Outback

This is an impressive debut novel, set in the remote outback in western Queensland. After a decade of drought, it is a fearsome place, and I suspect there are very few, like the author who spent a happy childhood there, who could find it tolerable. Her picture of the heat, together with the suspicion of the locals for outsiders, creates a powerful impression which would not necessarily make one rush to the travel agent.

The foreboding about such a place is amply justified when a pair of young German backpackers, Rita and Berndt, suffer a car breakdown, and are abducted by a crazed meth addict. The two are catapulted into hell and the chance of survival looks remote.

They are, however, fortunate in two respects. One is the presence of DS Lucas Walker, previously working undercover in Sydney and back in his small childhood hometown of Caloodie only because his grandmother is ill. The other is Rita’s sister Barbara, from the Berlin CID, who knows that Rita would never go more than a day or two without contacting friends and family, and arrives determined to find her.

The investigation is complicated by the criminal activity in the area, specifically the manufacture of meth for distribution by biker gangs. Several of the locals, including law enforcement, are sufficiently involved to want to discourage police activity in certain isolated farms, and Walker’s boss back in the city is worried that Walker’s activity will alert the criminals to a large-scale investigation that the police have running.

Barbara is initially stalled by the lack of cooperation and local insistence that Rita and Berndt have found their way to a less challenging location, but doggedly pursues her instinct that other disappearances are linked. With Walker’s help she follows up these cases and finds some details which provide a direction for further queries.

Eventually Walker and Barbara independently come to the same conclusion as to who is responsible, but by this time the culprit has realised the danger he is in and decides to take action. A dramatic climax then follows, calling for the two protagonists to battle in the most adverse of circumstances.

The story is well paced, and the characters excellently well-developed, particularly the two key actors. The villain is also very believable, exhibiting a mixture of animal cunning and meth-induced craziness sufficient to haunt your worst nightmares. By the end of the book the horror of the landscape has lessened somewhat, but personally I'd not be likely to make a visit anytime soon.