Paul Howarth

Only Killers and Thieves by Paul Howarth is an epic story about the Australian frontier in 1880s. It tells the story of the MacBride family, scratching a living out of raising cattle in the Outback wilderness of Queensland. Australia was finding that as more white people moved into the area with their livestock and fences, the aborigines were being forced off their ancestral lands. With no place for these natives to go, eventually the policy became one of genocide.

Ned McBride tries to avoid show more the racial tensions and hold his ranch together with the help of his two teenage sons. Their rich neighbour, John Sullivan, has become associated with Inspector Edmund Noone, the leader of the Native Mounted Police, and on whose authority the killing of natives becomes one of law rather than murder. One day the boys come home to find their father and mother have been shot dead. They blame the killings on a disgruntled native stock-man and appeal to Sullivan and Noone for their help. What follows is a sickening bloodbath as a small posse is formed to hunt down the killers, or any native they find, and extract revenge. Eventually the real facts of the murders are exposed, leaving the two boys to deal with their consciences as best they can.

Only Killers and Thieves takes an unflinching look at the brutality of the genocide that was carried out in the name of progress. And while the author definitely wants to expose this policy, the resulting story is riveting, well written and draws the reader into the Australian outback to experience first hand the reality of the violence and cruelty that was unleashed upon the indigenous population. If you can handle the violence, this is an excellent read. show less

Here I was thinking I'd made a serendipitous 'discovery' of an obscure writer in Paul Howarth's when I read his ONLY KILLERS AND THIEVES (2018), because it was a $1 remainder brought home by my wife in a bag of bargain books. It's a novel of lies and deceit, murder and greed, set in 1870s Australia in the Queensland region, filled with fully realized characters both good and evil, told mostly from the vantage point of 15 year-old Tommy McBride, who is forced to grow up fast as he and his show more brother Billy accompany a squad of Native Police that travels deep into the Western outback, ostensibly in pursuit of the killers of the two boys' parents. In reality the expedition is a small part of what was a systematic attempt by white colonizers to wipe out the aboriginal tribes of Australia. The white leader of the Native police, a tall, forbidding presence dressed all in black, Inspector Noone, is perhaps one of the scariest, most purely evil fictional villains I have encountered in decades. He brought to mind the imported gunfighter of SHANE, or maybe even Melville's Ahab, in his cold-blooded obsession to wipe out the native population. Indeed, this whole novel seemed very much like American Westerns - think THE SEARCHERS, or MAJOR DUNDEE. or CHEYENNE AUTUMN.

In short, this story, with its startlingly real characters, is an absolutely riveting read. And I discovered I'm not alone in this assessment, as I found over 1,200 reviews of the book on Amazon almost all positive. (And I was also pleased to find there is a sequel.) Well, me too. Bravo, Mr Howarth. My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

Tommy and Billy McBride have grown up on an Australian cattle farm. In 1885, the farm was threatened by severe drought and the ensuing economic hardship. Their father refused help from his former employer John Sullivan, the wealthiest landowner in the district. The small staff of indigenous people left to find better work and escape the tensions of life on a struggling farm. And then one day, traged strikes.. Tommy and Billy are forced to get help from Sullivan, who forms a posse to seek show more revenge on the indigenous community he unquestionably believes was responsible. The boys join the search, which affects each of them profoundly, but in different ways. As unthinkable acts of violence are committed against indigenous people, Tommy realizes his idea of justice is radically different from Sullivan’s, and he pays a high price to extricate himself from this web of cruelty.

On the surface, this novel was a fast-paced story of revenge. But Paul Howarth is going for something deeper here: an indictment of white colonialism through a heartbreaking account of its bigotry-driven violence. show less

“The guilt is collective, the responsibility shared. In a hundred years no one will even remember what happened here and certainly no one will care. History is forgetting. Afterward we write the account, the account becomes truth, and we tell ourselves it has always been this way, that others were responsible, that there was nothing we could have done.”

“The frontier crossing turned Tommy's gut. Their passing from settled land to wild. All his life he feared it, the uncharted west, show more looming like a shadow on the edge of the world.”

It is 1885, Queensland, in the Australian outback. The McBride family are struggling to survive on a drought-ridden piece of land. There are two teenage sons and a younger daughter. When tragedy strikes the family, the sons are set adrift and take refuge with John Sullivan, a local, rich, landowner. Sullivan is convinced that the crime was committed by avenging aborigines and hires a posse to track down the perpetrators. The brothers are allowed to come along, on this nightmarish hunt, shedding their boyhoods, as they share and hold witness to violence and racial genocide, on this bloody crusade.

This is a well-crafted and powerful work, with echoes of Cormac McCarthy, capturing the moody and brutal landscape, of an unforgiving frontier. What a strong and accomplished debut. show less