| Publisher | One |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 05 May 2022 |
| ISBN-10 | 1911590553 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1911590552 |
| Format | paperback |
| Pages | 416 |
| Price | £ 8.99 |
Dust Off the Bones
by
The McBride brothers, Billy and Tommy, are haunted by the terrible slaughter that ended their childhood. In their own ways, they’re both seeking escape, but sooner or later will have to face the past.
Review
The McBride family run a small cattle farm in Queensland, but in 1885 teenagers Billy and Tommy McBride return from the local swimming hole to find their parents and sister murdered. Chief Inspector Noone of the Native Police directs the chase for the culprits and makes the crime his excuse for the wholesale slaughter of the Kurrong people. He co-opts the boys into this travesty of justice and threatens them with terrible revenge should they ever publicly reveal the truth about the massacre.
Billy, although older, is the weaker of the two. He marries the widow of the owner of the land from whom his family lease. He has a family and over time becomes wealthy. Although somewhat complicit in previous events he feels little guilt, but he is afraid of Noone, and Billy’s wife Katherine recognises that despite his apparent success, her husband has something missing inside.
Tommy remains horribly scarred, subject to frequent nightmares, and after an accident in which a farmhand is killed, he takes off into the interior. He is accompanied by his friend Arthur, a native without whom he is unlikely to have survived. After several years wandering, he and Arthur manage to buy a smallholding near Melbourne and hope that they can forget the past.
However, a witness to the massacre has emerged, and a Brisbane lawyer, Henry Wells, attempts to challenge Noone in court. Although initially unsuccessful, Wells’ continued efforts worry Noone sufficiently for him to embark on steps to put an end to any risk that, in a more sensitive 20th century Australia, he will have to pay for his crimes. The brothers are at the top of his list of unfinished business.
Dust Off the Bones directly follows Only Killers and Thieves, and those who have not read the earlier ones will spend much of the story slowly picking up the details of what actually occurred back in 1885. However, the book is none the worse for that. Paul Howard indicates in an author’s note that the Native Police did act in a brutal way to the indigenous population during this period, and quotes officers boasting that they were effectively immune from challenge.
Whether the reality was really as bad as depicted here, there can be no doubt that Noone is one of the most ghastly characters ever to have found his way into a work of fiction. He is a truly frightening creation, clever enough to penetrate the psyche of his opponents, while being completely devoid of moral compunction.
Around this powerful human story, Howarth builds a picture of the Australian outback, most of it dry land of sand and dust, where a casual error in following a track can lead to an agonising death from dehydration. Life is very hard and limited to the essentials, with no room for much else, and it is difficult to understand why anyone would endure it, if given a choice.
Billy, although older, is the weaker of the two. He marries the widow of the owner of the land from whom his family lease. He has a family and over time becomes wealthy. Although somewhat complicit in previous events he feels little guilt, but he is afraid of Noone, and Billy’s wife Katherine recognises that despite his apparent success, her husband has something missing inside.
Tommy remains horribly scarred, subject to frequent nightmares, and after an accident in which a farmhand is killed, he takes off into the interior. He is accompanied by his friend Arthur, a native without whom he is unlikely to have survived. After several years wandering, he and Arthur manage to buy a smallholding near Melbourne and hope that they can forget the past.
However, a witness to the massacre has emerged, and a Brisbane lawyer, Henry Wells, attempts to challenge Noone in court. Although initially unsuccessful, Wells’ continued efforts worry Noone sufficiently for him to embark on steps to put an end to any risk that, in a more sensitive 20th century Australia, he will have to pay for his crimes. The brothers are at the top of his list of unfinished business.
Dust Off the Bones directly follows Only Killers and Thieves, and those who have not read the earlier ones will spend much of the story slowly picking up the details of what actually occurred back in 1885. However, the book is none the worse for that. Paul Howard indicates in an author’s note that the Native Police did act in a brutal way to the indigenous population during this period, and quotes officers boasting that they were effectively immune from challenge.
Whether the reality was really as bad as depicted here, there can be no doubt that Noone is one of the most ghastly characters ever to have found his way into a work of fiction. He is a truly frightening creation, clever enough to penetrate the psyche of his opponents, while being completely devoid of moral compunction.
Around this powerful human story, Howarth builds a picture of the Australian outback, most of it dry land of sand and dust, where a casual error in following a track can lead to an agonising death from dehydration. Life is very hard and limited to the essentials, with no room for much else, and it is difficult to understand why anyone would endure it, if given a choice.
Reviewed 12 November 2022 by Chris Roberts
