AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK NOIR 2024: NEW BOOKS BY MARGARET HICKEY AND GABRIEL BERGMOSER
The enthusiasm for Australian outback crime shows no sign of diminishing. Rural locales continue to dominate in recent crime fiction releases, from the Adelaide Hills of Garry Disher’s excellent Sanctuary, to rural north eastern New South Wales in Dinuka McKenzie’s Tipping Point to the small rural town at the centre of Sarah Bailey’s Body Of Lies, to name a few. A quick glance at the forthcoming releases, also shows a further mixture of outback locations coming our way, from an unmarked track through the remote middle of Australia in Candice Fox’s High Wire, to rural Tasmania in Alan Carter’s Prize Catch, to an isolated Queensland opal mining town in Berlin-based Patricia Wolf’s Opal, to a well described Broome in Before It Rains by veteran outback noir author Dave Warner.
The exoticness of the locations have helped to promote Australian bush crime fiction overseas, although the amount of crime being committed in these outback towns is staggering to local readers, given the proportionally small numbers of people that actually live in rural and outback Australia. After awhile, there becomes a sameness with many of these books, although in good hands lonely rural settings can still work well in providing an interesting backdrop for a range of different crime novels. Clever plotting and convincing, interesting characters have propelled novels by Jane Harper, Dave Warner, Chris Hammer and Garry Disher to the top of the pack, and the below new releases by Gabriel Bergmoser and Margaret Hickey also make very good use of their non-urban locations.
Gabriel Bergmoser has quickly established himself as one of Australia’s most exciting crime thriller writers.
The first two books in his series about the nomadic Maggie, The Hunted and The Inheritance were addictive ‘foot to the metal’ thrillers, and last year’s standalone novel, The Caretaker, was one of my favourite books of 2023.
As with recent releases by J. P. Pomare and Benjamin Stevenson, Bergmoser’s latest novel, The Hitchhiker (Harper Collins, 31 July 2024), started life as an Audible Original story, before being recast as a short novel. The book opens with Paul, pushing fifty and reeling from an ugly divorce, deciding it’s time for an adventure. With the Bee Gees on the car stereo and the open road ahead, he sets out into the middle of the Australian outback, ready for whatever comes. But things take a sinister turn when he impulsively decides to pick up a hitchhiker, Jesse. Clutching a ragged backpack and with his eyes locked on the
rearview mirror, Jesse is clearly running from something. But what? And when the truth is revealed, how far will he, and Paul, go to survive?
This is a twisted cat-and-mouse thriller set in the harsh Australian outback. The tension is well established from the beginning, as Bergmoser carefully fleshes out Paul and Jesse, revealing their various secrets and making it clear that both are potentially dangerous people. Their trek through the desolate bushland bristles with suspense, especially when they encounter other people. The arrival of Maggie in the final third of the book amps up the action, and the plot quickly powers to a bloody and exciting ending.
Adding depth to the novel is Bergmoser’s depiction of the vastness of the Australian outback, and his description of the small communities and pubs scattered along the solitary main road. He also paints a poignant picture of what it is like to be a young person in a remote outback town, especially the lack of opportunity and the despair.
In all, The Hitchhiker is a powerful thriller that will grip your attention and keep you thinking long after it is finished.
The sequel to The Hitchhiker, The Lodger, will also be available as an Audible book in October. I cannot wait!
The Hitchhiker is presently only available in Australia in book form, although an Audible version is available in the United Kingdom. Thanks to the publisher for the book
I think that Margaret Hickey’s The Creeper, (Penguin, 30 July 2024), is set to be a real break-out book for her.
Located in Victoria’s high country it is a strongly plotted novel that makes the most of its dual ‘past’ and ‘present’ timeline plot, which almost seems to be de rigueur for crime books of late.
For ten years the small mountain town of Edenville has been haunted by the horrific murders of five hikers up on Jagged Ridge. Also found dead near the scene was Bill ‘Creeper’ Durant, a bushland loner, expert deer-hunter, and a man with a known reputation for stalking campers. The conclusion for the police was quite simple: murder-suicide. Case closed. However, as the ten-year anniversary of the massacre draws near, Detective Constable Sally White, the only officer at Edenville’s modest police station, finds herself drawn into the dark world of the notorious Durant family. Lex Durant, in particular, has started to publicly protest his brother’s innocence and accuse the police of persecution. As Sally combs the investigation to prove him wrong, it becomes all too clear that each murdered hiker had skeletons in their closet, and possible enemies in their past.
Smoothly slipping back and forth between the present and the lead up to the events 10 years before, The Creeper takes a firm grip on the reader’s attention from the early pages. The plotting is very assured, and the story moves along at a good pace with some well timed twists and the occasional surprise. The excitement certainly builds over the final fifty pages, or so, and the ending is intense and surprising. There is also a neat sting in the tail.
Sally is a very good central character, capable and astute, but also flawed at times. She grows well over the course of the book and her final decisions show a good hard core. She is a character that I would like to meet again. Adding to the enjoyment, is the strong sense of place that Margaret creates through her evocative depiction of Edenville and its mixture of inhabitants, and the smells and sounds of country living and bushwalking.
In all, The Creeper is an accomplished and enjoyable novel, and easily Margaret’s best book to date.
The Creeper is released in Australia on 30 July 2024, and in the United States and the United Kingdom on Kindle. Thanks to the publishers for an advanced copy of the books for review.
In addition to the above books I mentioned above, here are some other outback crime novels that you can look forward to later this year:
Girl Falling by Hayley ‘Dirt Town’ Scivenor is due out in September.
The Valley by Chris Hammer, featuring his detective duo of Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic on the trail of a killer in an isolated mountain valley. Due out in October.
No One Will Know by Rose Carlyle – remote Tasmanian island – due out in October.