S.R. White's book
Headline Publishers
White’s third Australian crime book, Red Dirt Road (2023) was set in a tiny rural town where any resident might have been guilty of murder. This was not one of my favourite genres because darkness and nastiness keeps me awake in bed. But White’s story was a] Australian, b] receiving great reviews and c] short and readable.
White wrote many of Australia’s supposed rural elements in Red Dirt Road: horrific acts of violence in a remote outback town, a lone detective sent to investigate, hindered by extreme weather, the lack of co-operation from the locals and the vast distances travelled to interview suspects. Fictional Unamurra was a remote, inland, one pub town with 50 residents, drought ravaged and dying. Even the nearest regional centre, Dutton, was the police force's most isolated unit, a dusty world supposedly riddled with corruption.
To help remote communities through the drought, the state government selected Unamurra as the site for an art installation by a local artist originally from Quebec, Axel DuBois. Dubois created 28 Angels which hung on posts with heads and wings, their arms splayed in a curved swing. But two dead men replaced the angels, arranged around the town in a moving display, each murdered by a single bullet to the heart. Two murders, 50 suspects!
An outside policewoman was sent in to help. Dana Russo was sent from Police Central in Melbourne to investigate. She knew the district commander didn't like her policing style and she was given only a few days to get it done! Dana was determined to uncover the shocking secrets of this forgotten town, a town she had never heard of. So she had to use her psychological insights to solve the case.
Alex DuBois had disappeared, so he was an obvious suspect. But the investigation found no weapon, motives, witnesses or connections between the killings, such that the murderer could have gone off anywhere. How could Detective Dana Russo, alone and new to the area, solve such a brutal case?
The only local policeman was Constable Able Beralla, an aboriginal man who was not allowed to participate in the first investigation, despite his local knowledge. Dana’s cautious approach depended on information being obtained by phone in this old-fashioned town. The police HQ needed to quickly modernise! But when Russo discovered that Barella had been taken off the original investigation, she suspected that neither the Dutton police nor the Unamurra citizens wanted the murders solved. The locals certainly seemed very suspicious.
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There were many suspects to pursue and readers didn’t find out till the very end who the criminal was. As with all good crime books, this book was more about the investigation rather than the crime itself.
Being a big city resident, I was both mesmerised and discomforted by the author’s descriptions of the Australian Outback. But it was a good setting for an intelligent crime novel: a gripping plot, interesting and believable characters, reliable knowledge of policing and especially insight into human psychology. I agree with the reviewer who called the novel a searing slow-burner that relied on psychological depth and drew the reader in. Finally it exploded with a gripping ending, making Red Dirt Road well worth reading.
White wrote many of Australia’s supposed rural elements in Red Dirt Road: horrific acts of violence in a remote outback town, a lone detective sent to investigate, hindered by extreme weather, the lack of co-operation from the locals and the vast distances travelled to interview suspects. Fictional Unamurra was a remote, inland, one pub town with 50 residents, drought ravaged and dying. Even the nearest regional centre, Dutton, was the police force's most isolated unit, a dusty world supposedly riddled with corruption.
To help remote communities through the drought, the state government selected Unamurra as the site for an art installation by a local artist originally from Quebec, Axel DuBois. Dubois created 28 Angels which hung on posts with heads and wings, their arms splayed in a curved swing. But two dead men replaced the angels, arranged around the town in a moving display, each murdered by a single bullet to the heart. Two murders, 50 suspects!
An outside policewoman was sent in to help. Dana Russo was sent from Police Central in Melbourne to investigate. She knew the district commander didn't like her policing style and she was given only a few days to get it done! Dana was determined to uncover the shocking secrets of this forgotten town, a town she had never heard of. So she had to use her psychological insights to solve the case.
Alex DuBois had disappeared, so he was an obvious suspect. But the investigation found no weapon, motives, witnesses or connections between the killings, such that the murderer could have gone off anywhere. How could Detective Dana Russo, alone and new to the area, solve such a brutal case?
The only local policeman was Constable Able Beralla, an aboriginal man who was not allowed to participate in the first investigation, despite his local knowledge. Dana’s cautious approach depended on information being obtained by phone in this old-fashioned town. The police HQ needed to quickly modernise! But when Russo discovered that Barella had been taken off the original investigation, she suspected that neither the Dutton police nor the Unamurra citizens wanted the murders solved. The locals certainly seemed very suspicious.
Australian Outback
Pinterest
Being a big city resident, I was both mesmerised and discomforted by the author’s descriptions of the Australian Outback. But it was a good setting for an intelligent crime novel: a gripping plot, interesting and believable characters, reliable knowledge of policing and especially insight into human psychology. I agree with the reviewer who called the novel a searing slow-burner that relied on psychological depth and drew the reader in. Finally it exploded with a gripping ending, making Red Dirt Road well worth reading.