections specific to bushfire were incredibly well realised, I could envisage it all unfolding, minute by minute, and it was entirely frightening to contemplate. She had earned herself a law degree, didn’t like that side of the law, so surprised everyone by training with the Territory police. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Jesse loves her job and has had a positive influence on the local community, even on those such as likeable but wild Adam Lawson who are often in trouble with the law.

When at home in the Northern Territory of Kulara, Redpath works with Danny Jakamarra, an Aboriginal Community Police Officer. His books have been published internationally, including in Britain and the US, and translated into a variety of languages, including German, French, Swedish and Czech.I enjoyed the small town dynamics and the descriptions of the setting were strong enough to give me a real sense of place. com crime fiction blog featuring reviews, author guest posts and other fabulous booky things (with the odd psychological thriller and horror novel making an appearance! There’s an authenticity to Hyland’s characters generally, both in the way they talk and act, that gives them substance. However, Jess Redpath – not a local to Canticle Creek – knows Adam and she does not believe him capable of murder. This is a classic Australian crime/mystery story that brings Jesse Redpath down from the deserts of NT into the dry parched bushland of Victoria to investigate the tragic circumstances that a young aboriginal man who has been allegdedly involved in a murder/suicide.

Her days were long and tiring, but she felt she was starting to get the crime rate down to a minimum. As it is again with Jesse Redpath, and her belief in a young man who deserved better than the dismissive assumptions of those that didn't know him, didn't try to understand him, and were more than happy to use him as a convenient scapegoat, and a young woman whose death deserved a lot more than the cursory investigation undertaken. I was firmly planted in Jesse Redpath's world each and every time I opened this book and began to read. When Jesse hears that Adam is dead and allegedly killed a woman, she and her dad head to Canticle Creek to find out more because they knew Adam and can't believe that he would commit murder. It is great to be able to learn more as well as have their experiences and expertise acknowledged and used in the story.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Adrian Hyland is the award-winning author of Diamond Dove , Gunshot Road and Kinglake-350 , which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fiction in 2012.

The time she spends with her father is a treat – a grumpy old curmudgeon with softer edges than he’d care to admit, very proud of his daughter but not keen to let on. Neither of them can believe that Adam would kill his girlfriend Daisy, and everything about the case, including his car leaving the road when he was supposedly attempting to flee with scene, makes any sense. Where you will meet artists, drug dealers, an observant young girl, a feisty horse and a police officer on an unofficial investigation to prove a young man, who she saved from the system, innocent of murder. This is not what she thought Adam was like and sets too on clearing his name but things don’t run as smoothly as she’d have liked with locals bearing a grudge against her from the start. Looking for an alternative narrative, Jesse puts several of the locals, and a Melbourne mobster, offside as she noses around the small community.It was a different relationship to the ones we crime readers tend to see featured in fiction (it’s normally the father of the victim, rather than the police officer! With her father, Jesse visits Canticle Creek to understand, and unravels many other mysteries and knots of a typical small community. Finally, I am still questioning the ending, or in fact almost two endings and the inclusion of the bushfire and its outcomes.