DIAMOND DOVE

Stuart MacBride was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, moving with his family to Aberdeen at two years of age. From web design into writing was obviously an easy step. Stuart MacBride now lives in the northeastern section of Scotland (back in Aberdeen) with his wife Fiona – his latest novel is Flesh House.

When I think of Australia , I think of surfing, proper barbecues (unlike the sodden midge-infested crematorium-like affairs of the UK ), prawns the size of your head, and wine. Throw in the words ‘Crime Novel’ and it’s a foregone conclusion Sydney Opera House is going to rear its pointy head somewhere. But not in Adrian Hyland’s debut novel, Diamond Dove – he’s given all those Antipodean clichés a body swerve and struck out on his own to a world few of us ever get to see. 

Emily Tempest – white father, aboriginal mother – returns to Moonlight Downs, a spit and string settlement out in the middle of nowhere, and the mob she grew up with. They’ve only been back on their own land for a couple of years, after having to camp out in the squalid hellhole of Bluebush: a whitefeller settlement with all the charm of a rotting kangaroo.  

As in all good crime novels, things go rapidly downhill. Lincoln, the Moonlight mob’s most senior elder, winds up with his neck broken and one of his kidneys missing. Everyone knows that the wild, unkempt sorcerer Blakie was responsible, and Emily Tempest sets out to help catch the stinky murdering bastard. And when Marsh the cattleman makes a move on Moonlight Downs, she’s got another battle to fight. 

With Diamond Dove, Hyland brings to life a landscape of desolate beauty and wonder, with wit and a hell of a lot of skill. The dialogue cracks along, and the whole thing just oozes outback Australia from every page.