Most of the recent titles in the outback noir genre has seen crimes set mostly in the modern era, with the crime itself wrapped up in the merciless outback conditions. This provides us with a marvellous contrast of modern life versus the brutal conditions of the outback. Bone Lands is a period piece like no other.
An unsettlingly haunting read set in 1911 in arid NSW wool country, it manages by page two, to convey the brutality of the crime, the brutality of the landscape and the brutality of life in the remote bush in 1911.
The main character is a Boer War veteran with horrendous nightmares of his time in the war. An upright young man from the gentleman class, he rebelled against his father and ran away to enlist. After the war he joins the Mounted Troopers and finds himself the only law enforcer, covering a vast area – Darling Shire, where sheep stations are the main employers, and their labourers a lawless, ruthless, cold-blooded crew. The Trooper must uncover secrets spanning three generations to get to the root of the triple murder of three siblings of the richest man in the Shire. Although the Trooper is forced to deal with much that is diabolical and unsavoury, he also finds love and forgiveness. There are two love stories that run through the narrative, one ends in grief, the other with an act of selflessness that only true love brings.
The author is to be highly commended. She shies away from nothing to bring us an amazing read in an incredible and honestly written narrative. This is a book that will stay in your thoughts for a while.
Reviewed by Alison Logie
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pip Fioretti has a professional background in visual arts, both practice and teaching, and took up writing fiction in 2008. She has had three books published in Women’s Fiction with Hachette Australia and Pan MacMillan. Bone Lands represents a change of genre and one she’ll probably stick with.
Pip lives in Sydney, likes reading, looking at art, bushwalking, hiking, and hanging out with friends and family.
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