In the dying days of the 19th century, 17-year-old Norah Devaney witnesses The Whistling Man commit a gruesome murder. As she was something of an outsider who had grown up in a ‘bawdy house’, nobody believes her account of the crime, and she is thrown in Fremantle Asylum for her troubles.
Imprisoned in grim and violent conditions, she meets Gil Brady, a girl who has been institutionalised for ‘morbid sensuality’ and has learned to stay out of harm’s way: ‘She drifted around, dazed, silent.’ Meanwhile, in a separate, initially enigmatic thread of the story, a sensitive youngster known only as The Boy endures a cruel upbringing at the hands of his father.
Forming an uneasy alliance, Gil and Norah break out of the asylum. They soon form a pragmatic bond with two Indigenous brothers, Malkar and Kedalak, who are capable and know the land. The four fashion themselves into a ragtag bushranger gang, setting out towards Norah’s hometown of Mundaring.
This is a bleak but gripping tale, driven by a sense of outrage at a society that was brutal to the many people it marginalised. An accomplished thriller in its own right, A Flash in the Dust will also inspire young readers to further explore the injustices of the past.
Reviewed by Daniel Herborn
Age Guide 14+
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meg Caddy is a West Australian YA novelist with three published novels. Their first three novels, Waer, Devil’s Ballast and Slipping the Noose, have been short- and longlisted for awards including the CBCA Book of the Year Award, the Readings Young Adult Book Prize and the ARA Historical Novel Prize. Meg is nonbinary and asexual. They have completed an Honours degree in English/History, writing on the Golden Age of Piracy, and a PhD in Creative Writing. When they’re not writing, elbows-deep in archives or chasing around their toddler, Meg plays an unhealthy amount of Dungeons & Dragons.
Visit Meg Caddy’s website here.
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