Adrian Hyland

When Tom McGillivray, superintendent of the Bluebush Police and an old friend of the Tempest clan, came up with some paid employment for Emily as an Aboriginal Community Police Officer, she was happy to accept. The deal was that she would spend a month in Bluebush in training and then she'd be based at Moonlight Downs as its ACPO.

Emily's just come back from a short training course in Darwin in time to catch the tail end of the Bluebush aboriginal community's Young Man's Time. On her way from show more the women's camp to work she stops and washes off her body art under a garden hose, and dons her oversize police uniform. That in itself seems symbolic, as she attempts to bridge two cultures.

She arrives at work to find that there's been a murder: One oldie has killed another out at Green Swamp Well, and McGillivray is in hospital, his place taken by a new senior sergeant Bruce Cockburn. On their way to the crime scene Emily senses something out of place and discovers a Range Rover that's gone off the road, its occupants spilled into the gully and in need of help.
When they eventually make it to Green Swamp Well, Emily finds that she knows both the victim, and the apparent perpetrator, two eccentrics who had a history of argumentation, but were underneath it all the best of mates.

Emily was never going to get on with Senior Sergeant Cockburn: where he tries to simplify things, she sees complications. Emily's aboriginal background gives her a heightened sense of disturbed balance. He reminds her that she is simply meant to be a liaison officer not an investigator, but Emily really can't help herself.

There is such a lot to like about this book: starting with Emily herself and her unexpected sense of humour, and then there is such a range of interesting and intriguing characters, and description that takes you right into the heart of the outback. I like the way Hyland layers our introduction to people and events. One or two characters from his earlier novel DIAMOND DOVE make an appearance. Emily herself seems more certain of who she is, and she has a status with the locals that I didn't pick up in the earlier novel.

The author says, in the blog post he wrote for Readings:
Takes a little time for the country to get to know you.
.....
It is this world-view, and its ongoing clash with the threshing machine of Western materialism, that lies at the heart of Gunshot Road. I find this conflict utterly compelling, and of great significance;

I have no hesitation in recommending that you find a copy of GUNSHOT ROAD. show less

Adrian Hyland's Kinglake-350 is the riveting account of Black Saturday, February 7, 2009-- the day the most devastating wildfire in the country's history swept through "the great fire triangle of south-eastern Australia... the most fire-prone location on Earth."

Hyland is a master craftsman who knows how to tell a tale. I became a fan of his mysteries Moonlight Downs and Gunshot Road and soon learned to get my hands on anything he's written.

Hyland brings his considerable skill in fiction to show more Kinglake-350. I am no stranger to the subject of this book. Arizona has had more than its share of devastating wildfires, but I couldn't believe the sheer amount of information in the pages of this book. (And they weren't presented as dry, yawn-inducing facts.) Caught in your house during a wildfire? Don't shelter in the bathroom. Dirt can, and does, catch fire. Yes, there is such a thing as black rain. Hyland also goes into climate change, global warming, weather patterns, and government agencies trying to shift blame. I can see your eyes start to glaze over with those last topics, but this man weaves all that into the narrative in such a way that my interest never flagged.

However, the backbone and the towering strength of Kinglake-350 lies in the people that devastating fire touched. There were many heroes that day; Acting Sergeant Roger Wood was only one of them. I think one of the vignettes that I remember best was the woman who, trying to keep the fire from destroying buildings, took pity on a shocked and staggering kangaroo, giving it a cooling shower with her hose. It's these personal details that made my heart beat faster. That made me try to turn the pages as fast as the fire was consuming everything in its path.

Kinglake-350 is absolutely marvelous, and one of the best books I've read this year. Adrian Hyland has done it again. show less

What at first looks like a tragic car accident on a notorious stretch of road in the hills of the Windmark Ranges resulting in the death of Acting Sergeant Jesse Redpath’s colleague, soon proves to be murder in The Redline, the third compulsive instalment of Adrian Hyland’s crime fiction series.

There’s tension as Jesse, an intuitive and dogged investigator, tries to piece together what really happened to Lance. Determined to follow every lead, even from the tale-telling local roadhouse show more owner, she finds herself facing down a menacing poacher, hunting a ‘wild boy’ with the unlikely name of Anarchy, and following the trail of three people who vanished in the Ranges. The story is deftly plotted with Hyland weaving together multiple threads that exposes murder and corruption, and culminates in thrilling confrontations.

The writing is as polished and engaging as I expect from Hyland. The dialogue has a familiar rhythm and humour that marks it as distinctly Australian. The setting is effortlessly atmospheric, the dense bush hides a multitude of sins, both past and present.

A gripping mystery that builds on its predecessors, Canticle Creek, and The Wiregrass, but can be read as a stand alone, The Redline is a great read. show less

Over ten years ago, I fell in love with two books by Adrian Hyland featuring half-white, half aborigine, Emily Tempest, an amateur sleuth who solved a couple of crimes in the Australian Outback. These books were Moonlight Downs (APA Diamond Dove) and Gunshot Road. How good were they? When no further books by Hyland made an appearance, I went into a sort of prolonged mourning. When I stumbled across a review of Canticle Creek on Kerrie's Mysteries in Paradise blog, I was stunned. Once I'd show more recovered, I hurried to get my hands on a copy of the book.

Oh, Adrian, how much I've missed you!

This writer can set a scene with a mere sentence or two that can transport you directly to Australia: "A flock of rainbow lorikeets burst out of a scribbly gum and whirled overhead" or "... a weatherboard church that had gone to meet its maker." I loved reading Jesse Redpath's reactions to a climate in Canticle Creek that is so much different than the one she's used to in the Outback.

Even more, I loved her observations of the people she met, their behavior when answering her probing questions, and what signs she found in the landscape around her. Through Jesse, Hyland can even answer the question, "Can dirt burn?" Another favorite part of Canticle Creek? A forthright teenager everyone calls Possum. She's going to be a force of nature when she grows up. I was firmly planted in Jesse Redpath's world each and every time I opened this book and began to read.

If you've read and enjoyed books like Jane Harper's The Dry or Chris Hammer's Scrublands, I think it's a safe bet that you're going to like Adrian Hyland's writing. He is incredibly talented at blending compelling stories with memorable characters and vivid settings. If only he wrote more! show less